acca
ACCA Administrative Review
ACCA Administrative Review explained for students who had a marginal fail, scored 48-49 marks.
If you are unhappy with your exam result, then you can ask the ACCA for an administrative review.
This review will NOT mean that your exam is remarked.
The ACCA will only check that the marks have been added up and recorded correctly.
They will also tell you whether each question passed or failed, but they will NOT tell you the marks for each question.
The fee for ACCA administrative review is £52
(This includes FIA, ACCA and Dip IFR exams)
If you would like to request an administrative review you can now submit your request using our online service at myACCA. Alternatively, you can complete the form (see 'Related documents') and submit to:
When you get your fail mark after 99.9% commitment to preparation, accept you weren't lucky this time. Try again, you mayb lucky next time.
Anything that involves human decisions can NEVER be total free of error and unfairness in some way. Me I failed, relaxed abit, came back and passed some, then failed some and surely I wil complete it.
If you passed some papers since you started Acca, then why think you being failed intentionally. Why didn't they start failing you from the beginning. And if you give up now, then you have Wasted all the money and time you gave to Acca before, you Never want to do that. Keep on keeping on.
I am just curios if anyone here has been at my place.
I failed the exam with 49% and I took the administrative revuew. The answer is that the results are correct and the feedback says ‘Pass’ at all the three questions.
How can it be that I pass all the three questions but the result is a Fail?
1. In the objective section, you must obtain 25 to 30 marks
** Important, true for all the subjective papers **
If you are experienced, DO NOT write your language (How kuch ever professional is that).
Read the answers of previous exams at ACCA portal, write in the same way.
My son and me both appeared for AA. Had same paper. Solved all the questions.
He mugged ACCA Website answers. Wrote in SAME Way.
I wrote same answers, just in my words (doesn't mean some country language)
He got 58, I got 48.
Btw, since my son doesn't have experience, I adviced him to follow ACCA Sample answering.
I have serious doubt on how, subjective questions are marked. Looks like the checkers don't apply their brains but just follow answer template.
However, I am willingly doing ACCA, nobody forced me so I am accepting it as it is and moving ahead.
Next attempt, I am not writing anything of own experienced language and example but just copying ACCA Specimen answer in my brain.
That's what they want, though personally I don't agree.
I did not bother with paying for that Admin review because it sounds like utter BS to begin with. What do they think students will expect? That they say "hey sorry we messed up and you passed, never mind that you had to pay almost double the price for one exam"??
My worst experience was with the P1 paper.
In the first sitting I ended up focusing on my other subjects leaving only 2 days to study for P1, for the very first time, and yet I managed to almost pass getting 44%. So let me be clear, there was no tuition involved, just a total of 2 days self-study to achieve that mark on a first attempt. If you think that is unbelievable then read what happened next.
The next time I was unemployed and therefore had more time to study with up-to-date BPP study materials for almost 2 months day and night, and the result achieved was 31%! Moral of the story: study less and score higher?
I felt very comfortable with all key elements of the syllabus and, with the exam requirements carefully read on the big day, the exam gave me ample opportunities to demonstrate and apply my knowledge to achieve at least 50% even in the worst case.
It boggled my mind so much as to how I can get 31% that I lost all confidence in knowing how to approach next, even with all the "what to do if you fail" guides.
The most frustrating thing is the amount of hypocrisy present with the lack of transparency and assurance of the marking process.
I would like to ask, if there is any possibility of having your results recalculated or getting to see your answer booklet?
Here is my story: I was very surprised with my result (fail, I was not even close to the pass mark). The funny thing was that 1) I solved all questions and was quite confident I did well 2) After the exam I compared my answers with a few other participants - we came to the same results/conclusions. They all passed, and passed with very good results.
After receiving my low score, I made a request for administrative review. The answer came within 24 hours, bringing another surprise. According to the table I received, only 1 out of 5 questions was marked as pass, 4 out of 5 were marked as fail. This is just strange.
I truly do not know, what to make of it.
Is there any point in appealing to Examination Appeals Committee?
Is there any way you can get your answers re-checked?
Have any of you been in a similar situation?
Thank you very much in advance.
