Every Chief Examiner’s Report contains a section most candidates skim past on their way to the marking scheme: Notable Strengths and Weaknesses. This post walks through a real Advanced Taxation report and one specific line the examiner flagged as “a very serious mistake” — a mistake that has nothing to do with tax technique and everything to do with how a number gets written down.
What the Report Actually Said
Tucked inside the Notable Weaknesses section is this, quoted directly: “Candidates in an attempt to replace million with zeroes used three zeros as substitute for million cedis instead of six zeros. This is a very serious mistake.” The same report also noted: “Poor construction of English language continues to manifest as a plague in the performance of candidates,” and “Candidates continue to solve question without providing headings thereby losing marks.”
The Governing Principle
There is no tax law here — only arithmetic discipline. “Thousand” is three zeros: 000. “Million” is six zeros: 000,000. “Billion” is nine zeros: 000,000,000. Every cedi figure quoted in an exam scenario needs to be transcribed into your working with the exact right number of zeros, every time, without exception. This feels too obvious to actively practice — which is precisely why it goes wrong under time pressure.
Where the Marks Are Lost
A zeros error at the very start of a computation is not an isolated one-mark slip — it is a foundation error. Every figure calculated from that starting point inherits the mistake: chargeable income, tax payable, any instalment or penalty computation built on top. A candidate can apply every rule correctly and still lose the bulk of a question’s marks because the opening figure was wrong by a factor of exactly 1,000. Missing computation headings compound the problem, since the report’s own Conclusion states candidates should “learn to provide headings to calculation questions rather than throwing numbers without providing the basis for the computations” — without headings, a marker often cannot trace where an error entered the working to award method marks.
Exam tip: Before writing any cedi figure from the question into your working, say it out loud in full words first — “one million two hundred thousand cedis,” not “one-two-zero-zero-zero-zero-zero.” Words force you to count the zero groups deliberately. Only then write the figure, and check it zero-for-zero against the original.
Conclusion
This is not a knowledge gap on advanced content — it is a mechanical habit missing from an otherwise capable candidate’s exam technique. Lock in the words-first verification habit, pair it with clear headings on every computation, and this “very serious mistake” stops being the thing that quietly wrecks a question you actually knew how to answer.
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