Welcome back. In the previous lesson, you converted the DipIFR paper’s 100 marks into a practical clock: minutes per mark, with firm stopping points to protect later requirements.
That time discipline only works if you also understand what each requirement is asking you to do. A technically correct discussion can still earn few marks if the requirement asked for a calculation, a financial-statement extract, or a short conclusion. Conversely, a brief “state” requirement can be over-written until it consumes time needed for a more demanding “explain and show” requirement.
In this lesson, you will learn to translate common command verbs into the required depth, answer structure, and output. This is the first step toward the rule → application → conclusion style needed in DipIFR written scenarios.
A requirement is more than its topic
Read every requirement as a compact instruction with five elements:
For example:
“Using the information in exhibit 2, explain and show how these transactions should be accounted for and presented in the financial statements. Ignore deferred tax.”
This is not simply an “IAS 38 question” or an “IFRS 15 question.” It contains several instructions:
| Element | What it tells you to do |
|---|---|
| Explain | Give the relevant principle and logical reasoning. |
| Show how | Include figures, workings, entries, or an illustration where relevant. |
| Accounted for | Address recognition, measurement, and subsequent treatment. |
| Presented | State where the result appears: profit or loss, OCI, statement of financial position, equity, or notes. |
| Ignore deferred tax | Do not spend time adding an IAS 12 adjustment. |
| Marks | Set the maximum sensible depth and time. |
The accounting standard is the knowledge you need. The command verb determines the job you must perform with that knowledge.
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A useful annotation routine during the initial read is:
- Circle the command verb or verbs.
- Underline the precise subject: the transaction, policy, figure, or issue.
- Box the required form: calculation, journal entry, financial-statement extract, advice, discussion, and so on.
- Note exclusions and dates.
- Translate the requirement into answer headings before you write.
For a multi-part requirement, the verbs themselves can become headings. If asked to “identify and explain,” do not write one blended paragraph and hope both tasks are visible. Use:
Identification
Explanation
That simple separation makes it much less likely that you earn marks for identifying the point but lose the explanation marks.
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The command-verb map: choose the right depth
ACCA’s command-verb guidance is worth treating as an exam tool, not a vocabulary list.
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For DipIFR purposes, the verbs can be organised into four practical families. They are not a rigid hierarchy—context matters—but they are a reliable planning guide.
1. Short, precise response: state, identify, list, define
These verbs call for an exact answer, usually with minimal development.
- State: give the precise accounting treatment, criterion, or conclusion.
- Identify: name the relevant item, standard, risk, classification, or issue.
- List: provide the requested items without extended discussion.
- Define: give the meaning of a technical term.
A “state” requirement does not normally invite a broad explanation of the whole standard. If the question asks you to state whether an event is adjusting or non-adjusting, lead with the classification. Add only enough fact-specific wording to make the answer unambiguous if marks justify it.
Answer shape
[Clear conclusion/classification], because [brief relevant fact, if needed].
Common error: writing a full paragraph on IAS 10 when the requirement only asks for the classification. This is an inefficient use of your mark-based time budget.
2. Calculation or formal output: calculate, prepare, show
These verbs require visible output. They cannot be satisfied by prose alone.
- Calculate: show a logical working and a clearly labelled final figure.
- Prepare: use the format requested—for example, an extract of profit or loss, financial position, cash flows, or a consolidation working.
- Show: demonstrate the figure, accounting entry, or financial-statement effect rather than merely asserting it.
For a calculation, the marker should be able to follow:
The final component is frequently omitted. If a question asks for financial-statement effects, a correct number alone is incomplete. For example, an answer might need to state both that an impairment loss is and that it is charged to profit or loss, reducing the carrying amount of the relevant asset.
Answer shape
Working:
[calculation]
Conclusion:
[amount] is recognised in [profit or loss / OCI / statement of financial position].
If the requirement says “calculate and explain”, treat it as two separately markable jobs:
- calculate the figure; and
- explain why IFRS requires that treatment.
Do not assume the calculation explains itself.
3. Applied explanation: explain, apply, illustrate, advise
This is the core family for DipIFR narrative requirements. It demands more than a recalled rule.
- Explain: make the accounting treatment clear by showing the relevant principle and why it produces the result.
- Apply: connect that principle expressly to the facts given.
- Illustrate: use figures, an example, or a short calculation to demonstrate the treatment.
- Advise: give a direct professional conclusion, supported by the applicable IFRS treatment.
The highest-value habit here is to avoid leaving the application implied. Compare the following.
| Weak answer | Applied answer |
|---|---|
| “IFRS 15 requires revenue to be recognised when control transfers.” | “As the customer cannot return the asset after 31 March, control is treated as transferred at that date; therefore revenue is recognised then, rather than when the asset was delivered.” |
The first statement may earn credit for the rule. The second gives the marker a visible rule, a specific fact, and a conclusion.
For most applied DipIFR issues, use a compact structure:
Rule: Relevant IFRS requirement.
Application: The stated fact means that requirement is met/not met.
Conclusion: Required accounting treatment and financial-statement effect.
This is not an instruction to repeat the labels mechanically in every answer. In a short requirement, three crisp sentences may be enough. But the intellectual sequence should remain visible.
4. Analytical judgement: analyse, discuss, assess, evaluate, justify, comment
These verbs require you to do more than explain one rule and state a result.
- Analyse: separate an issue into relevant components, explain relationships, and deal with each component.
- Discuss: examine the relevant arguments, treatments, or consequences in a balanced and organised way.