However, let me point out to you that I have NEVER EVER heard of a successful administrative review in all the years that I have taught ACCA and I believe that that same comment applies to all the other tutors (John, Ken, Tax Tutor, Kim, P2D2)
We have, in aggregate, more than 200 years teaching experience
My advice is to get right up, shake yourself down and start right over again (to quote a very old song)
Save your money and move on with hopefully a better result in June
OK?
thank you very much for help.
It seems I will need a few days to pull myself together and get back to work.
I am not sure, whether to register for June session, this case has scared me off a bit (I've never failed an exam before, my average score was around ~80%, I was pretty sure I did well, I read all the articles and examinator remarks to grasp the idea of the exam, I practised a lot, I still do not understand how it happened that almost all tasks were marked as fail).
Well... It's a pity there is no possibility to have your actual answers verified once more. I won't waste the money on the additional review, but get myself something nice instead.
Life :)
Thanks once more for your post
The entire exam is available for download on the ACCA website already, so is the examiner's report. No matter how I look at it, there is something wrong this time.
Unfortunately, searching this forum there doesn't seem to be a single case where an administrative review resulted in a change of marks. Does this mean the marking process of ACCA has a zero error rate even though marking around half a million exams worldwide every year?
I come to my own conclusions!
I first contributed to the thread in August 2012 and John Moffat in February 2013
Since those dates, both John and I have repeated countless times that you should save your money because your result will NOT change.
All that your money will buy is confirmation that the score awarded to you "has not changed"
Read the entire thread for yourself. There is not a single contribution that says "YES!
I paid for an administrative review and they increased my score"
I repeat, there is not a single example of that happening
Accept the result, move on and save your money
And sorry for being so apparently uncaring / brutal!
Just think of a fail, as I must try harder next time. Do not do an admin review I have done one and it is a pointless exercise. If your really want to be truthful getting 48% or 49%, is not a marginal fail. Its a big fail that means you missed it by 52% or 51%.
Remember at Uni 50% would get you a C, the F papers to me are on the same level as University exams. Just keep trying everyone, don't give up no matter how many times you fail.
It states there will be some feedback and there was none of the sort. I issued a complaint as they asked me to submit a further appeal, with a cost of 104 GBP.
You get no new information about how you performed. Just the words PASS and FAIL. I have shown my disappointment, and I would suggest NOT to bother.
I rather have 75% pass mark (as CIMA does) and no human decision involved as now days you can't trust in anything that involved money and human together.
Practice and... good luck!
The post would be better asked as: "is it rare for students to pass despite them not attempted all questions in the exam paper?" and the answer to that depends on the quality of the answers that actually were submitted
Your chances of success are clearly improved by attempting questions with available marks worth 100 but it's not unheard of for students to achieve that success with fewer than 100 marks' worth attempted
Is this a fair assumption ?
Which is easier - gaining 50% of the marks attempted or 62.5% of the marks attempted?
Tutors will always tell you the same story - the first 50% of ANY question are easier to score than the last 50%
And why do tutors say this? Because it's something they learned at tutor-school and they are programmed mentally to spout this - that's why they all do it! It's because they're brain-washed
Or .... wait a minute! Maybe it's said by all because it's a fundamental truth. Yes, that could be it! They say it because it's the easiest way for a student to achieve a pass grade and that's what all tutors are hoping for with their students
It's a basic, immutable fact of life as important as any and all other facts of life ... well, nearly all others
Thank you for your response and to answer your question i think it is easier gaining 50 % of marks attempted than 62.5 % of the marks attempted.
We have spoken in the past almost a month ago regarding my queries I had on the acca exam marking.
Following from that I received my results and I don't feel that my final mark is correct, thus I had went through the route of an administrative review as I had fell short of 2 marks which has consequently resulted in me not passing this sitting, but if I am not satisfied with the outcome as I understand that acca only calculate the marks per section to confirm that it has been added correctly, but what steps could I take to get my paper remarked as whole, if they still feel that my mark will not be changed?
Overall, I really felt I have done exceptionally well and I was consistent all the way through in terms of my answers.
