[jcbacca]

@ahmadraza2 said:
Yeah.. Thanks! And Congratulations 2 u 2. U scored very well.

Thank you, after doing AFM im sure you ll fly through Audit. And after that you re free! I am still planning my next step in life. Had to deal with buying a house and working full time during my AFM studies. Im happy i have the time to relax now.

[jcbacca]

@ahmadraza2 said:
I passed also @ 51%.. Didn’t expect at all. Remember me?

Of course i remember you! Im extremely happy for you congratulations! Now you can relax ans focus on your degree

[jcbacca]

66 %.. not as high as i hoped, but glad that i am finished. Good luck all

[jcbacca]

Hi, dont have time to truly try to understand your question. But judging from the answer using CAPM you may have put in the numbers incorrectly in the calculator. 81% should not be returned from that. Answer should be below 8% = 0.08

Even if it was correct, this is an extremely high cost and in practice i dont think it will be sustainable.

[jcbacca]

DEC 21?

I guess that should be a sufficient amount of time after Nov 19.

If you not gonna sit an ACCA exam until Nov 19. You should just focus on your Degree now if . Atleast that will give you abit of a break from ACCA. I understand its very difficult for as english is not your first language. Perhaps practice how to apply scenarios abit everyday until you feel ready. Maybe learn some small theory everyday too?

Good luck mate.

[jcbacca]

AHMAD,

Seems you’ve had a very tough few years and will have a few more to go.

But don’t focus on whether other people beleive in you. Its most important that you beleive im yourself.

I thought you ran out of time to qualify. I am not sure whether you have until 2021 or 2022. But you should call up ACCA and ask.

Come april, if you are unfortunate again, and you only have until 2021, i would really give it some thought on whether you should be delaying ACCA exams.

Also, with AFM, people fail because they get too stuck into the numbers. Time management is key, and ive found the application and theory in this paper one of the most easiest (unless they ask you to explain a term).

I hope you’re dont fall into the trap of focusing on numbers.

Good luck my friend and dont give up

[jcbacca]

@ahmadraza2 said:
But that 6 marks were very important infact whole Q.1 which I completed because Q.3 was a

My prediction: Q.1 a- 5/8
bi- 6/7
bii- 8/15
biii- 2/5
biv- 3/6
professional marks 2/4
c- 1/5

Total: 27/50

Q.2 a-13/16
b- 2/4
c- N/A (Not Attempted)

Total: 15/25

Q.3 a- N/A
b- 1/10
c- N/A
d- 0.5/5

Total: 1.5/25

Total: 43.5/100 FAIL!!! ACCA Journey over for now.

Ahmad, i very critical response And why is this your last sittin have you run out of time?

What did you write in q3?

[jcbacca]

@auseklis said:
Thanks, whishing for the best as I spent a lot of evenings studying and revising. I have one more exam to go. I think I will chose APM, as the syllabus is not so huge. I won’t choose ATX because it has quite large syllabus, pass rates are low, plus I didn’t like first Taxation exam and also I don’t want to study UK taxation as I don’t live in UK. How did it go with ATX for you? Why didn’t you choose APM? I completely agree with you about AFM syllabus. It’s not very large but exam can take many twists, and change in some details completely changes the question. Hope you will all do fine and never lose faith! It’s just matter of practice and not giving up.

AUSE,

I totally understand what you are saying.. the ATX syllabus is a monster! I wouldnt do it again, if i had to fail a paper. It wouldnt be that one. Worked my ass off to pass it, was lucky in and ended up getting 79%.

As for APM or AAA, i think those two are extremely easy for english speakers. I am someone who prefers numbers and found tax interesting.

You sound logical so should fly throigh APM. I think Jens will pass too. Alot of logical responses from you guys.

Ahmad, q1 numbers were only 15 to 17 marks (right?). So even if you lost 6 marks, it isnt the end of the world. It Depends on the strength of your theory answers. I split out the 20 percent

And you sound confident with your interest rate answers. If you get 20 from interest rates.. 2 from professional.. you only require 28 marks from remaining Q1 and Q3. We can do this guys!

