At 30 November, Charles is owed a total of $72,660 by his customers. His receivables allowance brought forward from the previous year end is $11,700. He estimates that his receivables allowance should be equivalent to 15% of the amounts due from customers.

　　What value should be included in the income statement for receivables expense for the year to 30 November?

　　A $801 debit

　　B $10,899 debit

　　C $801 credit

　　D $10,899 credit

　　Solution:

　　The receivables allowance should be equivalent to 15% of the amounts due from customers （$72，660 x 15% = $10,899）.

　　If a candidate completes this calculation and then reviews the choices, there is a danger that, because $10,899 is included in two of the choices, one or other of those choices will be selected.

　　This ignores the fact that the amount to be included in the income statement is the movement in the allowance - which has fallen from $11,700 to $10,899, or $801. A reduction in the allowance will be a credit in the income statement, thus the answer is C.

　　This illustrates that, for questions which require calculations, covering up the options while you work out your answer can be a productive strategy. Of course, with questions which do not require calculations, the possible answers need to be considered in turn. However, this still requires your answer to be worked out, not randomly selected. These questions might require a decision on which one of two or more statements are correct, or which one of a number of statements is correct. In such cases, the best approach is to consider each statement in turn, and decide whether or not it is correct. Once again, the fact that incorrect options are distracters must be borne in mind.

　　Eliminate incorrect answers:

　　This approach is likely to be most effective in discursive questions which require the correct combination of statements to be selected. Consider a question which offers three statements, and requires the correct combination of correct statements to be selected. The ideal way to answer this is to consider each statement in turn, and decide if it is correct or not. Often, candidates will find that they can quickly identify one incorrect statement. On that basis, it is possible to eliminate the options which include that statement.