Working notes: the marks you keep when the answer is wrong

Board marking schemes award marks for steps, and in Accountancy many of those steps live in the working notes. A student who shows them can lose one figure to a slip and keep the rest. A student who does not has nothing for the examiner to give marks to.

What belongs in a working note

Any figure in the main answer that did not come straight from the question: a new or sacrificing ratio, goodwill, interest on capital, a partner’s share of revaluation profit, the closing balance carried to a capital account.

How to write them

• Number each one (WN 1, WN 2) and write the number beside the figure it feeds in the main answer.
• One calculation per note. State the formula, then the figures.
• Put them on the answer page, after the account or entry they support. Calculations scribbled in the margin, or crossed out as rough work, are not marked.

A quick test before you move on

Cover the working notes and read only the main answer. Every figure that makes you ask “where did this come from?” needs a note.