香港注册会计师考试审计考生表现C_Sep2006Com.pdf

Module C September 2006 Session Page 1 of 7 Qualification Programme Examination Panelists Report Module C Auditing but included attendance of physical stock take as one of the audit procedures for the valuation and allocation assertion which should have been the answer to Question 2 d Even if the candidates did mention that a stock take according to the requirements of HKSA needed to be conducted they failed to discuss this issue in depth or mention the relevant points to be noted during stocktaking such as reviewing stocktaking instructions performing test counts tracing items selected from the records to the physical inventories etc Moreover when discussing the test count of inventories most candidates only mentioned the tracing of physical items to the count record or selecting items from the count record to physical items but failed to suggest performing the test count in both directions In addition they rarely mentioned anything about proper storage of gems Time management also appeared to be a problem here Many candidates could not answer this question fully probably due to running out of time Module C September 2006 Session Page 5 of 7 Conclusion and Recommendations Our conclusion and recommendations are similar to those offered in the last session as there is little evidence of improvement during the intervening period The overall performance in this session was below expectation As before candidates generally performed reasonably well on questions requiring straightforward answers and many easy marks were lost due to candidates inability to unlock the real issues from the questions Candidates answers to thought provoking questions generally fell far short of the expected level in terms of commercial experience analytical power critical thinking and common sense Candidates should endeavor to provide a specific answer instead of a blanket response to the subject matter raised in an examination question and should assess the question and plan their answer fully before responding Generally speaking they did relatively well if they read and understood the requirements of the questions but failed miserably if they rushed in blindly The final overall recommendation is again identical to recommendations previously made Candidates should prepare better for their examinations and should not rely solely on study materials included in the CLP Instead they should enhance their understanding of the subject by studying the relevant professional statements In addition candidates should seek to enhance their examination technique by going through more past examination papers and practicing under a mock examination environment Comparing their test results to suggested answers would highlight areas for improvement as well as reinforce good examination habits Section B Essay Short Questions General Comments On average in Section B candidates showed an improvement from the last session However the scores for the questions calling for application of technical knowledge or even common sense were disappointing Too many candidates were not able to address the real issues in questions or demonstrate a good level of analytical thinking Although most scored well in straightforward areas far too many were unable to explain and correlate text book knowledge to real life issues an ability that defines the value of accountants in today s business community Some candidates wasted valuable time in paraphrasing definitions and excessive descriptive material from standards which were totally irrelevant or not required by the question Essentially what is most important is how well the relevant auditing standards are applied rather than how precisely the auditing standards are described Module C September 2006 Session Page 6 of 7 Specific Comments Question 3 a Candidates marks in this part were generally high Nearly all candidates produced good definitions of sampling risks and non sampling risks However a large portion of candidates did not quote the relevant authoritative reference HKSA 530 and did not specify ways to reduce sampling risks and or non sampling risks Question 3 b Similarly candidates generally scored well in this section However some did not touch on the subject stratification at all and a few were side tracked by including excessive details of substantive audit procedures Question 3 c An alarmingly large number of candidates were confused between test of controls and substantive audit procedures Although some did describe test of controls they gave too general an answer without specific reference to the question Question 3 d Similarly to part c some candidates did not make any specific reference to the question General answers earn only limited marks Question 4 a Nearly all candidates successfully stated the circumstances set out in HKSA 580 but disappointingly only a handful of them went further by explaining the reason s for each of the circumstances Question 4 b Most candidates did well in part b However the results were diverse and some even failed to provide a single relevant point Superseded standards e g SAS 400 and SAS 420 were quoted in some answers Question 5 Too many candidates became carried away by HKSA 570 and included excessive detail about the going concern issues The core of this question was really about subsequent events under HKSA 560 but this was neglected by a large number of candidates Many failed to discuss any appropriate actions that the auditors should have taken in response to the strike due to delayed salary payment Module C September 2006 Session Page 7 of 7 Question 6 Although this was supposed to be a straightforward question calling for a discussion of how the application of IT might affect statutory audits with the support of authoritative references the results were generally disappointing Far too many candidates failed to point out that the objective and scope of auditing were not changed by the IT environment and many did not properly discuss the risks that could arise Some candidates only made superficial attempts at the question resulting in very low marks if any Marks were also limited by the lack of references to the relevant auditing standards HKSA 330 and HKSA 315 Conclusion and Recommendations Our conclusion and recommendations are similar to those provided in the last session Candidates generally performed reasonably well on questions requiring straightforward answers but many easy marks were lost due to candidates inability to unlock the real issues from the questions Candidates answers to thought provoking questions generally fell far short from the expected l