RICHARD CURTIS EXPLAINS THAT PREPARATION IS THE KEY TO EXAM SUCCESS
I still remember the day that I turned up to take my swimming proficiency test. I’d taken all necessary measures: I’d packed new swimming goggles, I’m sure the ‘pool guy’ had been increasing the chlorine levels (God knows what he thought people got up to in that pool!) and made sure that I had no other conflicting engagements. I’d checked out how long it would take for me to drive to the leisure centre and that there’d be a car parking space.
When I arrived, I strolled in, got myself a locker and had a nice relaxing sauna and shower. It was only when I was standing there with no clothes on that I realised that I’d forgotten my swimming trunks.
Unfortunately, there were no other men about who might have lent me a spare pair and, with the benefit of hindsight, I can see that my sortie into the women’s changing room was always going to be misconstrued. My explanation that I was only looking for ‘large bikini bottoms’ didn’t seem to help my case much either.
Nowadays, it only takes a whiff of chlorine to bring memories of the whole sorry affair flooding back and I still haven’t had the nerve to ask if my health club membership might be reinstated. My dreams of joining the local water-polo team disappeared down the plughole like my soapy shower water.
What this teaches us is that if you want things to go swimmingly, then proper preparation is the key; and that preparation should include the blindingly obvious as well as the secondary factors that you think might be relevant. And as with so much in life, so with tax; taking your professional exam course – perhaps The Association of Tax Technicians or The Chartered Institute of Taxation exams – needs high levels of planning, preparation and execution; although hopefully no goggles.
So what action do you need to take? Well, remembering not to go into the exam hall with only a towel wrapped round you probably helps; but I thought that getting some advice from the examiners might be of more relevance.
The institute’s chief examiner provided some ‘top tips’ for the CIOT exams.
Read the question
Read the question and answer the question set. ‘Tutors will have drummed this into students throughout their training, but this really is the number one reason why candidates fail the exams. There is time pressure, particularly in the advisory papers, however it is far better to re-read the question, plan your answer and produce a shorter answer that meets the requirements of the question than to produce a long answer most of which will gain no credit.’
Different strokes
Different papers are examining different skills. While a thorough knowledge of study manuals may gain credits on the awareness paper – because it is primarily testing knowledge in clearly defined circumstances – the same is not true of the advisory or interaction and application papers.
‘The advisory papers will test your detailed technical ability and it is likely that you will need to look at the legislation during these exams rather than just rely on memory. You will also need a knowledge of relevant tax cases. Whilst questions are not set to deliberately confuse or mislead candidates, on the advisory papers there may well not be a single correct answer.
‘Turning to the interaction and application paper, the focus switches from technical skills to the higher skills expected of a tax adviser. You need to present your answer in a form and style appropriate to the recipient and to provide advice.’
Pick up points
Remember the importance of picking up the presentation and higher skills marks.
‘It sounds obvious, but if the requirement is to produce a letter, then produce a letter. Surprisingly, there are still significant numbers of candidates who completely ignore the requirements of the question. On the advisory papers, there may be up to 10% of the marks available for presentation.
'On the application and interaction paper, however, 22% of the marks are for presentation and higher skills and as such they simply cannot be ignored if you want to pass. As there is no new technical material for the application and interaction paper, you cannot study for it as such.
'What you should do, however, is to attempt as many practice questions as you can and also try to gain as much practical experience as possible of writing reports at work. The key elements we look for are:
‘You should also be alert to the need in the application and interaction paper to comment on areas outside your core material that are in the awareness syllabus or relate to law and ethics.'
Timekeeping
Unfortunately, exam time is limited and the CIOT examiner’s advice is to monitor time carefully throughout the exam and not to overrun on one question in the hope that you will make the time up somewhere else because you probably won’t be able to.
‘If your time runs out on one question, make quick bullet point notes of any other key elements you haven’t covered leaving some space to fill in with extra comments if you have time later on and then move onto the next question. In this way you should at least ensure that you can pick up the easy marks on all the questions rather than all the easy marks on some questions plus a smaller number of harder marks.’
