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Maybe the examiner needs to upload some YouTube lectures. ACCA should encourage this.
I love performance management, but this examiner makes it really unpleasant. He is not clear at all. I might aswell sit the paper in Swahili.
Now I now every single model and properly apply to every scenario, I’ve completed revised a multitude of questions . No problems at all. But, yet, this exam, why can’t he just be a bit more straight forward? Or if he wants so much level of detail, then extend the time or make this exam a research!
I know it’s an exam, but it’s too much. Perhaps the books needs to be re-written. I don’t know, but I probably see this again September or December. I have no idea what to revise any more though.
With all respect, but you should open a separate thread for your query about mock exam.
I have reviewed the lecture and also reviewed all notes. My question is simply asking whether the Economic Depreciation should be added back to the Capital Employed. The part to be added back to PAT I understand.
Thanks.
This will definitely appear. I read the article, but I am still not sure about for example, adding economic depreciation to Capital Employed. Would someone be able to kindly confirm this please ?
Thank you.
So upset to get 42% and my 3rd attempt, final paper! I’m getting old and just want to qualify. Not sure whether to give up on ACCA completely now! So bored of keep sitting the same exam! It’s embarrassing as well. Keep telling my colleagues and family, oh yes I failed again!!
Congratulations to all those who passed. Very jealous of you.
Yep, I don’t think a ceo will ask you, here is my total mess of a business, shareholders are concerned with our decisions , figure out what the hell is going on in 45 minutes (1 question). I will be a millionaire!
PS Inknow in real life situation, the situations are complex and hence the examiner is trying to examine a close to real scenario, but also, with the same argument, In a real scenario I have google and books!!!
This examiner needs to adopt the Fitzgerald and moon model when writing exams, clarity, achievable etc. he really like playing with words.
Anyways, I got too excited with question 1, I was so excited that I spent till noon writing. It was a good question, but left the last question out JIT. not sure about EVA calc, I just taken operating profit, added back finance charges(net) , added back development costs, then capital, taken 2013 PPE figure, added development costs and applied the 11%WACC, I said I assumed that the debt was after tax. I talked about performance prism and also about benchmarking, said ratio were good but needed some other stuff, example there was no proper ratios for staff etc. other ratios suggested number of key customers and EBITFA
Then I done Q2, this was about local council and NFPIs. I talked about the importance because of economic edfixienxy and effectiveness. I always completed some ratios for vfm, inducing number of complaints, staff costs, amount of waste etc compared to national. This was bit rushed.
Then I done q4, and that confused me a bit, I basically said that the Z score and Q score (which Inhave no idea why would he add another model!) is not the best meaure as it relates to past performance , it’s based on financial statements subject to manipulation. The company takes 2 years to see ore after mining and by the time you complete a z score . The company would have already gone bust. The. I said that the company should ensure that all lifecycle costs are captured , there is a proper board with technical expertise, contingent costs are included to prevent failure.
Also, I had no idea how to measure quality in Q2, my bad, my brain was thinking NFPI, so I talked about balanced score card, TQM and league tables !! ??
Oh well, I don’t wanna be pessimistic, but I’m gonna see this paper the 4th time. hopefully this examiner will win the lottery and bugger off. ! 🙂
Just to prove it’s all about the wording! In real life you just clarify this! .. Pointless tricks!
Dammit!! Because I thought that d/e has already taken into account the d/d+e or other way round.
I’m going to fail with flying colours! 🙂
I’ve messed this up aswell? I calculated WACC as:
(15.7% x 30%) + (6.5% x 30%) = 7% WACC ?
Is pre tax not already with tax removed? You shouldn’t jhave put 1-30. I got 7% WACC !
Please someone say you got the same! 🙂
And we were thought, evaluate = numbers etc. So as soon as you see the “evaluation” with exam stress you just start analysing ratios etc. He could have at least put it in an “email format” for example like in Audit, or as part of the question he says (note that evaluation of numbers is not required).. something along these lines.
I think again, and I know I’m repeating. The examiner was very unfair and ACCA should be aware of this. We cannot wait till December to re-sit and then February to receive results etc… There is also a concern that I am worried in sitting this paper again… It was harder then P2 (Corporate reporting)….
Thanks for rubbing it in kingsandqueen 🙂 but very encouraging.
I felt that the paper was quite badly written and so did many others in this forum. Hopefully the examiners will mark the papers when they are pissed!.Yes it did. It said however they want you to look at staff costs and fixed/variable costs.
What the hell was that paper! .. The examiner should be sacked! Very badly written, requirements were absolutely not clear at all. Too much stress, trying to learn models when nothing really came up! …
I did not know what to write on VBM – I used Fitzergerald and Moon! have no idea why building blocks came to mind!
The first question asked about the fixed and variable, consideration for appendix 1 and then it asks for it again in the second question on staff (Direct and Indirect) and Fixed Variable. How many things can I write on fixed and variable. Staff was not clearly defined whether they were Direct or Indirect etc.
EVA – There were some technical bits, had to be worked out! I messed up putting depreciation in Capital swell. I also have no idea what the 2 levels of tax were.. at least the examiner could have said something on tax!
Suggest a way of performance, I used flaming performance prism because mission statement wanted to focus on employee satisfaction (stakeholders). At that point my hands where already numb and it was noon!!
I swift along question 3 – It asked about minimin, maximin and minimax. Again bad written requirements, but managed to put calculations. i don’t understand the second company. I thought the first one was a risk seeker and the second one was risk adverse, so first one used MV8 or whatever it is and second one used MV 3.
Question 3 asked about joint venture and challenges of performance management. In my book, joint venture only has half a page!.. Again, I was just throwing what come out of my mind… Culture differences, Different systems, Different Reporting Standards etc.
Then I started writing question 4 and thought, hell no chance. So I went to question 2 and talked loads of poo. It was about Business process engineering. I really have no idea what I’ve put on this. I just multiplied the salary by 10 staff and halved it. So it was £25,000 x 10 staff. Half of them where wasting time. So halved it £125,000 is cost that can be saved and replaced by purchasing department with a salary of £35,000 (Again, did not say how many people worked in purchasing department). So I deducted £125k less £35k and said here is the saving. Also mentioned that paper will be saved…
Last question was about appraisal, and just talked about linkage with company objectives and opportunity for staff to say what went bad, how to improve and set objectives.
Mind I remember all the above because i had 5 ginseng, 2 guaranas and 7 cups of coffee this morning so I am still very hyper… yet couldn’t understand what the examiner was on about!! ..