Which topic carries the most marks in the QCE Accounting external exam?

Performance analysis of a public company carries 31.7% of the marks across the 6 QCAA papers from 2020 to 2025, ahead of Fully classified financial statement reporting and analysis for a sole trader business on 31.3%.

How are marks split between question types in the QCE Accounting exam?

Short answer carries 68.4% of the marks, multiple choice carries 16.5% of the marks and extended response carries 15.1% of the marks, measured across 6 papers and 364 marks from 2020 to 2025.

Has the topic balance changed in recent QCE Accounting papers?

Yes. Performance analysis of a public company moved up 4.6 percentage points, Fully classified financial statement reporting and analysis for a sole trader business moved up 15.5 percentage points, Complete accounting process for a sole trader business moved down 10.9 percentage points, Managing resources for a sole trader business moved down 4.6 percentage points and Cash management moved down 4.5 percentage points between the 2020 to 2022 and 2023 to 2025 papers.

How many past papers is this QCE Accounting analysis based on?

6 QCAA external papers from 2020 to 2025, covering 78 questions and 364 marks. 0.0% of those marks carry no dot-point mapping and sit outside the percentages.

QCE Accounting most tested topics

Across the six QCAA Accounting external papers from 2020 to 2025, Performance analysis of a public company carries 31.7% of the marks against 3.6% for Cash management, so the paper rewards Performance analysis of a public company more than any other topic. At dot-point level 4.1.4 carries 21.4% of paper marks, and 14 of the 38 dot points that the board assesses externally have not appeared in one of these papers. Every percentage below covers the 100.0% of marks that map to a syllabus dot point.

Computed from 6 QCAA Accounting external papers, 2020 to 2025: 78 questions, 99 question parts and 364 marks.

Unit, topic and dot-point shares below are of the 364 marks that map to a dot point, so each of those tables adds to 100%. 21 of the 99 parts are assessed against more than one dot point, and their 140 marks are divided evenly between the dot points they cover.

What these papers are

Year	Exam	Questions	Marks
2025	Exam	13	60
2024	Exam	13	60
2023	Exam	13	78
2022	Exam	13	50
2021	Exam	13	65
2020	Exam	13	51

Marks by unit

Unit	Share of marks
Unit 4: Accounting — the big picture	88.7%
Unit 3: Managing resources	11.3%

Marks by topic

Topic	Share of marks	Papers it appears in	Years
Performance analysis of a public company	31.7%	6 of 6	6 of 6
Fully classified financial statement reporting and analysis for a sole trader business	31.3%	6 of 6	6 of 6
Complete accounting process for a sole trader business	25.7%	6 of 6	6 of 6
Managing resources for a sole trader business	7.7%	5 of 6	5 of 6
Cash management	3.6%	5 of 6	5 of 6

Marks by dot point

Dot-point numbers and wording are QCAA's own. Where a dot point is written as a list, its items run together here separated by semicolons.

