JAMB Principles of Accounts 2015 past questions

Checked by the Skolra question team · Last updated 23 October 2026

Ten questions from the 2015 JAMB Principles of Accounts paper, with answers and explanations. We hold 62 questions from this paper, and the Skolra app has all of them.

JAMB Principles of Accounts 2015 questions and answers

1. 1.

   A sales for ₦2,570 was recorded in the sales day book as ₦2750. The error committed was

   1. A
      error of omission
   2. B
      error of principle
   3. C
      error of commission
   4. D
      error of transposition
      Correct
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   Answer: D

   Look at the two figures side by side: ₦2,570 was written as ₦2,750. The 5 and the 7 have simply changed places. When digits of an amount are interchanged like this, the mistake is called an error of transposition.

   There is a quick test you can use in the exam hall. Find the difference: ₦2,750 − ₦2,570 = ₦180, and 180 ÷ 9 = 20 exactly. Any difference caused by transposed digits is always divisible by 9, so that clue confirms it.

   Note also that because the wrong figure was entered in the sales day book (a book of original entry), the same ₦2,750 is carried to both the customer's account and the sales account. The two sides still agree, so the trial balance will not expose this error.

2. 2.Which of the following cannot be realized?
   1. A
      Trade debtors
   2. B
      Preliminary expenses
      Correct
   3. C
      Goodwill
   4. D
      Motor vehicles
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   Answer: B

   In accounting, to realize an asset means to turn it into cash — to sell it or collect it. This is exactly what happens when a partnership is dissolved or a company is wound up: every asset is transferred to the Realization Account, and whatever cash it fetches is credited there.

3. 3.Which of the following is shown in the profit and loss appropriation account of a company
   1. A
      Depreciation of office equipment
   2. B
      Interest paid on debentures
   3. C
      Directors' remuneration
   4. D
      Transfer to general reserve
      Correct
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   Answer: D

   To answer this one, remember the simple rule your teacher drums in: separate charges against profit from appropriations of profit.

   A charge against profit is an expense the company must bear before it can even say it has made a profit. Such items are debited in the trading and profit and loss account itself. An appropriation is what the company does with profit it has already earned — sharing it out or keeping it back. Those items go into the profit and loss appropriation account, which opens with net profit after tax plus any retained profit brought forward from last year.

4. 4.The purpose of a trading account is to ascertain
   1. A
      the net profit or net loss made during the period
   2. B
      the financial position of the business on a given date
   3. C
      the gross profit or gross loss made during the period
      Correct
   4. D
      the value of closing stock held at the end of the period
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   Answer: C

   Remember the order in which final accounts are prepared. The trading account comes first, and its only job is to compare what you sold with what those goods cost you. Its balancing figure is the gross profit (or gross loss where cost of sales is bigger than sales).

   Net sales = Sales − Returns inwards
   Cost of goods sold = Opening stock + Purchases + Carriage inwards − Returns outwards − Closing stock
   Gross profit = Net sales − Cost of goods sold

5. 5.In a bank reconciliation statement, Dishonoured cheques is added to
   1. A
      the balance as per the bank statement
      Correct
   2. B
      the total of unpresented cheques
   3. C
      the adjusted cash book balance
   4. D
      the balance as per the cash book
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   Answer: A

   A dishonoured cheque is a cheque you received from a customer, entered on the debit side of your cash book and paid into the bank, which the bank later refused to honour because the drawer had no funds.

6. 6.The accounting concept which assumes that a business will continue to be in existence into the foreseeable future is
   1. A
      accounting period concept
   2. B
      consistency concept
   3. C
      going concern concept
      Correct
   4. D
      business entity concept
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   Answer: C

   The answer is the going concern concept. It assumes that the business will keep operating into the foreseeable future and has no intention of closing down or drastically cutting its operations.

   So the key words in the stem, "continue to be in existence into the foreseeable future", point only to going concern.

7. 7.Which of the following is true in public sector accounting? Cost of assets is
   1. A
      revalued at the end of each year and the surplus credited to a reserve account
   2. B
      written off as expenditure in the year in which it is purchased
      Correct
   3. C
      charged to the Consolidated Revenue Fund in equal instalments over the asset's life
   4. D
      capitalised in the balance sheet and depreciated over its useful life
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   Answer: B

   Government accounting in Nigeria is kept on the cash basis, as required by the Finance (Control and Management) Act and the Financial Regulations. On that basis money is recognised when it is received and expenditure when it is paid out of the vote — nothing is carried forward.

8. 8.The following account are prepared when goods are sent to branch except
   1. A
      Branch adjustment account
   2. B
      Goods sent to branch account
   3. C
      Branch capital account
      Correct
   4. D
      Branch stock account
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   Answer: C

   This is an "except" question, so you are looking for the one account that the head office does not open when it despatches goods to its branch.

9. 9.The accounting convention that state that stock should be value that the lower of cost and net realized value is --------------- convention
   1. A
      Historical cost
   2. B
      Materiality
   3. C
      Consistency
   4. D
      Conservatism
      Correct
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   Answer: D

   The rule that stock must be valued at the lower of cost and net realisable value comes straight from the conservatism convention, also called prudence. Its watchword is simple: anticipate no profit, but provide for all foreseeable losses.

   So the answer required is the conservatism (prudence) convention.

10. 10.Which of the following accounts is debited when a delivery van is sold for cash?
    1. A
       Cash account
       Correct
    2. B
       Delivery van account
    3. C
       Disposal of asset account
    4. D
       Provision for depreciation account
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    Answer: A

    Follow the money first. When the van is sold for cash, money comes into the business. Cash is an asset, and every increase in an asset is recorded on the debit side. So the cash account is debited with the proceeds, and the credit goes to the disposal (sale of asset) account.

The questions come from past JAMB, WAEC and NECO papers. We use software to help write the answer options and explanations, and every answer is checked twice before it goes on the site. How we check

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Practise all 62 questions we hold from the 2015 paper, on a timed CBT screen

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