Clarity
Perhaps this is another obvious point, but make sure that you write clearly. If the examiner can’t read your answer, you are unlikely to be allocated marks. The increasing use of computers brings the common comment that handwriting standards are falling. Take heed of the examiner’s warning.
‘This is becoming more of an issue as we now rarely write at work and so there is less routine practice of writing clearly at speed than in the past. While we try hard, if we can’t read what you have written we can’t give you credit for it.’
Get legal
The first point made by the ATT’s chief examiner was that it is not simply pure tax that the association is concerned with.
‘On the whole, our candidates are reasonably competent on the tax aspects of the paper. They tend to fall down on the law and ethics parts. For papers 1 to 6, law tends to make up 10% to 15% of the total marks, with another two or three marks for ethics. Many candidates simply ignore the law questions altogether. This increases the mark they need to get on the tax questions to achieve a pass. The problem may be because their study texts only cover the tax part of the syllabus. Don’t forget to access the ATT’s law manual to cover the law aspects.
‘On paper 7, law and ethics make up about 50% of the paper. I have recently analysed the statistics regarding candidates’ performance on paper 7 and they show that, on average, candidates picked up only 44% of the available marks on ethics questions and 39% on law questions. This leaves them with a shortfall that needs to be made up on the tax part of the paper. I have recently brought these statistics to the attention of the tutorial bodies and they’ve also been included in my article for the Students Newsletter (which can be found on the ATT’s website).'
Read it right
The ATT examiner also mentioned ‘the perennial problem of candidates failing to read the question.
‘This was most clearly evidenced in a question on paper 7 in May 2009. Part of the question stated “today’s post includes a letter of complaint, addressed to one of the other partners, Mrs Cann, from a client who only recently appointed the firm”. The question asked candidates to “explain what should be done by Mrs Cann”. Unfortunately, some candidates took the view that Mrs Cann was the complainant rather than the person dealing with the complaint and as a result produced answers that bore little relation to what was expected.’
Time and place
Having taken a look at what you need to do in the exams, perhaps we should conclude where you, the student, need to start – your study plan. The advice from Simon Groom, head of National Tax Training at Tolley, is that students need to manage both their time and environment.
‘Draw up a chart of the days to the exam. Mark those days when you will not be able to study due to other commitments and also the key dates such as home/course exams, review dates, courses, etc. Plan in the study periods that you will need to cover the subject by the test and exam dates. Also, understand what you will be able to do – don’t pretend that you will be studying every spare hour of the day and make sure that you have some “reward time” to give yourself a break from studying. Keep that study chart in view – don’t just hide it away in your desk drawer.’
When studying, choose somewhere that’s going to be conducive to study and where there are no distractions. Tell people that you are studying; don’t answer the door or telephone and don’t try to watch TV or listen to the radio at the same time.
Active learning
Finally, ‘passive learning’ – simply reading – is not the best way to absorb knowledge. Work through examples, summarise subjects yourself, stop and think about the subject, don’t just make notes as you go along. And don’t worry if you make mistakes – this is all part of the learning process.
Simon Groom emphasised this point. ‘Do those practice exams and, really, don’t put this off. The people who do well in the exams all take the practice exams, don’t procrastinate by saying that you’ll be “OK on the night”. When you are looking at the questions in the question bank, do them. Don’t just look at the answers and tell yourself that you know all that. There’s no substitute for writing the answers to make sure that you do get all the relevant points down on paper.
‘Furthermore, students don’t make the link between the question and the answer. They may realise that they got the answer wrong, but what they are not seeing are the hints in the question that point the candidate towards the topics that they should be dealing with in their answer.
‘People focus on what they didn’t know when they are checking their answer against the suggested answer. They should concentrate on what they did know, but still didn’t get down in their reply. This is potentially where there is the biggest waste of marks. Try to understand why you didn’t include what you did know in the answer.’
Get in the swim
Of course, whether it’s proficiency in swimming or proficiency in tax that you are seeking to have certified, what you are aiming for is to pass that exam. Remember that preparation is the key: in the water and in tax you need to use the right strokes. And don’t forget; the last thing you want is to be walking into the exam naked – actually or metaphorically.