Although, I feel the only mistake that I made which I still criticize myself on is not completing this paper, as I only had 14 % of the questions to complete but could not due to time constraints.
Whereas, I have heard of similar situations whereby some has missed out more percentage than me in an exam and still received above a pass not even a marginal pass.
Where is the justice in that ?
Save your money, accept the result, and move on quickly
I had sit for my P1 paper recently. Unfortunately as I walked out the exam hall, I remembered that I forgot to indicate questions number on the front cover and questions booklet. Is there any possibility that my paper won't be marked?
Oh no! If you're going to fail, it certainly will NOT be because you failed to indicate the question numbers
Not only that but the marker will have gone through your paper a second and maybe even a third time trying to find that one more half mark that would be enough to get you to 50%
Accept this (and apologies for it sounding brutal) if you are awarded 49% it is because you didn’t deserve 50%
Save your money and put it towards the cost of a retake and, starting today, get practicing!
Mike's reply below to someone who got 49% applies equally to you with 46% :-(
I emailed them at the time and they said exam conditions would be noted by the examiner and factored into results but I think that's more along the lines of conditions affecting everyone whereas I have proof that ACCA sent me to the wrong room in the form of my exam docket. Probably clutching at straws but when it's the difference between being finished and having to do the last exam again ill try anything!
You could write again, but to be honest I do not think it will make any difference.
Not only that but the marker will have gone through your paper a second and maybe even a third time trying to find that one more half mark that would be enough to get you to 50%
Accept this (and apologies for it sounding brutal) if you are awarded 49% it is because you didn't deserve 50%
Save your money and put it towards the cost of a retake and, starting today, get practicing!
I'm sorry to hear that you failed the F7 paper, and so close too.
However, please don't waste your money on an administrative review. Save that money and use it towards the cost of a resit
As to what you can do .... countless times I have recommended simply "Practice, practice, practice"
You say that you completed every inch of the paper but clearly your efforts were not enough to get that magical 50%
But with endless, tedious, repetitive, motivated practice, you should find that you can squeeze those extra 2 points
And when you feel that you've done enough practice, then ........ do it all again
This is probably not what you had hoped for from me, but it's the only thing that I can recommend. It has worked countless times for others - there's no reason why it shouldn't work for you
And an equal number who "knew" that they had passed yet the official result differed
And you're in amongst those who cannot understand how their prediction is so far different from the ACCA's position
A lesson I learned many years ago was that it was totally pointless to attempt to predict the outcome of your exam performance. Not only pointless but, when the results are announced, also utterly incomprehensible.
I'm sorry to hear that you didn't pass this paper in June but my best advice is for you to stop worrying about it and simply move on. Get on with it! There can be very few that have thrown in the towel and changed career path basing their actions on failure in the P level papers. Take heart from the high probability that you WILL pass.
And use this site more! I've never seen any questions from you!
iv got 48 in F9 and am thinking for an admin review.
what do you suggest??
https://www.pqaccountant.com/pmag-FFFF0050018003888C74E041.html
I failed my p1 with 44 in this seating, it was my last paper and i had attempted it thrice.. cant believe i failed this.. and i am pretty tempted to go for the review, any recommendation? for those who went for the review, please share ur result?
It is extremely difficult to achieve absolute consistency where a task is carried out by a group of individuals (the members of the marking team) and, even with controls in place, where a task comes down to the assessment by individuals absolute consistency is non-achievable.
Accept it! There have been occasions in the past where I have considered that the performance of students on courses I have taught did not reach my expectations. Maybe they collectively had a bad day? Or maybe their group of scripts were allocated to a relatively inexperienced marker or a marker that expected higher standards than the other members of the marking team
It will never be the case that all markers mark to exactly the same standard.
But administrative review is not going to correct that :-(
Ok?
Q1. Pass
Q2. Fail
Q3. Pass
Q4. Fail
Q5 Pass
I must admit £52 for review from the ACCA is stupid, however the moderators on this website state i don't know how many times that your mark WON'T change it is just 'reviewed' just see if there was a mathematical addition problem
Im of the opinion if you fail you fail for a reason most enough and not its because you didnt answer the question asked but you answered what you though it asked. ACCA will not purposely just to make more money (they make enough as it is)
I recently failed F6 with 46% and i have taken it on the chin and im going to prepare for June 2015 not grumbles to dust myself down and go again
If you want to spend £52 on a 'review' which tells you not alot more thats up to you......me......ill put the £52 towards my next exam fee.
