Students are calling for the AAT to look again at the problems with the Internal Accounting Systems and Controls (INAC) assessment, after the association said it would not be making any adjustments to the marks.
Back in July 2023 PQ magazine reported that AAT was realigning its INAC assessments at Level 4, as it was felt students and training providers needed time to catch up on the changes to Q2022. Students who had already sat the exam were given a 5% uplift in their marks.
But now some current AAT students believe INAC is still out of kilter with the other assessments. Numerous students have contacted PQ magazine explaining the wording in task 2 continues to perplex them. Some students have also taken as many as 5 resits, but still keep failing the exam.
Students feel that AAT does not want to uplift marks again because it wants to avoid the negative publicity of having to adjust marks for a second time.
In a statement sent to PQ magazine on 9 July AAT said: “We can confirm that feedback has been received from a number of students regarding INAC. We are responding to those students directly in line with our normal processes.
As with any and all feedback AAT receives, we look at the issues raised on a case-by-case basis. But where a volume of feedback is received, we also look at them holistically.
We can confirm now that we have looked into all the feedback received and, at this stage, given that the performance of the assessment is in-line with our expectations, we are confident that no adjustments are required at this time.
We are, however, signposting students to the support and resources that are available to them. And, in light of the feedback received, we are also putting in place additional targeted support.
AAT runs a continual monitoring and review process for all assessments at all levels. We are committed to ensuring all assessments are reliable, fair and valid.”
PQ magazine spoke to several tutors who had seen the grumblings over task 2 on social media.
One said that adding the fraud triangle into the syllabus did create a gap in study content for most publishers. They also felt students need to sit the exams in the right order. “Students need to sit audit before INAC, and those who do that normally smash INAC.”
PQ magazine has been the independent voice for accountancy students for over 20 years. You can sign up for your free subscription of the monthly magazine at www.pqmagazine.com
