June 2021 ACCA AFM exam was – Instant Poll and comments

Exam was Between Easy and Hard ( For me Average)
Q1) APV Tested on International Investment Appraisal and Related Scenario Discussion
Q2) Business Valuation (1 Parent – two targets) FCFE Valuation Methods, Question was fairly easy
Q3) Straight Forward Currency Risk Question with Hedging Choices, Currency Forward, Currency Future, Currency Options and related Discussion like benefits of OTC Currency Options and Exchanged Trade Options.

But immense time pressured exam, Sometimes What you know becomes 50% in Exam Conditions and only Good Practice will bring the remaining 50% back and one can score above 70 marks.

I did very little practice but could still attempt 78% of the paper with Quality, Minimum 50-60 expected. But Fingers Crossed!!

I’ve struggled a lot to calculate the WACC in question 1, part a-i. the name of company was Sundo as far as I remember. wacc calculation was 9 points. and the other parts of the question was based on that wacc. so I’ve just assumed it to be 12% and continue to other parts.

as general, exam was not very difficult. but time wasn’t enough.

my exam started 1 hour late and during the exam word processor got blank several times for 5-10 seconds. has anyone had the same problem with the word processor?

To add to the above:

Q1) Included calculation of of WACC, kd had to to be determined by Bond YTM. BSOP was also in there for 5 marks in regards to the second project.

Q2) Straight forward question now that I think of it extremely similar to Tai Co Dec 2018. Change in value of SH from cash. share for share and mixed offer.

Q3) Currency question, calculate net receipt then forwards, futures and options.

Other theory questions were ok too: Explain what a reverse takeover is and advise on risk and explain treasury function in relation to economic risk.

In my view all the questions were average and you would have come across similar formats in the exam kits especially Q2 and Q3 but the time pressure is heavy and something difficult to get used to if you add exam nerves to that it can become overwhelming. I froze on Q2 and only managed to calculate the the combined value, share price and cash offers. Only after did I realise what I missed.

Hoping for marginal pass!

I was meant to take the AFM exam at 2:30pm IST today. Despite trying to launch the exam at 2:00pm, I have had no luck. I was being put in que (over 350+ position) for my exam to launch. And once it was my turn, I would get a message saying there was a connection issue and would put me back again in the queue.

After trying for nearly 2 hours, I finally had a pop-up message from the invigilator saying there was an issue with the webcam and that I must re-launch the OnVue app. I spoke to the tech support team as well (4 times on and that too on an international call). The team said, “there is a “technically issue” in India as they have lots of students trying to login and there is also congestion due to heavy rains. I should keep trying until the exam ends. And if the problem persists, I have no option but to withdraw from the exam and re-schedule for the next session, which would be 3 months later”. Accordingly I kept trying to launch the exam for the entire 3:20 window but unfortunately had no luck. I did connect with numerous other students from India who had the same issue.

My point being, ACCA has been hosting remote sessions for nearly a year now. It is so not right to say that there are technical issues due to heavy traffic. I mean, considering ACCA is such an esteemed and professional body, I would have expected them to have a certain level of planning and contingency plans. You already knew the number of students planning to take the exams, you accordingly should have upgraded your systems and the network!

Simply stating that the student must reschedule an exam for the next session which will be conducted 3 months later is just not right. As such exams are quite challenging, having to go through sleepless nights and preparing all over is nothing less than mentally exhausting and much severe pain. I simply am not ready to go through the cycle all over and reschedule to the next session. And even if I agree to re-schedule, what guarantee do I have that such “technical issues” will not be repeated. I mean, at the very least you can allow candidates to re-book the exam within a day’s time or a week. Preparing all over is no joke and I certainly am not up for it.

It is such a shame that I am unable to re-book the exam now. I also fear that if I have to re-book the exam 3 months later, the issue may persist and again I may end up with the same issue. Also it goes without saying that it greatly impacts my career planning. I just wish you could have allowed students to re-book an exam within a day or week in case of such issues, instead of putting in pain to prepare all over. This is such a setback and a major disappointment. I always took pride in being an ACCA student but unfortunately this incident has truly exhausted and mentally traumatized me.

My questions were:
Q1.
NPV foreign subsidiary 20 marks
APV 6 marks
Assumptions 7 marks
Discussions regarding corporate citizen, environmental reporting 8 marks
Advantages/ disadvantages of joint venture compare to subsidiary set up

Q2 Hedging: forwards, options, futures 15 marks
something about OTC options or futures

Q3 Discussion of suitability of 2 targets 6 marks
Target aqc split into 3 questions10 marks
Defensive strategies discussion 5 marks

It was really worse . Shame on Acca Portal . My story is also same . MY screen got freeze after 10 mins of exam start .

When i opened the paper, i was happy but the time issue got me worried i left a 25 mark question and did not write the report due to time constraints. Now am already looking for money for a resit.

I had q1 APV and foreign investment appraisal, q2 business valuation/acquisition and q3 foreign currency hedging.
I also found that I did not have enough time. There was so much to do in q1 that it left me short on time for q2 and q3. I just didn’t have enough time to think about all the info in q2 so attempted the theory parts, but missed the actual valuation part. I moved onto the hedging question that I just about finished, but then had no time to go back to the valuation question.

I feel disappointed that I couldn’t attempt all parts. I find that there is so much info to digest in the scenarios that there’s not enough time to get everything done.

Does anyone remember the spot rates provided for Q3 hedging question? Was it 1 MR -0.8xxx Dollars or 1dollar for 0.8xx MR? Seems I made mistake in ex rate application, but do not remember exactly the question((

sarahcopeland wrote:I had q1 APV and foreign investment appraisal, q2 business valuation/acquisition and q3 foreign currency hedging.
I also found that I did not have enough time. There was so much to do in q1 that it left me short on time for q2 and q3. I just didn’t have enough time to think about all the info in q2 so attempted the theory parts, but missed the actual valuation part. I moved onto the hedging question that I just about finished, but then had no time to go back to the valuation question.

i had the same exam as yours, did you get loss in year 1 and year 4 for foreign investment?

sorry to hear you couldnt finish the entire exam, i know this was an easy exam and u would be feeling missed out not to capitalise on it. However i found question 1 very easy flowing, mirroring the style of presentation of past paper, hence even all that exhausative information relating to each cash flow was there but it was so typical that it automatcally guides you into answering and i didnt feel like i was reading a lot but merely going through it, To be fair i did ton of NPV practice and was done with entire calculation in 30 mins. that too much practice also costed me as i screwed up easy 6 marks on APV, i had done an apv question with a one year tax delay that had a loss in first year, so when i saw loss in year 1 of our exam, it pushed me into solving apv with a one year tax delay, not realising that there that tax is paid in the same year

All I can say is, I could have passed this paper if it wasn’t for the time pressure. My exam shut down just when I was rushing to write the theory parts after skipping the numerical on the last question as I had only 15 minutes left and I knew I wouldn’t be able to do numbers with that time stress.
Does anyone remember the spot rate in the NPV question? I remember inflation in USA was 3% and Arsania was 8%. I feel like I would have messed it up but I remember my calculated rates for following years.

Hey thanks a lot. I believe that’s correct.
So we did 77.5 x (1.08/1.03) for year 1 rate