Each to there own, but thats my two pennies worth
You cannot appeal, but you can ask for an administrative review. However, as so many of the comments below say, it is extremely unlikely that your mark will be changed - they do not remark your paper (it will already have been marked two times). All they will do is check that they recorded the marks correctly.
Seems like a total rip off.
Yes, you are given a breakdown of pass/fail per question.
is it just Q1 pass or fail or is it per requirement? Q 1 a i, ii, iii etc ?
Q2 - Pass
etc...
This is the 2nd time I have got a 48% on two different papers. I am beginning to think they do it on purpose knowing, you will definitely submit a review in order to raise more money for the costly rent of their headoffices
On second review, my mark still hasn't been changed.
Roll on December!
I got 48 in f8.do you think there is any point getting a review of it?
thanks
As the comment below says, all that will happen is that they will check that the marks have been recorded and added up correctly.
They do not remark the paper, and they do not tell you your marks for each question (although they do tell you which questions got more or less than the pass mark).
Because you got 48, your exam will already have been marked twice and reviewed by the examiner as well.
It is very unlikely indeed that a review will change your mark.
A review is merely checking that all pages are marked and that the marks have been added correctly.
The general consensus appears to be that asking and paying for a review is a waste of money
But it's your choice!
WHY IS IT SO,PEOPLE ATTEMPTS MOORE 8 TO 10 TIME THAT PAPER?
IS IT EDUCATION BECOME COMMERCIAL?
If it was a proper review they would not be scared of sending you your scanned paper along with the actual marks and markers commments. That way you can see if either your confidence in passing the paper was misplaced and you can see when to improve next time. In fact I would pay money even on some of the papers I passed!
I gather CIMA does something like that, but that does not suprise me. It appears CIMA are way ahead of ACCA in so many ways.
It took less than 2 hours and the mark stood how it was.
Biggest waste of money!
I won't pay for a review next time, I'll just use the money for resitting instead.
I wonder if someone has written to Examination Appeals Committee if the admin review is not satisfactory? It is another £52 but to be honest, I do not see how ACCA will admit if they have made mistake ? The Committee might be more independent and I assume they will be reviewing the paper?
the result is not changed, pass against 50 mark question and fail for the other 2 by 25.
So got only 11 points out of 50 available in Section B... which is really bad!
Going through Q&A I realized where my weak point was... Examiner allocated plenty of marks based on existing technical articles (TA): example is Q2a 5 points for tunnel vision (which is not in Kaplan study text)!! Actually, in Q2 examiner allocated 15 marks just for knowledge of TA's - so make sure you know them word by word - this will increase your chance for success.
Also, examiner allocated some good marks just for knowledge of various definitions which can be found in TA and Study text.
Now the answer for question : "whether you felt that it was worth spending 52 GBP?" - at least I have peace of mind that all I could produce under exam condition was marked :) Also this helped me to understand which Q I performed well and which I didn't. Now I have clear understanding of what examiner wants to see in the exam answers and I'll make sure I do that in Jun session.
Good luck everyone!
and better luck next time
(And please post questions in the right forums - this question has nothing to do with an administrative review)
Thanks
I also applied for admin review as strangely I have failed two papers @ 44% which makes me believe there will be an error as I find that getting the same marks is unusual. I agree not passing P2 as I was not prepared for cash flow so I accept my failure but I was sure that I have passed F9 as it was my second attempt and I felt confident to have passed it as it was not difficult the exam.
Let us know when you get the admin review back.
Moreover, I think this session of P5 was highly subjective (from markers point of view) because it was more a general knowledge exam with no particular emphasize on those tons of model study text is putting forward.
Very disappointed!
They will not remark your exam, but just check that they have added up the marks correctly.
The only thing that they will tell you is which questions you passed and which questions you failed (but not how many marks on each question).
