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@denp said:
Here are the questions posted, but it says coming soon for answers…Maybe we could ask John to do Q1 before ACCA publishes official answers?-)
Oh that’s interesting, thanks for sharing this, I wonder when they started doing this? (publishing the exam so soon afterwards) and how that fits in with their “sample” exam questions stance.. Unless they’ve reverted to publishing all past papers, I didn’t realise.
I agree, it could have been worse but at least it’d feel like we had a chance.
If they do publish any of the questions from September’s exam it’ll probably be in January because they don’t publish all exam questions anymore. So after we get our results.
Good luck
@accastudent1986 said:
When you say the project started in 1 year’s time is that the part where the question said to calculate NPV excluding the T0 investment? Hope that’s what it asked! I remember NPV being around 18,000m JPY excluding the initial investment 🙁I actually can’t remember exactly what the question said, I don’t think it was very clear at all, but I took it to mean the initial investment would be made in 1 year from now. Actually that makes sense now because they said they were waiting for the Euro receipt and then would invest 6 months later. Although saying that I don’t think I discounted the initial investment amount.
The ACCA might argue this was only 9 marks and students should not waste too much time on it. That’s true in some cases, however it then impacts the other elements of the question, we need to finish the NPV and come up with some kind of sensible answer so that we can comment and discuss it in the report. How can we be strict with time and move on with an unfinished NPV if we’re then expected to discuss it in the report.. discuss what if we haven’t managed to get the NPV??
@accastudent1986 said:
I agree with Darren’s comments + having to use JPY currency when values are in the billions and you have to use a calculator which does not display thousand separators just makes the question unnecessarily confusing when surely ACCA’s aim should be to test the student’s knowledge and skills?It does seem like it was a waste of time studying the BSOP, WACC, RAWACC, CAPM, M&M, DVM, DPP, MIRR, Macaulay duration, islamic finance, VAR, Unbundling, dividend decision, corporate failure & reconstruction, trade barriers, Tobins, levs, Greeks…etc
I agree, we don’t expect to be tested on everything we’ve revised, but there should be some of the above in the exam. Q1 was difficult and an unusual layout and complexities, FX hedging and international NPV which had odd parts in itself like not starting for a year, and adjustments to operating profit etc. When I skimmed through the requirements at the beginning of the exam I was fairly confident but by the time I got to Q3 I was horrified to see there was a whole page of text and only one small paragraph that actually contained any financial information, I was expecting Betas, ungearing, regearing, CAPM, WACC etc. Q2 was easy enough but that’s not the point, we’ve all been revising the core syllabus for all these weeks if not months, so why not text us on that? I could have honestly almost sat this exam without studying P4. I think the only real P4 content was the hedging.
My feedback to ACCA:
I’m sure the ACCA have heard the same thing already from many other students. The syllabus was not tested fairly for P4 in this session. I don’t mind there being difficult elements to a question, and the odd minor curve ball that will throw students but there should be some balance to allow students to prove their knowledge in other areas, this was not the case in this session. Q1 was difficult and had some odd twists which is fine but Q2 and Q3 didn’t test the syllabus at all. The value of the combined company in Q3 required quite a lot of on the spot thinking about the scenario and didn’t test any of the conventional cost of equity metthods. Q2 was the easiest but most students, like myself, would have left it until last and ran out of time. My comments are supported by the fact we didn’t need to use the formula sheet hardly at all! Whilst the examiner kept his word on the fact there would be a focus on syllabus sections B and E, they were tested in an unfair way, for instance getting 640 contracts would have confused many students and made them doubt themselves and waste time because anyone that has revised the past papers will only have ever came up with between 10 and 50 contracts, having to calculate forward exchange rates indirectly using another currency as a proxy in the same question was also a complication that was a step too far. When the examining team proof read their exams they should also check to make sure the paper is fairly balanced and the syllabus is fairly spread. Q2 and Q3 were not sufficient to allow students to prove their knowledge of the syllabus in my opinion.
Thanks Punkin. The information was all over the place, too many if buts and maybes in there for me. Oh well. Good luck all!
I think we all came to the same conclusion for the council’s profit before outsoucing but were we told that Green Dream would continue to sell to the horticulture trade or did we have to asume that? I didn’t. Were we told anything about Green Dreams costs? I only skimmed through the question very briefly, too much of it.
Also what did you guys think about the 60% probability of new government who would provide funding, but again not told what this funding might be.
What a disaster. If you’re going to go so far away from the conventional approach, why do it in Q1A and why give it 20 marks? I didn’t even bother doing Q1A, Ironically after I handed in my question paper I read the question again and it was probably the easiest 20 marks ever besides for the time pressure. But I bet it threw a lot of people.
Stakeholder theory was simple enough but only 4 marks for the time it needed was harsh. Q2/3/4 were ok ish but not really P3 questions besides Q2 and that was a bit of a project management hybrid as he talked about project sponsor etc so I was paranoid I was on the wrong track with that aswell. Oh well, good luck all but I’ll be back in December 🙁