- Assess / evaluate: reach a reasoned judgement using relevant criteria and scenario evidence.
- Justify: defend a conclusion by linking it to IFRS requirements and facts.
- Comment: make a reasoned observation, usually with explanation rather than a bare assertion.
In DipIFR, analytical verbs do not mean you should manufacture vague “advantages and disadvantages” where IFRS gives one clear treatment. A discussion of an IAS 37 issue, for example, should examine the genuinely relevant questions: whether there is a present obligation, whether an outflow is probable, whether the amount is reliably measurable, and whether the result is a provision, contingent liability, or no recognition.
Answer shape
Relevant criterion or rule:
Application of facts to each criterion:
Alternative treatment, if the facts genuinely allow one:
Reasoned conclusion:
Financial-statement effect, where required:
“Justify your answer with reference to relevant IFRS Accounting Standards” is especially common in DipIFR. It requires a conclusion and the reasoning that supports it. A bare statement such as “recognise a provision under IAS 37” is not a justification.
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Let the verb determine the answer form
The same technical scenario can generate very different answers depending on the command verb.
Assume a question concerns a possible obligation at the reporting date. The following table is about answer form, not the underlying IAS 37 solution.
| Requirement wording | Minimum response expected | What would be insufficient? |
|---|---|---|
| “State whether a provision is required.” | A direct conclusion, with a brief reason if needed. | A general definition of a provision without deciding the issue. |
| “Explain whether a provision is required.” | Relevant recognition criteria, application to facts, conclusion. | Repeating the criteria without referring to probability or the entity’s obligation. |
| “Calculate and show the provision.” | Discounting/probability working if relevant, final amount, accounting entry or location if asked. | Giving a final figure with no working or presentation consequence. |
| “Discuss the accounting implications.” | Structured examination of recognition, measurement, presentation, and disclosure implications. | A one-sentence conclusion or an unfocused summary of IAS 37. |
| “Justify the proposed treatment.” | Conclusion supported by the specific IFRS criteria and scenario evidence. | “This is correct under IAS 37” with no explanation of why. |
The lesson from this comparison is simple:
Do not write the answer you have revised; write the answer the verb requests.
The DipIFR danger: general IFRS knowledge without application
The December 2025 DipIFR examiner’s report confirms that this is not merely a stylistic preference. Candidates lost marks by giving general answers, including generic descriptions of IFRS 15’s five-step model, without applying it to the facts. It also highlights missed marks where candidates calculated figures but did not fully describe presentation in the financial statements.
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Three implications follow.
Answer the specific question asked
If a trainee accountant asks, “Why is this asset identifiable?” answer identifiability. Do not begin with a broad discussion of all IAS 38 recognition criteria and never address the trainee’s actual question.
A sound technique is to turn each question in the scenario into a heading:
Whether the asset is identifiable
Measurement at acquisition date
Subsequent accounting treatment
This keeps your response aligned with the requirement and makes separate points easy for the marker to find.
Apply only relevant IFRS material
Knowing an entire standard is useful for revision; reproducing it indiscriminately is not useful in the exam. Select the rule that decides the issue, then apply the decisive facts.
For a revenue scenario, an answer may need only the IFRS 15 requirements on a right of return and significant financing—not an unexplained five-step model. For a pension question, a calculation of the net liability may need a distinct statement about the related OCI actuarial gain or loss and its presentation.
Treat “presented” as a separate instruction
When a requirement says “accounted for and presented,” make a deliberate final pass for location:
- Is the effect in profit or loss or other comprehensive income?
- Is an asset, liability, or equity reserve recognised?
- Is the item separately presented, included in another line item, or disclosed in the notes?
- Does the figure affect consolidated figures, individual financial statements, or both?
This is an efficient source of marks because it often follows directly from a calculation you have already completed.
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A 30-second pre-writing protocol
Before drafting any narrative requirement, write a tiny plan in your answer area or scratch notes:
Verb(s):
Issue:
IFRS:
Output required:
Facts that decide it:
Conclusion / presentation:
For example:
Verb(s): Explain and show
Issue: Research and development expenditure
IFRS: IAS 38
Output: Treatment + figures + presentation
Facts: Research phase; development phase; date available for use
Conclusion: Expense/capitalise; amortisation; location
This should take seconds, not minutes. Its purpose is to prevent three costly failures:
- answering the wrong question;
- omitting one verb in a combined requirement; and
- writing a technically correct but unstructured standard summary.
Keep the mark allocation in view. A 3-mark “state” requirement may need one precise conclusion and two short supporting points. A 10-mark “explain and show” requirement usually needs a calculation or illustration plus several applied explanations. The command verb tells you the kind of answer; the marks tell you the extent of it.
Key takeaways
A DipIFR requirement should be decoded as:
Use the verb to decide the response:
- State / identify / list: concise, precise answer.
- Calculate / prepare / show: visible workings and correctly formatted output.
- Explain / apply / advise: relevant rule, explicit facts, clear conclusion.
- Analyse / discuss / assess / evaluate / justify: organised reasoning, scenario evidence, and a reasoned judgement.
Most importantly, avoid generic standard summaries. The examiner expects relevant IFRS requirements to be applied to the facts, and—where requested—figures to be linked to their presentation in the financial statements.
Next, you will build on this by learning to extract the separately markable accounting issues from a short DipIFR scenario. Once you can identify each issue and decode each verb, planning a focused answer becomes much more reliable.
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