The Leaving Cert accounting exam was a “very manageable and fair paper” which will have pleased most students, according to John Taylor, accounting teacher at The Institute of Education.
“The only thing that would cause upset in the exam is if a student lost momentum by circling back in pursuit of minor errors and losing track of time,” he said.
“Yet at its core the exam reflected the skills students will have honed over the last two years and best suited students who had practised their accounting and past examination questions.”
Mr Taylor said a real challenge facing candidates was not figuring out what the question wanted, but to deliver the result in the time.
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“At three hours the exam seems long, but every second must be assigned effectively,” he said.
Leaving Cert accounting, higher level
Section one
In section one, students as usual had a choice between question one on the preparation of final accounts or the option of completing two 60-mark questions.
“As guaranteed again this year, students who chose to do question one were given two options and this year these related to the sole trader and company final accounts,” Mr Taylor said.
Both question ones were straightforward and reflected similar questions asked in the past.
“The trial balance in both contained nothing unusual but students will have needed to read these carefully to spot key details like the rent received was only for eight months of the year or that part of the mortgage was only for seven months of the year in question one A and that in question one B the debenture interest paid included an element of the second debenture loan,” he said.
“There were the standard nine adjustments in both questions and these would all have been familiar to students, but again careful reading was needed to deal with: patents written off, goods in transit which included VAT, bad debts recovered and recoverable and an incorrect VAT entry in the suspense adjustment.”
All of this would be familiar, Mr Taylor said, but the real test was to recognise and react under pressure.
The three optional 60-mark questions consisted of revaluation, service firm accounts and control accounts.
“These questions did not contain any major surprises, were not overly long and students attempting this option would have been pleased,” he said.
“The theory element of all three questions in this section was straightforward and would have been asked before.”
Section two
In section two, students were required to complete two questions. The three questions in section two consisted of interpretation of accounts, which had been guaranteed, tabular statements and incomplete records.
“Again, most students will have been very pleased to see both of these topics appearing,” he said. “The questions themselves were very nice and did not contain anything that students would have not seen and practised in previous years questions.”
The ratios in question five were “very straightforward”, he said, and questions five (b) concerned the ordinary shareholders.
“Part (c) was a lovely question on gearing which most students would have found very manageable,” Mr Taylor said.
Question six, on incomplete records, was anticipated and was a “very fair question”.
“The purchase of land was included and consequently students would just need to be careful when calculating the depreciation on the premises”, Mr Taylor said.
“Again, the theory element was straightforward relating to the explanation of net worth and the limitations of preparing accounts from incomplete records.”
Question seven on tabular statements was a “very typical question” and contained “nothing that students would not have come across before in previous tabular statement questions”.
Some months contained two transactions, Mr Taylor said, but these were clearly separated which should have aided students.
“May included a payment relating to 2023/2024 as well as the more traditional payment relating to 2024/2025, so again hopefully students noticed this and dealt with it appropriately,” he said.
Leaving Cert accounting, ordinary level
Section three
In section three on management/cost accounting, students were required to attempt one question from costing and budgeting.
Question eight, on marginal costing, was a “very nice question and very doable within the time which reflected similar questions asked in the past”.
“Many students will have been delighted to see this question appear in such a traditional form,” he added.
Question nine was a standard production budgeting question which would have pleased students.
“The theory element wasn’t strenuous, asking students to explain principal budget factor and uncontrollable costs,” he said.
