Communication Skills

Where the marks are

Percentages are the examinable weighting for each area. Revising in this order puts your time where the marks are.

1. Practical application of communication skills

   60%

   Comprehension and summary · Seminars, workshops and conferences · Assessment practices in the accounting profession · Essay writing · Speech making · Report writing · Meetings and minutes · Correspondence · Digital communication in organisations · Advertising and marketing strategies in the accounting profession · Writing feasibility studies for projects in accounting

2. Introduction to communication skills: communication systems, models and networks

   20%

   Definitions and roles of communication · Elements of the communication process · Types of communication and their advantages and disadvantages · Human communication · Formal and informal communication systems · Barriers and limitations to effective communication · Communication ethics and conflict in organisations · Labour and industrial relations, bargaining and negotiation

3. Language skills and grammatical rules

   20%

   Listening · Speaking · Reading · Writing: paragraphing, outlining, note-taking and precis · Mechanics, common errors and figurative expressions · Grammatical rules: words, word classes, phrases, clauses and sentences

Where candidates lose this paper

The Institute publishes its own past questions. What it cannot give you is an answer to these.

There is not enough time to read the whole study text before the diet.

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.

You write practice answers for months and never find out whether a single one would have scored.

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.

The study text is hundreds of pages and none of it tells you which parts the examiner actually asks about.

Every syllabus topic, ordered by the share of marks it carries, so your revision time follows the marks instead of the page count.

You know the answer but lose marks anyway, and no one ever explains where they went.

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.