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LISA NELSON Using ChatGPT to study more effectively At the time of the sterling crisis in 1964 Harold Wilson famously said that “a week is a long time in politics”. Well, it feels like a day is a long time when talking about technology. Only last month I wrote about ChatGPT and how it was a great example of Artificial Intelligence. It now has more than 100 million users and is the world's fastest growing consumer application. And there is good reason for its popularity; it has lots of applications including learning and, if used properly, could help you pass your next exam. For example, if there is a term you don’t understand, rather than looking it up in a text book, put it in the chat panel: “What’s the CAPM?” Answer: “The Capital Asset Pricing Model is a financial model used to calculate the expected return on an investment.” Ask it to explain something. “I don’t understand the CAPM?” Answer: “I apologise for any confusion. Let me try to explain the CAPM in simpler terms” – and off it goes. You can put in an answer and ask it to make improvements. This could be helpful if you want to critique a case study answer. But be careful with putting exam questions in and asking for answers, when I tried this especially with objective tests, although the answers sounded plausible, they were often wrong. ChatGPT is a great tool but for the time being use it wisely. Lisa Nelson is Dir ector of Learnin g at Kaplan
ACCA March exam feedback Snow in March was a big problem for many ACCA students trying to get to exam centres in the north of England and Scotland, particularly on the Thursday and Friday. However, all ACCA exam centres remained open and no exams were cancelled. This time around the FR paper stood out among the Applied Skills papers as a harder test. Sitters seemed to struggle with both the MCQs and Section B, and called it a ‘brutal’ and ‘horrendous’ exam. AA also seemed much harder than normal, and with a pass rate of 40% in December some PQs are fearing the worst. By stark contrast, students positively loved the SBL exam. According to an Open Tuition poll, some 9% of sitters said the exam was easy, and another 69% said it was OK – that’s positive feedback indeed for any paper! As one student said: “I have a strange feeling that this was too easy and I
wrote too little.” Another explained: “It seemed too easy but I think I waffled a lot.” The optional papers were another tough set of tests. A big worry for many AAA sitters was the paper was nothing like they had seen before in the mocks or past papers. AFM was described as ‘tricky’ but better than December. Time
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was the old enemy for many. One PQ said that despite passing everything first time they were totally lost in this exam, mainly due to time. They also felt the questions just seemed odd. ATX was also ‘tough’ and ‘time pressured’. It was also an exam of two halves – easy for the first half and tough for the second. See all the feedback on page 17.
It may have gone under the radar with the launch of AAT’s Strategy to 2030, but AAT launched a refreshed brand on Friday 3 February 2023. The last brand refresh was 15 years ago, and AAT explained: “This was at a time with the internet was still relatively young and smartphones and tablets were just emerging. To take us into the future and to align with our digital-first approach, as outlined in the new strategy, we felt now was the right time to revisit and update our brand.”
CIMA four-week plan CRAIGO, one of our favourite YouTubers, takes a really interesting look at the PQ magazine interview with the youngest-ever CGMA, Grace Bayton. He also studied CIMA in the same way as she did, and loved her four-week plan to sit your exams. Bayton said: “In weeks 1
& 2 I read the book; in week 3 I completed all the questions; and in week 4 she did a mock and went back and answered all the questions she got wrong the first time!” That’s a really achievable plan, says CRAIGO. Check out his video on https://tinyurl.com/yrfehzbu CRAIGO has also produced a really useful CIMA’s beginners guide. Check it out at https:// tinyurl.com/2f4at3da
In brief PQ Coursefinder Looking for a top tutor for your AAT, ACCA or CIMA studies? Well, look no further – we have added a new PQ CourseFinder feature to the website at www. pqmagazine.com. Just click on ‘Coursefinder’ bar and you can see all the top tutors in one place. We think if you choose one of these top colleges you will be able to get were you want to be in double-quick time – you can now find a course that ticks your boxes in 60 seconds! 4
It means we have rejigged the website a bit and you can now find our Testbank series in the study zone.
of the Batgirl film was “the first superhero to be defeated by the accounting department”. Surely not!
Accounting joke at Oscars! It was good to see among all the banter at the 95th Academy Awards ceremony that US chat show host Jimmy Kimmel did not forget the power of accountants! On top of joking that Steven Spielberg had finally run out of ideas, so just made a film about himself, he said the cancellation
Women in Accountancy There is still time to nominate a women in your network for the Top 50 Women in Accounting 2023 list. This year the organisers are focusing on “celebrating the unique and diverse stories of women in our industry, striving towards personal and professional progress”.
Nominations close on 5 April and the names of those who made the top 50 will be announced on 2 May 2023. You can nominate at https:// tinyurl.com/253pn3sb PQ Magazine April 2023