Then, make JUN-2013, i just sat P7 (as my last paper) and attempted all questions within the time limit and practiced a lot of past papers before exams, i was confident that i would make this time as when i compared my answers to suggested answers by ACCA, i found that i have not made a blunder and answered the question correctly. But to my surprise i got 48 marks again, this is a bit weird since, if i were to fail, why at the same mark. Its not making any sense to me.
Please advise, should i get my admin review done again for this session or not.
Sorry :-(
I think what ACCA students need is a student union of their own to represent its members on critical issues.
I wonder if all the posts and comments made on this website and other websites ever get across to ACCA
I am not in agreement for us to pay for re-mark. They are milking cow. they constantly failed you to get more money
i also got 49% in p6 and looking for review , should it help?
However, the UK government has nothing to do with it!!! You pay the ACCA not the UK government :-)
Thank you in advance
I wanted to challenge ACCA as well but decided that is not worth the cost and here is the story:
ON 8th I got my resoults 48points and yesterday (16th)I received an e-mail form ACCA saying:
As you may know ACCA offers an Administrative Review service which allows students to apply for an administrative check of their results if they feel that their results do not reflect their perceived performance in an exam and where they feel that ACCA’s quality controls have not been applied properly in arriving at their mark.
As a result of this process an error has come to light in the calculation of your original mark for Paper F9 at the June 2012 exam session. The mark you achieved in this paper was 50% and not 48% as originally stated on the notification issued to you last week. This gives you a pass in this paper and your record will now be updated to reflect this change.
This gaves me hopes that they do double ang triple check the marginal results, but at the same time confirms they do make mistakes.
Please advise...
Please advise…
Will complete the form
Please let me know of other plans you have in mind regarding this and I will do the same
Thanka
Kav.
Dear Mr............,
Thank you for your reply.
An administrative review is not a re-marking service. I can assure you that all scripts are very carefully marked and that marginal scripts receive even greater scrutiny than the clear passes or fails. Anyone with a mark in the high forties has their script looked at very carefully by the marker who originally awarded this mark to see if there are any other marks that could be awarded and if there are, adjustments are made.
All of these marginal scripts are also reviewed by the examiner to see if there is any justification for any further marks, which the marker was unable to find, to be awarded.
All scripts are also checked by a team of checkers to ensure that no tallying errors have been made either within individual questions or parts of questions or in total.
Finally ACCA coordinators acting as examination auditors will also look at a sample of marginal scripts for each exam to ensure that the correct mark has been given in each case.
Therefore, someone who has received a mark of say 48% or even 49% can be very sure that their mark is correct and that no more marks are available.
As ACCA uses the full scale of 0-100% in its marking schemes, it is inevitable that some candidates will have a mark which falls just short of the 50%. While this is frustrating for those involved, the candidate can be at least confident that with a little more work, a clearer understanding and using a better technique will be enough to get them through the resit exam.
As it is very rare for an administration error to take place when exam marks are calculated and uploaded on to our system, it is unlikely that your mark will be altered by an administrative review.
If you need to contact us, please feel free to either call or email us using the details below.
Kind regards,
Gavin McNeil
ACCA Connect Advisor
ACCA
2 Central Quay, 89 Hydepark Street, Glasgow, G3 8BW, United Kingdom
tel: +44 (0)141 582 2000
fax:+44 (0)141 582 2222
https://www.accaglobal.com/
---- Original Message ----
Could you explain why is this so? If no clarification from ACCA, kindly close the P2 session and focus your comments on P3 ,p4, p5 ,p7.
Tell the p2 students in exam just draw pictures and will be awarded Pass
Always perform GAP Analysis, what examiner expected from you and what you wrote in the paper....Differences would help elucidating the areas of weaknesses. Come over these weaknesses in the next attempt...and set your TARGET MARKS for the paper in front of your wall while studying the paper...
NO NEED TO INVEST YOUR MONEY WHERE YOU DONT HAVE RETURN, use this amount for your exam fee for the same paper so that you can manage your finances well.
thanks in advance
What does it mean,is it that getting more than half the marks is a pass?
Yes, if 10 mark question, 5 or more is a pass