Top 5 Mistakes Students Make in Accountancy Board Exams — And How to Avoid Them

Introduction

Every year, students who have studied hard still walk out of the Accountancy board exam disappointed — not because they didn't know the content, but because of avoidable errors. After reviewing hundreds of answer sheets at AN Outfox Academy, here are the 5 most costly mistakes and how to fix them.

Mistake 1: Not Showing Working Notes

This is the single biggest mark-loser. Students compute the final answer in rough and write only the result in the answer sheet. If that result is wrong — even by a small calculation error — they score zero.

Fix: Always write working notes clearly beside or below your solution. Examiners are instructed to give step marks. A correct working note with a wrong final answer still earns 60–70% of the marks for that part.

Mistake 2: Messy Format of Accounts

Accountancy is a presentational subject. If your Profit & Loss Appropriation Account, Realisation Account, or Balance Sheet looks like a rough draft, the examiner cannot easily verify correctness — and will not give the benefit of the doubt.

Fix: Practice drawing ruled T-accounts, proper columns, and using a ruler. Spend 30 seconds setting up the format before writing. Neat accounts score full marks even if totals match; messy ones get deducted even when correct.

Mistake 3: Skipping Adjustments in Partnership Problems

Partnership problems often come with 4–6 adjustments — goodwill, revaluation, accumulated reserves/losses, interest on capital, partner's salary. Students who miss even one adjustment get a cascading error that throws off the entire solution.

Fix: Develop a checklist for every partnership problem:
☐ Goodwill adjustment ☐ Revaluation ☐ Reserves distribution ☐ Interest on capital ☐ Partner salary ☐ Capital adjustment
Tick each off before finalising your answer.

Mistake 4: Wrong Treatment of Securities Premium Reserve

Students confuse "Securities Premium Reserve can be used for X" with "must be used for X." Under the Companies Act 2013, SPR can only be used for specific purposes — issuing bonus shares, writing off preliminary expenses, etc. Using it for dividends or general purposes is wrong.

Fix: Memorise the permitted uses of SPR as a list. This is a 1-mark theory question that appears almost every year.

Mistake 5: Poor Time Management

Accountancy exams are 3 hours for 80 marks — that is 2.25 minutes per mark. Students spend 40 minutes on a 6-mark question and then rush through a 16-mark question in 10 minutes, making avoidable errors.

Fix: Before the exam, plan your time allocation. In the exam:
• 1-mark MCQs: 45 seconds each
• 3-4 mark questions: 7–9 minutes
• 8-mark questions: 18 minutes
• 12-16 mark questions: 28–36 minutes
Keep your watch on the desk and check every 30 minutes.

Bonus: Cashflow Statement Trap

Most students forget to adjust for non-cash items (depreciation, amortisation, loss on sale of assets) when computing Operating Activities using the Indirect Method. This is a 2-mark step that is almost always missed.

Practice Under Exam Conditions

The best way to eliminate mistakes is to practice full 3-hour mock tests under real exam conditions. At AN Outfox Academy, Indore, we run weekly mock tests and individual answer-sheet review sessions to catch and correct these patterns early. Book your free demo class to see how we work.