9706 · June 2024
Accounting
Of the candidates who sat this examination, 40 per cent achieved a score of 11 or more correct answers. The mean score was 11 marks.
Source: Cambridge International
Cohort performance
Session statistics from official examination reports
No data available in official reports
Key examiner messages
Top priorities from the principal examiner before you revise
Read questions carefully and thoroughly revise basic accounting principles and definitions.
With control account questions, take care to understand whether the question is examining items in the control account Cambridge International Advanced Subsidiary Level 9706 Accounting June 2024 Principal Examiner Report for Teachers ACCOUNTING Paper 9706/11 AS Level Multiple Choice Key messages
Ensure opening and closing balances in T-accounts are dealt with on the correct side.
Question difficulty map
How candidates performed on each question in this series
Report
Examiner report
Assessment objectives
Skill and AO weighting from official examiner commentary
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Method marks watchlist
Where working, steps, or method marks were commonly lost
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Recurring mistakes across years
Themes examiners flag in multiple recent sessions for this subject
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Question choice intelligence
Mean scores and popularity for optional questions (HKDSE electives)
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Level exemplars
What candidate scripts at each grade level looked like
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Grade & admission context
How marks relate to grade thresholds and entry standards
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Deep insights
What top candidates did
Techniques and approaches examiners rewarded in this series
Cambridge International Advanced Subsidiary Level 9706 Accounting June 2024 Principal Exam…
Cambridge International Advanced Subsidiary Level 9706 Accounting June 2024 Principal Examiner Report for Teachers © 2024 ACCOUNTING Paper 9706/21 AS Fundamentals of Accounting Key messages • In written questions, candidates should make sure that they provide sufficient development to their answers. One or two-word answers will seldom suffice, and this is particularly important when the command word in the task is ‘explain’. Well-prepared candidates appear to be taking notice of this advice and are gaining addition marks by doing so. • Candidates should always provide clear workings when answering computational questions. Marks will always be awarded for valid workings, but in their absence, candidates are unfairly penalising themselves. • All financial statements must be presented in the accepted format. Labels such as gross profit, cost of sales etc. should always be written in full, never abbreviated.. • When asked to present accounts, labels and dates are very important and failure to be accurate in this respect will result in lost marks. Abbreviations of labels are not acceptable. General comments Overall performance of candidates was not to a satisfactory level. There were relatively few strong scripts and many candidates appeared to be totally unprepared. Comments on specific questions Question 1 The question concerned the accounts of a partnership which does not maintain full accounting records. (a) Candidates were provided with details of various revenue items throughout the year and were required to calculate the total revenue for the year. Few candidates were able to correctly answer this task. Most did not appreciate that the key was to calculate the revenue from credit customers considering their outstanding balances at the end of the period. (b) Required candidates to prepare the statement of profit or loss for the year from data provided. Adjustments were required for six unaccounted for items. Well-prepared candidates were able to obtain around one-half of the ten available marks, others found difficulty in making the necessary adjustments to the opening figures and seldom achieved more than two or three marks. (c) Required candidates to prepare the current assets section of the statement of financial position. A minority of candidates were able to produce a valid statement. The main error of those who attempted the task was a failure to calculate a correct balance of cash at bank. (d) Candidates were required to calculate the balance on one of the partner’s capital accounts at the end of the year. Several candidates produced a mass of figures with little structure but those who presented their answer in the form of a debit/credit T account were far more successful in gaining at least three of the available six marks. (e) Candidates were asked to advise the partners whether or not they should maintain a full accounting system using an accounting software package. There were several good responses to this task with many candidates offering valid advantages and disadvantages.