[jcbacca]

@ahmadraza2 said:
Can u tell how many calculations were required for MVd. I think 6 marks as we have to calculate spot yield curve too? And if anyone has taken 18$ as share price instead of 15$ will it be wrong?

For Vd

3 IRRs
PV of 6% bond using spot plus credit spread

Multiply 3m by $100 nominal value, multiplied by PV of 6% bond ÷100.

$15 has to be correct, because the question was asking for cost of capital of project which included the new debt. This new debt was estimated to cause the value of the shares to drop to 15 from 18.

Did you argue that the estimated drop may be inaccurate because the value of the new project will increase shareholder wealth and offset, Ke?

[jcbacca]

@jez22 said:
Had to do Q3 in a rush, the target value could be calculated in two ways; on share price value that was around 540 m if I remember correctly and based on dividend growth rate. The question stated that 90% of the distributable profit has been paid out as dividends. 10% retention x 14.5% return on capital( CAPM as the beta was given) gave me a growth rate of 1.45%. using the growth formula with the 63m dividend (90% of the 70m profit) resulted in 489.8 MV which was the minimum they would have accepted as aquisition price.

Can anyone confirm?

Jens, you picked up a really good point on valuing the aqcuiree. I dont recall the question explicitly mentioning the methodology, but how much the buyer thinks company L is willing to accept (14% percent premium – something like that))

But i just wanted to highlight that it really does depend on whether the company was listed or not. If a company is listed, unless the question specifies otherwise, the market value will always be the market capitilzation. This is because as a listed company, your share price is what the market is willing to pay for it.

In short, if its listed, you are right, if not, most of people on this forum including me got it wrong.

Does anyone remember whether the company was listed, i jumped the gun and assumed.

[jcbacca]

Pretty sure you passed Ause, this your last exam? Found this interesting, i just sat ATX in Dec18. ATX is simple but the syllabus is a monster. Where as AFM had a small syllabus but there is just too many damn ways they can tweak the question.

As an english person they caught off guard. Im very impressed by people where there mother tongue is not enlgish sitting these.. good on you guys. I could do this in your languages.

[jcbacca]

To be honest, i doubt it, as acca are reverting back to releasing past papers of combined sittings as previous.

[jcbacca]

YUNE,

Cost of debt can only be calculated through yield curve +basis on a one year loan/bond As im sure you are aware, the yield curve and spread fluctuates between different years.

So after you were meant to calculate the value of each bond which was around 105 (6 % coupon) You would then use IRR to work out the effective interest rate.

[jcbacca]

Very tough paper, but trying to follow everyone’s comments is so confusing

Did anyone pick up that it was 3 million bond? And not $3 million bonds? So had to multiply nominal value by 3 to give you 300 million? I missed had to change last second.. I knew something had to be wrong, why would the examiner make us calculate and regret with a company value of 1500m and 3m nominal value of bonds..

I calculated the bond price to be 105.6? But like an idiot I forgot to do the final IRR on the price at 6 percent to find the true cost of debt.

Collars I think I spend atleast 5 minutes just looking at the question. Calculate the new premium of buy call and selling put.

If interest rates rise, would do.better
We wouldn’t exercise, but the buying of output would. Still better

If they dropped we would exercise our call but the buying of put wouldn’t..

In q3, did anyone discount the fcfe valuation? I wasn’t sure has it had seemed we were given fcfe of most recent years and not future.

But had to get market value of acquired at t expected required premium of l.

Which was 14 percent? So I took no shares, multiplied by share value. And multiplied by 1.14

Using fcfe method. I calculated market value of both companies using shares.

I then added the fcfe of both companies, added the 9 m synergy (damnit was this pre or post tax) and then multiplier the fcfe multiplier of 8 by 1.05. Because the case said it expected it to rise.

I then took this value and deducted it from the current market value of both to calculate the benefit.

Took 40 percent of this and added it to the market value of l. So total price was around 600m?

