XAMINER’S GENERAL COMMENTS In my opinion, candidates performed averagely in this paper having a pass rate of over 50%.Candidates performed poorly in question five (5) which was ISA 701 Communicating Key Audit Matters in the Independent Auditor’s Report. STANDARD OF THE PAPER The standard of the paper was fairly high compared to the previous sitting. The marks allocation followed the weightings in the current syllabus but some of the syllabus coverages were merged. In my opinion, none of the questions were too loaded. However, some of the marks allocated were ‘over-generous’. For example, question two (2b) should not be more than ten (10) marks. The mark allocated to this question was fifteen (15) which I considered to be too much. No wonder a lot of candidates passed in this question, over 75%. Candidates really took advantage of this generosity. There were no ambiguities/errors/typing problems that adversely affected performance in the examinations. In my view, all the five (5) questions were of high standard at the level of examination.

ERFORMANCE OF CANDIDATES The general performance of candidates in the subject is about 57.5%. That is, out of a total number of 426 candidates who wrote the paper 245 passed and 181 failed. The performance is therefore, above average. Unfortunately, students did not answer questions three (3), four (4) and five (5) well even though the topics in questions three and four were within their reach. Higher performers for this paper was evenly spread across majority of the centres where the examination was taken. Low performance were not concentrated in a particular centre. Low performance could also be found in most of the centres. Teaching and learning in these centres are to be intensified and sustained. The level of preparedness of some of the candidates were above average which resulted into 57.5% pass rate and 42.5% failures. Students should prepare well before undertaking the examination in order to pass to boost their confidence.