Dot point	Content	Topic	Share of marks	Papers
4.1.4	Synthesise accounting principles and processes to solve goal-oriented problems relating to fully classified financial statement reporting for a sole trader business, e.g. the goal may be to report the profitability and net worth of the business in order to apply for a loan students should be provided with a goal-oriented problem requiring a combination of principles and processes including the; recording of balance day adjustments with simple calculations for prepaid expenses, accrued expenses, unearned revenue and accrued revenue; bad debts written off and bad debts recovered; interest on overdue accounts; provision for doubtful debts; depreciation (straight-line and diminishing balance methods); and inventories (write off and lower of cost or net realisable value); preparing an adjusted trial balance; reporting of a fully classified Statement of Profit or Loss and Statement of Financial Position (with or without working capital) from an adjusted trial balance; calculations of profitability and liquidity ratios	Fully classified financial statement reporting and analysis for a sole trader business	21.4%	5 of 6
4.3.6	Analyse and interpret for a public company the Statement of Profit or Loss using horizontal, vertical, ratio and trend analysis relating to profitability; the Statement of Financial Position using horizontal, vertical, ratio and trend analysis relating to profitability, liquidity and stability; the Statement of Cash Flows using horizontal, vertical, ratio and trend analysis relating to stability and liquidity	Performance analysis of a public company	13.9%	6 of 6
4.2.6	Synthesise accounting principles and processes (handwritten and/or spreadsheet) for a sole trader business to prepare a fully classified Statement of Profit or Loss, Statement of Financial Position (narrative style with and without working capital, and T format) and a fully classified Statement of Cash Flows	Complete accounting process for a sole trader business	11.0%	3 of 6
4.2.4	Synthesise accounting principles and processes (handwritten and/or spreadsheet) for a sole trader business to record transactions in the general journal and general ledger, including an opening entry; purchase and sale of non-current assets; purchase and sale of inventories with returns; accounts receivable with receipts and accounts payable with payments; no discounts; other revenues and expenses; obtaining finance; drawings of cash, inventories and other assets; perpetual inventories with cost of goods sold given; no control accounts/subsidiary ledgers; correct errors; reconstruct accounts; calculate and record transactions including balance day adjustments for prepaid expenses, accrued expenses, unearned revenue and accrued revenue; interest on overdue accounts; depreciation (straight-line and diminishing balance methods); provision for doubtful debts; bad debts written off and bad debts recovered; and inventory adjustments for discrepancies with consideration of lower of cost or net realisable value; record closing and reversing entries; balance accounts at the end of a period; prepare an adjusted trial balance	Complete accounting process for a sole trader business	8.4%	5 of 6
4.3.7	Evaluate for a public company the performance against industry benchmarks to make judgments and decisions, and propose recommendations regarding the future operations and direction of the business; proposed changes to practices of financial management to make decisions and propose recommendations regarding the future operations and direction of the business	Performance analysis of a public company	8.1%	6 of 6
3.2.5	Synthesise accounting principles and processes (handwritten and/or spreadsheet) for a sole trader business to calculate and record purchase of non-current assets, including capital expenditure and other expenditure; depreciation for a non-current asset using straight-line and diminishing balance methods (including annual and part-year calculations); closing entries and balancing of relevant accounts; disposal of a non-current asset and recognition of gain or loss on sale	Managing resources for a sole trader business	7.1%	5 of 6
4.3.5	Synthesise accounting principles and processes to calculate the following ratios for sole traders and public companies profitability ratios (see formula book); liquidity ratios (see formula book); stability ratios (see formula book); cash flow ratios (see formula book); extra specific ratios for companies (see formula book)	Performance analysis of a public company	6.9%	4 of 6
4.2.5	Synthesise accounting principles and processes to solve goal-oriented problems relating to the complete accounting process for a sole trader business, e.g. the business is converting from cash records to accrual accounting and needs the financial statements generated. Students should be provided with a combination of unstructured and unfamiliar financial data and information relating to the business records	Complete accounting process for a sole trader business	3.4%	1 of 6
4.1.6	Evaluate for a sole trader business the effectiveness of practices of financial management to make judgments and decisions, and propose recommendations regarding monitoring business performance; the effectiveness of practices of financial management to make judgments and decisions, and propose recommendations regarding profitability and liquidity	Fully classified financial statement reporting and analysis for a sole trader business	3.2%	4 of 6
4.1.5	Analyse and interpret for a sole trader business the Statement of Profit or Loss with vertical, horizontal and ratio analysis relating to performance; the Statement of Financial Position with vertical, horizontal and ratio analysis relating to performance; the return on owner’s equity in comparison with alternative investments relating to net worth	Fully classified financial statement reporting and analysis for a sole trader business	2.6%	4 of 6
4.3.2	Comprehend and explain the differences between accounting for a sole trader and accounting for a public company; the ratios used to measure profitability, liquidity, stability, cash flows for a sole trader and a public company and the extra ratios specifically applicable to companies; profitability ratios, including gross profit ratio, net profit ratio, return on owner’s/shareholders’ equity and return on total assets; liquidity ratios, including current ratio, quick ratio, turnover of accounts receivable, and turnover of inventories; stability ratios, including equity ratio, debt ratio, debt/equity ratio, long-term debt coverage ratio and times interest earned; cash flow ratios, including operating cash flow ratio and cash generating power ratio; extra specific ratios for companies, including EBITDA, earnings per share, price earnings ratio and dividend yield; the limitations that complicate the comparison of financial statements over time; the benefits of using vertical, horizontal, trend and ratio analysis	Performance analysis of a public company	2.3%	4 of 6
3.1.7	Evaluate for a sole trader GST business to make judgments and decisions, and propose recommendations, relating to the effectiveness of internal control practices of financial management regarding cash management; alternative projects and their impact on cash resources; alternative proposed changes to practices of financial management impacting the cash budget	Cash management	2.2%	1 of 6

These 12 dot points carry 90.5% of the paper marks between them. Another 12 assessed dot points share the rest, and 14 of the 38 externally assessable dot points have not been assessed in any of these 6 papers. Content that has not appeared is still examinable.

What has moved between papers

Comparing the 2020 to 2022 papers with the 2023 to 2025 papers, five topics have moved by more than 3.0 percentage points.

Topic	2020 to 2022 share	2023 to 2025 share	Movement
Performance analysis of a public company	29.2%	33.8%	up 4.6 points
Fully classified financial statement reporting and analysis for a sole trader business	22.9%	38.4%	up 15.5 points
Complete accounting process for a sole trader business	31.6%	20.7%	down 10.9 points
Managing resources for a sole trader business	10.2%	5.6%	down 4.6 points
Cash management	6.0%	1.5%	down 4.5 points

How the papers are built

Short answer carries 68.4% of the marks across these 6 papers.

Question type	Share of marks	Marks	Parts
Short answer	68.4%	249	33
Multiple choice	16.5%	60	60
Extended response	15.1%	55	6

Verb	Share of marks	Marks	Parts
prepare	32.1%	117	12
analyse	17.0%	62	6
evaluate	11.8%	43	5
record	11.0%	40	6
propose	9.9%	36	4
interpret	9.3%	34	3
justify	6.0%	22	3
calculate	4.9%	18	3

What these percentages do not tell you

Where to practise

Every topic above links to its own page of real QCAA questions with marking criteria and average scores attached: Performance analysis of a public company, Fully classified financial statement reporting and analysis for a sole trader business, Complete accounting process for a sole trader business, Managing resources for a sole trader business and Cash management. For the full question bank start at QCE Accounting.

Syllabus and assessment material referenced in this guide is © State of Queensland (Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority), licensed under CC BY 4.0. See our QCAA licensing notice. AusGrader is an independent study tool and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operated by the QCAA.