Final one, I used first section (14 pecent) MV. Deducted it from the synergy we calculated. And the left overs was.be the premium company T would get.

No idea if this was correct.

And guys cost of capital is WACC.

Q1 beta, never have I seen a question with a change in both business and financial risk. But I regeared the .85 asset beta with the new debt of the company
To calculate the cost of equity of the project. Just made sense coz we don’t ever use asset beta to calculate WACC which was the final requirement in question 1bii

Good luck everyone, I don’t plan on failing but if I do I hope you guys pass.

[jcbacca]

From recall, I remember checking it and it being at cost :). Hopefully someone else can confirm too

[jcbacca]

Yup, i grossed up g/Will for the imparment review. And then reduced the actual impairment back down to 80 percent.

In the rush… I think I added the wrong g/Will figure on the sofp lol… had the correct number calculated though.

[jcbacca]

1a, a crazy exam, I thought we were lucky, as cash flow and income statements came up on previous exams meaning SOFP had to come up in March… But investments held for sale??? WTF??? I had no idea what I was doing…. so I continued to just calculate good will, and increase in Net Assets and put it towards RE. I then revalued/impaired the it as a CGU. I literally copied the G/W impairment review layout and used the fair value at Y/E as the recoverable cost, putting the loss against RE.

Joint operations – as the 50m was already included in the PPE of the parent, I just depreciated it. I then calculated the portion of profit from operation and shoved it in RE

Pensions – different layout, no Y/E deficit given… instead the re measurement gain was given. I don’t know why I didn’t add anything to liabilities. I was under the impression that the provisional liability was already included at Y/E :S
What ever happened, I managed to complete the consolidation within one hour.

Q3c – With the Finance lease + gearing. Net Debt baffled me. So I (right of use asset – liability gained). Got home to realise net debt = liabilities – cash and cash equivalents. So the gearing side I messed up.
But I managed to calculate the Right to use asset, finance lease, depreciated the Right to use asset and increased the Finance lease by finance cost and reduced it with the cash payment… hopefully I got some marks here.

Let’s hope we all pass guys!

[jcbacca]

This is probably extremely late but people seem to be so calm about the P2 change. Perhaps there is not much of a syllabus change.. Which is great. But why has no one mentioned the change in exam? Unless i have read it wrong, Having no options in the second part of the exam is something to take into consideration.

I am hoping I have read it wrong… but the ACCA PDF has the below (current one p2).

The paper will comprise two sections.
Section A Compulsory question 50 marks
Section B 2 from 3 questions of
25 marks each 50 marks
100 marks
https://www.accaglobal.com/content/dam/acca/global/PDF-students/acca/p2/studyguides/p2-int-sg-sept17-jun18.pdf

For the new P2 pdf we have the below

The paper will comprise two sections.
Section A 2 compulsory questions 50 marks
Section B 2 compulsory questions of
25 marks each 50 marks
100 marks

https://future.accaglobal.com/assets/documents/strategic-business-reporting-september-2018-syllabus-guide.pdf

I called up ACCA.. Lady seems to say ACCA have no confirmed the Exam set up yet :S. Or she was just lost not sure..

[jcbacca]

57% quite disapointed… though, Popit and Contextual Factors were my weak points and I was lucky enough to get both :).

John have a look at the examiners report, he briefly talks about the questions that have come up.

https://www.accaglobal.com/content/dam/acca/global/PDF-students/acca/p3/examinersreports/p3-examreport-s17.pdf

The pass rates for this sitting was at a record high of %55, the last highest pass rate was in DEC 2007 at %56.

I just wonder whether people are more motivated to pass or whether ACCA are making it easier for these papers.

https://www.accaglobal.com/uk/en/student/exam-support-resources/professional-exams-study-resources/pass-rates-professional-exams.html

[jcbacca]

I have combined a bunch of responses relating to past exam papers topics. I thought responding to this one would make sense as it would add to the pile.