Cambridge International Advanced Subsidiary Level 9706 Accounting June 2024 Principal Exam…
Cambridge International Advanced Subsidiary Level 9706 Accounting June 2024 Principal Examiner Report for Teachers © 2024 Question 2 The second question focussed on accounting errors. (a) Required candidates to state two benefits of preparing a trial balance. Most candidates correctly identified the arithmetical accuracy of the double entry records though fewer candidates recognised the value in preparation of the financial statements. (b) Data was presented of four errors not affecting the balancing of the trial balance and candidates were required to prepare journal entries to correct each error. Well prepared candidates were able to gain at least six of the available marks for this task though several showed little knowledge of basic double entry bookkeeping. (c) Candidates were required to state what is meant by an error of principle and to give one example of such an error. Many responses lacked sufficient precision to be rewarded and examples were frequently incorrect. (d) Required candidates to explain, with reference to an accounting concept, why an entry must be made for goods taken for own use. Whilst some correctly identified the business entity concept, explanations of the reasons were usually too vague to be rewarded more than one of the available two marks. Question 3 The question concerned aspects of the accounts of a limited company. (a) Candidates were provided with data relating to either opening or closing balances of equity accounts and were asked to complete the statement of changes in equity. Many candidates offered no response to this task whatsoever. Those who did attempt the question frequently failed to gain more than one mark for identifying the correct placement of the profit for the year. Many candidates were clearly unfamiliar with the structure and preparation of this statement. (b) Asked candidates to explain two reasons why investors may prefer to invest in debentures rather than in ordinary shares. Whilst some candidates correctly identified the fixed rate of interest and the less risky nature of debentures due to the presence of security, very few offered valid development of their identified points to gain additional marks. (c) Candidates were required to state three uses of a share premium account and responses were very poor overall with little of value except the ability to offer bonus shares to shareholders. Question 4 The final question concentrated on cost and management accounting. (a) Required candidates to explain two reasons why a manufacturing company might change from using absorption costing to using marginal costing. Some candidates identified the usefulness of marginal costing for short-term decision making and the avoidance of over/under absorption of overheads. However, once again, development of identified points was frequently not present, so marks were very restricted. (b) Required candidates to calculate the contribution to sales ratio and whilst some appeared to be unfamiliar with the ratio, others had no difficulty in the calculation. (c) Required candidates to calculate the breakeven point in revenue and based on own figure answers to part (b), most demonstrated an understanding of the technique. (d) Candidates were asked to calculate the sales revenue required to achieve the directors’ target profit. Those candidates who showed their detailed working performed better than those who simply wrote down their end result. Marks are always awarded for valid workings. (e) Candidates were required to state three reasons why a special order with a negative contribution might be accepted. Well-prepared candidates were able to state at least two valid reasons but others either offered no response or offered very vague responses.
Cambridge International Advanced Subsidiary Level 9706 Accounting June 2024 Principal Exam…
Cambridge International Advanced Subsidiary Level 9706 Accounting June 2024 Principal Examiner Report for Teachers © 2024 (f) Candidates were provided with data for another factory that produced three products. Due to a shortage of available material, candidates were required to calculate the optimum profit to be made. Only a small number recognised the technique to answer this question relied on calculating the contribution per unit of material used. As a result, many candidates did not attempt the question and of those who did, only a handful received full marks for a totally correct answer. (g) This question built on the previous question asking for the additional profit to be made if an alternative overseas supplier was used with a less expensive material price. Very few candidates were able to offer a response to the task by calculating the revised contribution and the revised fixed costs.. (h) The final task asked candidates to advise the directors whether or not the new supplier should be used. Given the difficulties from the earlier tasks, only few candidates gained more than half of the available marks though some did attempt to detail the potential difficulties of dealing with an overseas supplier to gain two or three marks.
