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Dear Mr. John,
First of all, thank you very much for giving us lectures on the Dec 2012 paper of F5 . However, I have some intriguing doubts on question 1 (CVP question). The examiner, Ann, in the case give us all this information particularly related to product S. She states “Product S also uses new revolutionary technology for which the company obtained a ten-year patent two years ago. The budgeted sales volumes for all the products have been calculated by adding 10% to last year’s sales.”
Now, I was just wondering what’s the real significance of all this data. Is it just a waste of time or irrelevant? My lecturer tells me that in F5 every single line contributes to the construction of the answer but I don’t see any sort of application of these phrases in your video and Ann’s marking scheme. To cut the story short, here’s what I did. In question (d) we were told to elaborate our finding in (c). This is what I stated, according to what Ann gave us in the case, I said “Product C and S should be produced first in order to maximise contribution and profit. However, product S’s selling price should be increased as there is a patent associated with product C and it’s possible to increase the price to maximise contribution and profit earned from it.” Now, I have applied Ann’s case here but I don’t know if this answer can score a 3/3. What do you think? Can this be a possible answer? And why didn’t she make use of her case in the suggested answers?
Also, in F2 it was MCQ and time wasn’t a problem but in F5 I struggle to finish on time. 36 minutes per question is too impossible for me! What should I do to answer the question as accurately as possible within 36 minutes?
Thanks very much!!!!!!
It is unusual for the examiner to give information in the question, but then not to use that information in the answer.
(I can only guess that when the question was originally written, that there were more written parts, but that they were cut out because it was decided that the question was already long enough for the time.)What you have suggested is very sensible and would have got you credit, provided that you made the point (as the examiner did) that one of the two break-evens assumed that products were sold in the same ratio, the other assuming that products were sold in order of their CS ratios – neither assumption being particularly realistic. Your comments give reason as to why they are not realistic.
All of the exams from F4 onwards are very time-pressured (not just F5), and it is impossible for most people to complete the whole paper in the time. However, it is not the accuracy that gets the marks, it is proving that you know the approach (and can make sensible comments). The important thing is to recognise that you will almost certainly not finish the paper, and therefore to do something for every part of every question. It is better for the marks to hand in 5 questions part finished, than to hand in (say) three questions fully finished, but only three questions. Your target is to get more than 50%. In all questions, the first 50% of the marks come reasonably quickly – it is the remaining 50% that takes up the time. That time is better spend getting the ‘easy’ marks on the other questions.
<cite> @johnmoffat said:</cite>
It is unusual for the examiner to give information in the question, but then not to use that information in the answer.
(I can only guess that when the question was originally written, that there were more written parts, but that they were cut out because it was decided that the question was already long enough for the time.)What you have suggested is very sensible and would have got you credit, provided that you made the point (as the examiner did) that one of the two break-evens assumed that products were sold in the same ratio, the other assuming that products were sold in order of their CS ratios – neither assumption being particularly realistic. Your comments give reason as to why they are not realistic.
All of the exams from F4 onwards are very time-pressured (not just F5), and it is impossible for most people to complete the whole paper in the time. However, it is not the accuracy that gets the marks, it is proving that you know the approach (and can make sensible comments). The important thing is to recognise that you will almost certainly not finish the paper, and therefore to do something for every part of every question. It is better for the marks to hand in 5 questions part finished, than to hand in (say) three questions fully finished, but only three questions. Your target is to get more than 50%. In all questions, the first 50% of the marks come reasonably quickly – it is the remaining 50% that takes up the time. That time is better spend getting the ‘easy’ marks on the other questions.
Thank you very much. But I just wanted to ask, since you suggested that we get the first 10 easy marks in each of the five questions, then on one page can we do randomly the easy question in any order. For example, on one page first start with 1(b) then go on to 2(c) and then 3(a) and then 4(b) and so on just one the same page or we fully have to deal with one question before going to the next main question, like finish whole of question 2 and then go to 3, etc…
Also, most examiners suggest that to get a high pass rate we should link the topics to performance management issues and shows how it applies and helps in the performance management aspect. How can we do this? And what to they actually mean by this?