Although I did not gamble (not covering the topics in June, do so at your own risk)… the topics in June did not come up in September.. Annoying!!

Bare in mind I have just copied and pasted the comments. So some may not be straight forward but I believe there are enough key words to help identify the topic which came up. if you cant identify the topic, I suggest some serious revising.

I hope this helps someone’s studying for December or at least stops them from having to compile it.. its a very boring process and not something you should be doing over month end tasks! (bad idea don’t do it)

P3 June

Q1 Models given in questions (PESTEL, 5 forces) + bits on KPI, CSF and Integrated reporting

Q2 Fin analysis performed on accounts of software house (primarily ratios) + 5 factors that affect selection of software house (apart from costs)

Q3 5 factors that make project work different from routine undertakings + value of PID, BC, project report… in the context of given scenario

Q4 i think pricing strategies referred to Bowmans clock? I think what did you use?
For Q4 I see a couple of you guys mentioning strategic clock its the one model I forgot about :(. I talked about Porters generic strategies of differentiation and cost leadership and said they had to be somewhere in in-between.

q4. a.advice electric company how to attain, priced based, differentiation, lock-in (another weird combination). got scared.

P3 March

Q1. all questions were based on change management.
part a is on swot for 18 marks. I had confusion on identifying the Swots.
part b. 10 mark question.( – contextual features readiness, time, compatiblity, persevation) . struggle a lot to write for 10 marks. may not score well.
part cNature and scope of change – .7 mark question on scope and nature of change. i dont understand what they expecting to write. which theory to apply. i wrote blah blah.
part d. startegy clock. wrote fairly I guess.

q2. was based on absorption costing and related. got scared. dont remember f5 topics.

q3. harmon process.
3. question. About DHS – social house provider for low income families
a). Harmons process strategy

q4.
slightly complicated scenario. they made me to think a lot. applying and writing my opinion and structuring the answer was too difficult. somehow I managed. I completed the answer, the inviligator announced only one minute left.

a guy runs a website to sell retail branded items. he has complicated supply chain. too confusing.

4. question. About red neal
a) . Supply chain management
i). Incoming – Wrote about additional quality checks for manufacturing of watches (not sure)
ii) Outgoing – wrote that branded goods can go straight to customers from their own warehouses, not going through central warehouse
b). Boundary less organisations- didn’t know term, but written about independence of location

P3 December 16

Q1:
a. Portfolio Analysis – Boston Consulting Group Matrix – 18 marks
b. Memo on Project management / Financial Appraisal – 32 marks

Q2:
a. Regression analysis – 15 marks
b. Big Data – 10 marks

Q3:
a. Marketing Mix using emarketing – 15 marks
b. e-procurement – 10 marks

Q4:
a. Cultural web – 15 marks
b. Continuing Development / The learning organisation – 5 marks each

P3 September 2016

Q1: external analysis using Pestel and Porter 5 forces, Suitability and Acceptability with regard to the acquisition of a foreign subsidiary.

Q2: project management, risk management and Mendelow matrix

Q3: contextual features and boudaryless organisation

Q4: I am not 100% sure, but I think it was about swim lane analysis, for which I have an irrational dislike, so I skipped it without even reading it…..Tangible and Intangible Benefits

(B) POPIT Model

P3 June 2016

1a related to new product development on current market, new market development with current product and related diversification (new product on the new market), all have to be connected with SWOT analysis provided and comments from the CEO.

(b) decision tree, looks ok, some calculation, and some discussion about the weakness of trees, like the option X and option Y risk is different ..Due to the high demand cash flow and low demand cash flow, option Y has more steady cash flow

(c) Sources Finance How many marks ?

original receivables is 49 days and payables 24 days , adjusting it both to 30 days will realised about 589k from receivable , 134k from payables, add retained earning 775000 and will only gives you around 1.5m cash, which is still far away even cheapest option Y, since gearing ratio only 32%, pumping 1.7m cash into the company will become 60% gearing ratio, looks ok since 55% is the standard rate

stock issue is not an option because shareholder against it , they want retain control

however, even when loans of 1.7m has taken , only 3.2m raised , still 800k left, so the only last option is to persuade the current shareholder to buy more shares, in order to raise fund and retain their power

Q2(a) Wonderful question for those who is pro in IT, simply suggest solution for the weakness

(b) corporate governance! first CG question appeared in P3

Q3 a. 4 stages to software solution selection./A discussion was required on the four stage evaluation and implementation of the COTS solution. – WPHA

b. POPIT model.- New topic.