Cambridge International Advanced Subsidiary Level 9706 Accounting June 2024 Principal Exam…
Cambridge International Advanced Subsidiary Level 9706 Accounting June 2024 Principal Examiner Report for Teachers © 2024 ACCOUNTING Paper 9706/22 AS Fundamentals of Accounting Key messages • Candidates should always provide clear workings when answering computational questions. Marks will always be awarded for valid workings, but in their absence, candidates are unfairly penalising themselves. • In written questions, candidates should make sure that they provide sufficient development to their answers. One, or two-word answers will seldom suffice. Candidates appear to be taking notice of this advice and are gaining addition marks by doing so. • All financial statements must be presented in the accepted format. Labels such as gross profit, cost of sales etc. should always be written in full, never abbreviated. • Candidates must learn the acceptable formats for both financial statements and management accounting statements such as marginal costing statements. General comments There were some strong scripts in this examination series with appropriate presentation of financial statements. Candidates should take particular note of the labels in financial statements which must be aligned with the up-to-date terminology and also the importance of the presentation of management accounting reports. Comments on specific questions Question 1 The question concentrated on the incomplete records of a sole trader. (a) Required candidates to calculate the gross profit of the trader having been provided with details of sales and the mark-up. Several candidates did not correctly apply the 50 per cent mark-up, confusing mark-up with margin. (b) (i)(ii) Part (i) required candidates to calculate the purchases for the year and part (ii) required calculation of the goods taken for own use by the trader. Calculation of the purchases proved less challenging to candidates making use of the opening and closing balances of trade payables and making an adjustment for the discounts received which resulted in the total purchases. Many candidates did not take account of the discounts allowed. Calculation of the goods taken for own use required adjustments to the opening and closing inventory figures provided. However, several candidates appeared to have difficulty in knowing the approach to take. (c) Required candidates to prepare an extract of the statement of profit or loss for the business commencing with the gross profit for the year calculated in part (a). Adjustment was required for various opening and closing prepayment and accruals and many candidates performed well in this task. The most common error was a failure to take account of the discount received and errors in the calculation of depreciation for the year. Most candidates produced well documented workings and this in turn resulted in the improved performance.
Cambridge International Advanced Subsidiary Level 9706 Accounting June 2024 Principal Exam…
Cambridge International Advanced Subsidiary Level 9706 Accounting June 2024 Principal Examiner Report for Teachers © 2024 (d) Required candidates to explain why the trader adjusted income and expenses when preparing the statement of profit or loss with reference to an accounting concept. Whilst many candidates correctly identified the accruals/matching concept, others felt that the prudence concept applied. Explanations of the correct concept were generally well stated. (e) This task was to advise the trader whether to form a partnership or alternatively form a limited liability company to expand the business. This task was generally well answered by many candidates with several offering well developed advantages, in particular. Candidates were often more comfortable addressing the partnership issues rather than limited companies. Question 2 The second question focused on the financial statements of a limited company. (a) Candidates were provided with a list of balances at the year-end together with details of three errors that required adjustment and were required to calculate the corrected balance of retained earnings after correction of the errors. Results were very mixed with well-prepared candidates gaining all five available marks though other found the adjustment to depreciation particularly challenging. (b) Required candidates to prepare the statement of financial position. Stronger responses had the correct presentation of the statement with many providing correct headings in accordance with new terminology. Several candidates did not provide the total of the equity and liabilities and similarly the total equity with correct labels. The most common error was to classify the debenture as a non-current liability even though it was due for payment in the next financial year. Question 3 The question focused on accounting ratios and a discussion on the business performance. (a) (i) Candidates were required to calculate and provide the formula for trade payables turnover (days). This was generally well answered though some candidates failed to refer to credit purchases as distinct to just purchases in the formula. (ii) Required calculation of the trade receivables turnover (days) and again, some failed to distinguish between credit sales and just sales. The most common error in the calculation was a failure to round the resultant days upwards to the next whole day. (b) With reference to the calculated results from part (a), candidates were required to discuss the performance of the business over the twelve months. Results were often disappointing with many candidates offering only a basic description of what had happened to each ratio rather than focussing on a discussion of the effects or impact on either cash flow or liquidity. (c) Whilst the work on calculation of the two ratios in part (a) was generally good, candidates appeared to be less sure of the calculation of the rate of inventory turnover. Whilst many were clearly aware of the need to calculate the average inventory, many were unaware of how to incorporate this into their calculation. (d) Finally, candidates were required to explain the importance of inventory turnover to a business and only a minority of candidates gave a sufficiently developed response to be awarded two marks. Question 4 The final question focused primarily on marginal costing. (a) The first task asked candidates to explain two uses of absorption costing. Whilst several candidates appeared to know what absorption costing is, as is often the case, many did not offer sufficient development to their identified point to gain more than one or two marks. (b) Asked to calculate the breakeven point produced a correct response from the majority of candidates.
