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Pass. Affiliate Now finally. Congrats to all who passed and best of luck to those who could not make it this time round.
Exam was ok. Attempted all. Hoping for the best results. If I fail it I won’t regret it as only had 5 days off work to actually prepare for it. Best of luck to all students
Hi, I would like to share my thoughts here as well and although vapiano91 post is comprehensive and complete on its own but I have a few extra tips for new students who are attempting P4 for the first time.
I would suggest not to use Kaplan text book with a BPP exam kit or a BPP study text with a Kaplan kit. Anyone will benefit from trying not to do this. However, the hedging section of the syllabus could be an exception. The reason is, the way Kaplan study text teaches the hedging part is technically simple and I would say it is easier to understand compared with BPP text. BPP writes this part in its study text in a complex way which needs time to digest and sometimes you don’t have enough time! at some points, you will not have a clue what u have been taught about part until you have not done the hedging questions contained in BPP exam kit which elaborates on that point additionally BPP hedging sections at the end of their study text builds on from their chapter 6 on real option theory while Kaplan treats these two parts of the syllabus guide distinctively.
My second suggestion is NEVER to start preparing for the P4 from the exam kit alone in the initial stages of your study. Personally, I think you can successfully adopt this approach with P5 or P3 but this approach is never going to work with P4 and you will end up struggling and confused with the underlying theory however sometimes even you can get a passing marks on a question BUT if you want to have a real fun with P4 and make it interesting for you DO NOT SKIP A TEXTBOOK this approach will save you A LOT OF time and wasted effort.
Study texts are there to help to give a structured approach towards understanding the subject matter of P4 which is very important and vital for the development of financial management skill set.
Sadly, I never realized this until after the actual exam day when this weakness was badly exposed to me.On the actual exam day just answer the questions asked by the examiner don’t try to manufacture answers for the questions not asked in the requirements. Always be honest with yourself and with the answers you try giving against the requirements if you are unable to understand a question or part of a scenario DON’T HESITATE TO STATE YOUR ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT IT try to present the best possible answer to the requirements and what you may know about the situation and don’t then cross the limits beyond what you have already stated in your assumptions. You may appear weak in your script compared to apparently other well-presented scripts but examiners are very intelligent people they will have accumulated an idea from the very first page of your script about at what point you were at your studies with P4 when you were writing those answers. Honestly, and trust me I feel they will get to know your level instantly.
I personally started studying for P4 from BPP kit and had no idea that I am taking a wrong approach I attempted every question in the BPP kit questions 10 times by the end of my preparation I took 6 weeks off from my job (unpaid) and studied 12-18 hours per day but sadly with a wrong approach and I was so reluctant to open a study text although I had bought both. The real understanding I got about the SUBJECT ‘financial management’ when I started to prepare for a re-take for June session and when things started to make sense in my mind and I became sharp and intelligent in my understanding of this subject and I started to feel like I have jumped from Level 1 right on top of all the levels and if I had not have passed this time I feel like I definitely would have passed in June sitting. I am not proud but I am trying to suggest and emphasize the importance of adopting a right and wrong approach towards studying for a technical paper like P4 is within a limited time frame.
Sir John Moffat is a great source of help I would urge to use this precious resource very wisely. Also download Bloomberg market, seeking alpha, MSN money apps on your android phones and IPads they are great source of understanding too but don’t forget my previous advice that ALWAYS STUDY TEXT FIRST complete a section and do the relevant question from the kit then move on to the next section from the study text and do the relevant question again from the kit and the same approach for rest of the syllabus.
Hope this will help many.Thanks
Sir, I have marginally passed P4 too. I want to say a massive thank you for your support and patience in answering my questions. Thank you
@lloyd777 said:
Despite being very angry coming out of that exam, I have an overriding feeling of disappointment more than anything. I revised really hard covering a vast range of topics with particular focus on ‘core areas’ – international investment appraisal, BSOP, options & futures, acquisitions etc. Only for hardly any of these topics to show up in the exam.Whilst I appreciate we can’t ‘question spot’ all the questions barring the APV question seemed to cover niche areas of the syllabus. B1 seemed to want far too much writing for a 45 minute question and B2 was an absolute mess of a question.
This was meant to be my second to last ACCA exam and I’ve managed to pass all the others first time with decent scores so its fair to say I’ve always been pretty confident going into exams and that was the case today but I just feel that paper was not a fair representation of the P4 module at all.
I hope the ACCA pick up on this and do something about it because it’s not fair on the students who work so hard for 3/6 months only to be presented with a paper like that.
TOTALLY AGREE WITH EACH AND EVERY WORD YOU WROTE CAN’T ADD ANYTHING TO TO IT MUCH
Definitely FAIL. DON’T JUST DO THE RAVION KIT. TAKE THIS ADVICE VERY SERIOUS GUYS… You can’t cope with the tricks if you have proper grip on the underlying theory. Learning jus call n put options is jus not enough. Commercial awareness is must too….I am so lucky I sat this today time to come back with proper kit in next session
Related to same question as above part b ii. The develpoment costs are being discounted at 12% which is the nominal Cost of capital and the cash inflows after the development costsare discounted at the real rate of return. Is there no any other way round for this problem can we also inflate the individual cash flows for each years and discount them at 12%. Will that process give the same result. Thanks you sir
In the same question sir for part b (ii)
For hedging the model answer is buying call options for weakening euro. Why is he not buying the put options and lock the minimum rate for weakening euro. Is it because the contract currency is dollars ?
Thank you sirNo of course not i know that its just with that one syllabus area i was telling you about we end up learning some of the things anyway
On my calculator its 74’247 which is coming theres no rounding errors aswell.
I knw it was a stupid question to ask at this level especially after having been watched all lectures and notes. I was doing my 2nd round of ravion and I was stuck again between options ad futures i find this area of syllabus extremely tricky. I have now started to rote learn the techniques the reason behind is that if I learn one thing and proceed to the next one the next thing comes up exactly opposite to the first one from a completely different world. I think the best way is to rote learn this area of syllabus and practice a lot of questions. Any suggestions pls
Hello john, ‘selling a put option’ and ‘buying a put option, what is the difference between these two terms in a very concise style. Thanks