Q4(a)

Portal diamond – Engin

(b) Possible strategic, organisational and operational problems of expension. Tried to give at least 2-3 comment for each. Forget to mention that the entity had no experience and finance issues.

March 2016 Fred the owner initially

Q1 was on value chain

restructure of value chain in q1 c?

Q2) this was on strategic lenses and culture Q2a – strategic planning as design, ideas and experience;
Q2b – cultural web and changes with new CEO approach;

Q3???

It seems that Q3 is not a popular one because it’s quite long and requires bit of calculation from F5

Q4) 7Is of e-marketing;. i just applied the model and commented on how it would benefit the company. gave examples such as feedback and reviews on websites, independence of location.

on pricing strategy, again i didn’t write much because of time. i just said pricing should reflect their mission statement and the company was in the position to charge higher prices because it was providing bespoke high quality holidays

4c – pricing due to poor time management.I didn’t do much for questions 1b & 1c. For this reason, chances of passing that paper are very slim. Q1 was too long to absorb all that was happening!

?December 2015

Q1a) The question said identify the benefits to both the corporate parents and the SBU to be merged, so I just split my answer down on this basis. I’m not sure about SAF but as this is more suitable for evaluations but of course the content of the answer should be more important than the model which just gives a structure. – Question 4 on the institutional shareholder and the bank of which i wrote that the institutional shareholder was of pristines

Q1b. Contextual factors:

c) Seemed a lot of content for a 12 mark question. Organisational culture, cultural web and organisational forms. I just picked a few elements of the cultural web and talked about these pre and post acquisition and commented on the change from entrepreneurial/ basic bureaucracy to professional bureaucracy.

Q2a. Evaluation of cost benefit analysis:
– Payback period. I gave the disadvantages
– Comments on almost all the cost and benefits except the last benefit (I don’t remember)
. Hardware cost
. Software cost
. Time spent in obtaining quotes were subjective

Q3a

Obviously this question is easy …the process is so easily identified ..number 3 process..redundancy for posting another deadline ..number 9 ..the sorting is unwanted..providing no value ..instead should create an assignment mailbox online for each respective lecturer ..direct submit to lecturer …and lecturer direct download and mark the assignment

the process of submit, record, download feedback is in wrong sequence!the lecturer should record all the marks first..then submit online …then make it available for student to download for review…

Q2b. Purpose contents and importance of project plan

Q3 b about redesign jobs – Saw requirement was about people

Q4 a) weaknesses and threats to identify.

external analysis : PESTEL model, internal analysis: weak management and financial performance

Q4b. Social corporate responsibility. I didn’t do much

September 2015

in the end, Q1a was really easy…
the first project was to get rid of.. the office consumables supply (simple logic) -could make rent or profit on building used for it, and save money on labour costs vs getting the stuff cheaper from bigger outlets…

Q1b was also ok by the end…
using 35k households at 80% usage gives 28K households..

1c or d-the last part on the 3 stakeholders..

Q2a about the CRM software – out package vs bespoke then

Q2b i put in the stuff under CRM of the slide pack on opentuition..
e-commerce, e-marketing, automated sales, intelligence then used for individualisation, and knowledge management in order to improve and create an existing relationship so that customer goes from one-time customer to client to potential enthusiast and advocate etc.. didnt push it to partner level.. haha.. again, all from the opentuition slide packs…

or Q3 i thought that the Mission statement should included something like how they would strive to be the leader for the qualification etc

Q4. ABC costing and variances was a nice question,

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