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Hi Sweetcherry,
I’m in the same position as you. Passed every exam first time until I got to P4 and failed with 42.
It depends on where you went wrong. If you think it was knowledge, then you need to re-read your notes. I’ve always made mind maps of all my exams and read them on the morning of the exam which has got me through in the past. I’ve also worked through a lot of exam questions.
I think I failed in P4 because I simply wasn’t quick enough with the calculations. I knew what I was doing, but was just too slow and couldn’t get it all down on paper. My plan for the next 7 weeks is to practice each of the different calculations over and over again until it becomes automatic.
Hope that helps.
I got a measly 42% on my first attempt. This is the only exam stopping me from being an affiliate and I have passed everything else (even P5) first time.
I think I knew I was in trouble when I did my first calculation to time a week before the exam and just couldn’t do it within the timescale, even though I knew what I was doing. So I know I missed marks by only getting so far on the calculation in Q1 before moving on so I could answer every other question.
If anybody has any tips on how to increase my speed, let me know. Well done on all the people that passed. You should be very proud of yourself, P4 is tough!!
I got a measly 42% on my first attempt. This is the only exam stopping me from being an affiliate and I have passed everything else (even P5) first time.
I think I knew I was in trouble when I did my first calculation to time a week before the exam and just couldn’t do it within the timescale, even though I knew what I was doing. So I know I missed marks by only getting so far on the calculation in Q1 before moving on so I could answer every other question.
If anybody has any tips on how to increase my speed, let me know. Well done on all the people at passed. You should be very proud of yourself, P4 is tough!!
Anyone else got the ACCA app on their smartphone? I’m just checking the countdown page and it is showing time remaining as 3 and a half days to the exam results. That takes us to Monday night at midnight (UK time), as opposed to Sunday night at midnight.
I hoping the app is wrong otherwise we have an extra 24 hours to wait!
My first time sitting P5 and despite feeling that some past exam papers were terrible, I didn’t think this was too bad. I can’t say for sure that I think I’ve passed it (you never can with this type of exam), but I know that I’ve given it a good shot.
I agree with what’s everyone saying on here and it is a very tough exam. I’ll share a few tips that I did to unravel the maze of this and apply a logical approach. As you’ve all said, it’s not about knowing the subject matter, but more about how you cope with all in the information in the exam.
I felt very panicky in the few days leading up to the exam and very overwhelmed by the low pass rate and resits of P5. On the morning of the exam, this hadn’t changed, but then I realised that panic was my enemy and if I had any chance at all, I just had to stop giving in to panic and just ignore it. Remarkably, this seemed to work and calm me down. Taking deep breaths seemed to help too.
Next came the reading time. I spent this reading the requirements, highlighting the relevant words (eg in Q1 a), I highlighted Appendix 1) and deciding which options to do and in what order. I then planned out my time giving 1.6 marks for Q1 (as more to read) and 1.7 marks for the options (less to read). I then wrote down timings next to each question, so for example, I knew that by something like 11.57 I should be starting Q2 b). This might sound time consuming, but it seems to control my time management during the exam. I was 10 mins behind on Q1, but caught up on the options papers, writing my last sentence when the time was up.
Next I read through Q1 highlighting everything important. (I’d got about a third of the way down the Q1 scenario by the end of the reading time.) I write the letter M in the margin next to anything that’s a mission or objective, and I write the requirement letter next to any text in the scenario that gives more detail of the requirement. This really helps when you get to the next requirement as you can quickly cross reference the additional detail in the scenario. When I do the first requirement, I ignore anything not relevant, so eg, for the first requirement, I haven’t bothered to read any of the other Appendix which aren’t relevant at this stage. It helps me focus and helps me concentrate.
This technique should help no matter which P5 exam you do. I know it certainly helped me through.
I hope this is of no help to anyone as you all will get a pass 🙂 However, if you are faced with a resit, this technique may help get those precious few extra marks.
This is very strange. I could maybe understand it if it was just happening for one exam, but it seems very widespread. I took my exam in Newcastle so there seems no logic to it. I would really like to know how this has come about.
That would make sense if this only related to P2, but I know of at least 3 other people who have had similar emails amending their mark who were all taking different exams, so something odd has happened. Marks seem to have been increased rather than decreased though.
I don’t want to get anyone’s hopes up unnecessarily, but I’ve just had the strangest email from the ACCA which reads…
Following the release of results for the December 2014 exam session we have identified an error in the calculation of your original mark for Paper P2 – INT.
The mark you achieved in this paper was 52% and not 50% as originally stated on the notification issued to you on 8 February. The revised mark still represents a pass but we believe it is important that you now receive the correct mark for the paper.
A revised result notification will be issued to you shortly and your exam options for the June 2015 and December 2015 exam sessions remain unchanged.
I would like to assure you that we have a large number of safeguards and checks built into the marking procedure and the processing of exam results to ensure that the final results issued to candidates are correct. Nevertheless we are extremely concerned that this situation should have occurred and will be taking any measures we can to ensure that this cannot happen again in the future.
Please accept my apologies once again for any inconvenience caused by this error.
If you have any additional queries regarding this matter then please contact the Examinations Department on: examsoperationsservices@accaglobal.com
Yours sincerely
Julie Hotchkiss
Director, Customer ServicesNot quite sure what’s going on here and whether I’m the only one to receive such an email. I’m pleased to get the extra 2 marks, but it’s worrying that they got the grade wrong in the first place. So their marking system isn’t as robust as we might think after all.
I’ve just come across this too. It’s in the compulsory question in the Kaplan Jun 14 mock and it states ‘Evaluate the benefits and problems in using a benefits dependency network’, and it’s a 12 mark question.
I’m also using LBSF notes and worried that there’s a gap in the notes..
It’s happened to me the last 2 times I sat the ACCA. It’s quite annoying as it does break your train of thought. The first time, I gave feedback to the ACCA regarding the exam centre but obviously, as it happened, nothing seems to have improved. I just leave it out now on the edge of my desk and try to block it out.