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I wonder how realistic is it to gain the four professional marks awarded in q1. I understand the criteria for this i.e. structure, tone and professional report writing style. It would be interesting to see how many people actually gain the full four here.
I wonder also if you will gain marks in Q2 for identifying that the business processes were weak and could be inflating costs i.e. this is something they should look to fix or improve.
Thoughts?
Guys see if the first adjustment in the budgeting question where it stated that Sales volumes are expected to be 2% higher each quarter than forecast in the current budget. How did you tackle this?
Was confident coming out as I understood all the theory in this paper.
Question 1,c, I basically just calculated the likelihood of each restaurants % visitor rates using the figures then multiplied these by the expected spend per person which produced a table of figures – I then pointed out the highest payoff and stated that the s/h would have selected this due to there fairly high risk appetite. This was the maximax option.
I found the performance report in q1,a strange as the figures were all the same?? anyway explained the weaknesses in the report and what they could do to improve.
the budgeting question part a was tricky although I think the majority of my calculation will be near the mark. Though it was mainly a case of taking the percentage applicable an then adding on a bit or taking away a bit depending what the situation was for example the exchange rate change.
Diary incremental Luxury rolling.
Q3 again did not appear straight forward but I think I grew into it. felt there were a number of further metrics which would have helped each division better monitor performance, stated a few example like price elasticity etc. Second part I think was to do with identifying the correct strategic objectives and then the right metrics to ensure these are met – the objectives will be set based on which cube within the BCG matrix the division is within.
As with all these exams everyone has a slightly different approach and style and will make differing cases and points – I just hope I have picked up enough marks to pass well as I studied very hard.
Am I right in saying it was a joint venture? q1. Again so much could have been said but such little time to say it in. I always feel I have great answer in my head then when it comes to writing it I end up saying what I mean in roundabout way.
Q3 the warranty was difficult because how can you estimate warranty provision for cars sold with a 7 year warranty seems daft.
Does anyone remember what the first two paragraphs in the question one were about I’m sure there was some risk in there! I did the UK paper btw
I have to say I felt very similar its almost like you just have to say no stop now and move on even when you have more to say.
Did anyone feel quite pushed for time? time management was quite important for me in this exam I could have said more in some areas but had to move on – last question might be a bit scrappy
Your thoughts welcome.
Could someone post a link for the p4 sample answers for December 2015 if they are available I cant find them.
P4 Dec 2015
Could anyone give me the mark allocation for each of the first three questions – I wanna try and predict my mark.
Mohammad, I can see shades of your exam in mine = hopefully the good parts of our papers will pull us through because i believe it sometimes comes down to the quaetions on the day.
Could anyone give me the mark allocation for each of the first three questions – I wanna ry and predict my mark.
In terms is of Q3 – did it ask to just set up the hedges in relation to FRA,Futures and Options not to show the result of the hedges?
Might be wrong here but I just set up the hedges using the three questions for Futures and Options,
1, Buy or Sell
2. how many conts
3. which dateAm I on the right lines or have I missed something?
Also thought the discussion section was worded funny – found it difficult to ascertain what they were after.
So i describes the benefits of using derivatives to reduced Forex risk and then I described the difference between treasury and finance department and the benefits or having the sep department. My writing by this point was horrific though due to tiredness – hope this can be overlooked.
Additionally i would advise anyone to tackle section B first as section one is very time consuming and can bog you down from collecting easier marks on shorter questions when you are fresh.
King of gutted not to be honest. I think this was a good paper for me but I sepnd way to long on the first question trying to figure out what the 18 marker was actually asking – I eventually worked it out that it was basically asking for you to compute the combined WACC and use that to discount the proposed acquisitions cash flows – I attempted this but got stuck a few times due to me not having confidence in my figures.
One big question I still have is that if the acquisition company had to be split between the part that was going to be retained R&D and manufacturing. I think I attempted to split this out and calculate a value for the manufacturing part separately which I then added as proceeds to the NPV analysis. I was getting creative here – I knew the theory just had no practice of doing this so could be very wrong.
Question two and three were fair I think but I had very little time to answer then – and my writing suffered from being tired.
did anyone else have similar issues? I truly hope to have passed this time as I have studied like a mad man. also where was BSP model really pissed this didn’t come up.
What was the breakdown of marks for question one? trying to piece together what my mark might be although I’m probably just tormenting myself.
Disappointed with what questions came up this time. I had anticipated a foreign project appraisal for Q1 and either Black Scholes pricing model, currency hedging or a cost of capital related question for Q2.
I struggled through the exam trying to pick up marks where I could and using exam techniques to show my overall knowledge in the hope of gaining marks. Hoping to scrape a pass but I think I am reaching a bit.
Tackled Q4 after Q1 and wrote a lot but more from my working knowledge and not my studies. Think Q4 was a bit of an odd question but might turn out to be my best answered.
Q3 was a complete reach I tried to bring as much out of the question I could but dont think I have answered this well.
I studied extremely hard and was basically undone by the choice of questions. Guess its my fault for not going through the whole syllabus but in reality I don’t think most people actually do.
Fingers crossed the markers use a bit of expediency when marking this paper.