How to pass ICAN Principles of Auditing & Assurance
ATSWA Part III level. The syllabus has 7 areas and they are not worth the same — 52% of the marks sit in just three of them. Knowing which three changes what you do tonight.
Start here, in this order
- 1
Meaning of auditing, legal framework, regulations, and theory 20% of the paper
Concepts of audit and assurance · True and fair view, materiality and judgement · Audit risks · Appointment, removal and independence of assurance parties · Sources of liabilities of assurance parties · Companies and Allied Matters Act 2020 and the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria Act · International Standards on Auditing (ISAs) and on Assurance Engagements (ISAEs) · Accounting and auditing distinguished · Roles, rights and duties of assurance parties under company legislation · Liability of assurance parties for negligence under civil and criminal law · Statutory and non-statutory audits distinguished · The scope of internal and external audit, and public sector audit · Fundamental principles of the code of ethics and conduct
- 2
Assurance completion procedures 20% of the paper
Purpose and methods of analytical procedures · The engagement letter · Events after the reporting period · The working paper file · Other assurance engagement services · Peer review · The going concern concept and its evaluation · Composition and functions of the audit committee · Forensic audits · Due diligence · Form and contents of the assurance report on the financial statements · Qualified, adverse and disclaimer opinions · Recording significant and material errors · Written representations
- 3
Public sector assurance 12% of the paper
Powers and functions of the Auditor-General · Financial and regulatory assurances · Phases of value for money audits · Composition of the office of the Auditor-General · The public accounts committee in the assurance process · The Bureau of Public Procurement · Internal audit in the Auditor-General's office
The remaining 4 areas share 48% between them. Worth knowing. Not worth the weeks that the three above deserve. Full weightings for this paper.
Then drill for speed
Principles of Auditing & Assurance is examined by objective questions answered on screen, so recall speed matters more than written argument. Drill until recognition is immediate, then work on the areas above where hesitation costs you time.
The part nobody does
Almost every candidate writes practice answers. Almost none of them ever find out whether those answers would have scored. You write, you feel it went reasonably, you move on — and the first real feedback you receive is the result, months later, when the diet is gone.
That gap is the whole reason preparation fails for people who worked hard. Not knowledge. Feedback.
What Edentos does about it
- The whole study text, in the order the marks are in.
- The official study text condensed and reorganised by examinable weighting, with every claim cited back to the page it came from — so you can check anything you doubt in one click.
- Find out now. Not when the results come out.
- Write by hand, photograph it, and have it marked against the examiner's own marking guide — with the marks broken down the way the examiner breaks them down, and the reason for each one.
- Revise where the marks are, not where the pages are.
- Every syllabus topic, ordered by the share of marks it carries, so your revision time follows the marks instead of the page count.
- A right answer with no workings is a wrong mark.
- The Institute's published solution beside your attempt, with the mark allocation visible — so you can see the marks sitting in the principle and the application, not only the final figure.