Command word playbook
How to match each command word to the expected response style
No data available in official reports
Time traps
Sections where candidates spent disproportionate time relative to marks
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Syllabus traceability
Topics linked to questions and mark weighting in this session
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MCQ trap analytics
Commonly chosen wrong options from examiner commentary
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Topic heatmap across years
Mark concentration by topic and exam year for this subject
Mark intensity
Traditional costing methods - Marginal costing
Preparation of financial statements - Partnerships
Preparation of financial statements - Limited companies (Financial accounting (A Level))
Analysis and communication of accounting information
Preparation of financial statements - Adjustments to draft financial statements (Financial accounting (AS Level))
Preparation of financial statements - Clubs and societies (Financial accounting (A Level))
Budgeting and budgetary control
Investment appraisal
Difficulty trend
How session difficulty has shifted across recent years
Paper comparison
Marks and duration breakdown across papers in this session
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Marks you can still earn
Where valid approaches outside the mark scheme may still gain credit
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Practise what examiners flagged
Target weak topics from this report inside the Revui app
Self-diagnostic checklist
Key actions before you sit this paper — copy and tick off as you revise
- 1Message
Read questions carefully and thoroughly revise basic accounting principles and definitions.
- 2Message
With control account questions, take care to understand whether the question is examining items in the control account Cambridge International Advanced Subsidiary Level 9706 Accounting June 2024 Principal Examiner Report for Teachers ACCOUNTING Paper 9706/11 AS Level Multiple Choice Key messages
- 3Message
Ensure opening and closing balances in T-accounts are dealt with on the correct side.
- 4Strength
Cambridge International Advanced Subsidiary Level 9706 Accounting June 2024 Principal Exam…: Cambridge International Advanced Subsidiary Level 9706 Accounting June 2024 Principal Examiner Repor
- 5Strength
Cambridge International Advanced Subsidiary Level 9706 Accounting June 2024 Principal Exam…: Cambridge International Advanced Subsidiary Level 9706 Accounting June 2024 Principal Examiner Repor
- 6Strength
Cambridge International Advanced Subsidiary Level 9706 Accounting June 2024 Principal Exam…: Cambridge International Advanced Subsidiary Level 9706 Accounting June 2024 Principal Examiner Repor
Teacher briefing pack
One-page session summary for tutors and classroom review
June 2024 2024
Accounting
Cambridge International Advanced Subsidiary Level 9706 Accounting June 2024 Principal Examiner Report for Teachers © 2024 ACCOUNTING Paper 9706/11 AS Level Multiple Choice Question Number Key Question Number Key Question Number Key 1 C 11 C 21 C 2 A 12 C 22 D 3 B 13 B 23 C 4 C 14
Read questions carefully and thoroughly revise basic accounting principles and definitions.
With control account questions, take care to understand whether the question is examining items in the control account Cambridge International Advanced Subsidiary Level 9706 Accounting June 2024 Principal Examiner Report for Teachers ACCOUNTING Paper 9706/11 AS Level Multiple Choice Key messages
Ensure opening and closing balances in T-accounts are dealt with on the correct side.
Examiner insights
General comments
- •Of the candidates who sat this examination, 40 per cent achieved a score of 11 or more correct answers.
- •The mean score was 11 marks.
- •Question 5 was straightforward with 74 per cent of the candidates identifying the key.
- •Candidates found six questions (Q3, 6, 9, 11, 14 and 23) challenging.