Finally, what’s your recommend approach for the F5 15 minutes reading time that we are given. How should we must effectively use those reading minutes given?
Thanks 😉
No – you should not do parts to different question on the same page.
You can do the parts for one question in any order (so for example you can do part (c) first and then part (a) and so on). But you should start each new question on a new page.
What you should do is do what you can in the time for each part, but leave plenty of blank space so that if you have time later then you can go back and do more for parts that you did not manage to finish.I do not know what you mean by ‘most examiners suggest…..’. There have only been two examiners for Paper F5, and anyway everything we do in Paper F5 is related to performance management!
In the 15 minutes reading time you should first spend time looking at the requirements of each question (ignoring the text above the requirements) and decide what topics are being tested in each, and therefore which order you intend to attempt the questions.
At the same time you should underline or highlight key requirements (very often there are more than one thing asked for in the same requirement – for example, ‘calculate’ and ‘comment’. Underline them. The reason is that in the pressure of the exam itself it is very common for people to do one of the requirements and then forget about the second. If you have underlined them you are less likely to forget!If you still have time left out of the 15 minutes you should start making notes on the question paper (you are allowed to write on the question paper). I would not start doing arithmetic (because you then have to copy it out again when you start the exam proper) but just make one word notes of points you would make for the written parts. When the exam starts you can then turn them into proper points.
<cite> @johnmoffat said:</cite>
No – you should not do parts to different question on the same page.You can do the parts for one question in any order (so for example you can do part (c) first and then part (a) and so on). But you should start each new question on a new page.
What you should do is do what you can in the time for each part, but leave plenty of blank space so that if you have time later then you can go back and do more for parts that you did not manage to finish.I do not know what you mean by ‘most examiners suggest…..’. There have only been two examiners for Paper F5, and anyway everything we do in Paper F5 is related to performance management!
In the 15 minutes reading time you should first spend time looking at the requirements of each question (ignoring the text above the requirements) and decide what topics are being tested in each, and therefore which order you intend to attempt the questions.
At the same time you should underline or highlight key requirements (very often there are more than one thing asked for in the same requirement – for example, ‘calculate’ and ‘comment’. Underline them. The reason is that in the pressure of the exam itself it is very common for people to do one of the requirements and then forget about the second. If you have underlined them you are less likely to forget!If you still have time left out of the 15 minutes you should start making notes on the question paper (you are allowed to write on the question paper). I would not start doing arithmetic (because you then have to copy it out again when you start the exam proper) but just make one word notes of points you would make for the written parts. When the exam starts you can then turn them into proper points.
Thanks a lot, What I meant by examiners (sorry for the wording) was I meant lecturers and tutors. Like, in the LSBF big book of ACCA tips, which can be found on their website for free, the F5 lecturer advises students “Remember that this is a performance management paper. When revising different topics, think about how those areas can be linked to the performance of a company. Also, it is essential to practise questions under exam conditions.” So that was what I was asking – that how can we link the topics to performance? How do we develop the skills? Because that one skill is crucially important to scoring a high mark. I got the same message when I heard the examiner’s approach interview from the ACCA global site. So what does it entail?
Thanks a lot!!!
God bless!It is not a question of specifically linking topics to performance.
What the examiner is after is that you prove that you know why you are doing things and that you have not simply learned rules. This applies particularly to the written parts.
For example, when the exam has asked for the advantages of activity based costing, too many people simply write that it gives more accurate costings. This means nothing – the total overheads do not change simply because of the way we allocate them between products, and allocating them differently will not itself affect the total profit.
The reason we want more accurate costings is to be able to make better decisions about what selling price to charge, and of course changing the selling price will affect profit. If the cost is higher then we need to charge a higher price. If the cost is lower, then although we will not automatically reduce selling price, it does mean that we can afford to charge a lower price and this might be worth doing if a lower price were to result in more sales.It is that sort of thing that the examiner is after – not artificially linking topics to performance. If you read the examiners answers you will see what I mean.
PS I am closing this topic. It is not to stop you asking more questions – please do – but because it is now going off the original topic. We want to keep questions relevant to the original topic so that as many as possible can get the benefit of the answers.
- The topic ‘CVP questions in Dec 2012 exam’ is closed to new replies.