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You have posted this query to the APM forum.
However, the FBT exam is multiple choice. This allows the examiner to easily cover all syllabus areas is each exam (indeed, the software ensures that). Besides, the exams are not published.
To maximise your chance of success you should cover everything.
It is essential to buy a BPP revision kit to provide question practice. You get a 20% discount if you order through this site.
Given that the acquisition of Comfi is a hot issue, I think your approach is reasonable. However, even if there were no takeover, the question could be answered more theoretically, which is the approach taken in the model answer.
I prefer your approach.
Task is:
Prepare a draft press release responding to the criticisms assessing the social and environmental impact of HiLite’s proposed investment in Veelandia, with a view to reassuring its stakeholders of HiLite’s intentions to maintain its high principles and standards in acquiring the Comfi Stay hotel chain.
Under-age staff are employed and this social and ethical issue has to be addressed. The exhibits do not specify what should be done, but there is no way that a press release will reassure “… its stakeholders of HiLite’s intentions to maintain its high principles and standards in acquiring the Comfi Stay hotel chain” unless the company stops employing under-age staff. Without that assurance the press release would be ineffective.
There is no specific ‘reassure’ term in accountancy so you have to take a common sense approach. However, providing ‘assurance’ and ‘reassure’ have more or less the same meaning. Reassure means restoring lost confidence in some matter, calming fears, helping people get a good night’s sleep.
Assurance is closely defined in auditing, and some aspects of that might be useful in reassuring eg identify the subject matter (eg possible loss of revenue), collect evidence and report to a party (here shareholders).
It’s difficult to answer precisely without seeing the question and exhibits. It’s unlikely that you will get very high marks for this task, but not all is necessarily lost. You might have made valid points and the marker might be lenient.
Try not to fret. Difficult, I know, but it helps nothing.
Best wishes.
Corporate failure is not on the syllabus anymore . It was dropped a few years ago.
Lovely to see Google AI being wrong – perhaps there is still hope for us humans!
See the last post on this thread:
https://opentuition.com/topic/scenario-is-giving-me-little-to-work-with/
The chapters are not perfectly aligned, but you can often see a connection by the chapter/section headings. After each chapter, go to what looks like an appropriate kit section.
Suggested way to use the kit:
1 Do not mark with ticks or crosses against each answer. When you are doing questions note your answers on a separate sheet. That way you can use the kit questions many times.
2 If you get a question right, tick the question header unless you guessed. No immediate need to revisit that question. If you got it wrong, mark it with a cross.
3 Understand why you got the question wrong. If needs be read our notes. You can search on words.
4 After a day or two, revisit the kit section and again try the questions you got wrong. if you get it right, mark with a tick. Repeat. You should gradually be able to get more and more correct.
5 Near the exam, try lots of question again.
The chapters are not perfectly aligned, but you can often see a connection by the chapter/section headings. After each chapter, go to what looks like an appropriate kit section.
Suggested way to use the kit:
1 Do not mark with ticks or crosses against each answer. When you are doing questions note your answers on a separate sheet. That way you can use the kit questions many times.
2 If you get a question right, tick the question header unless you guessed. No immediate need to revisit that question. If you got it wrong, mark it with a cross.
3 Understand why you got the question wrong. If needs be read our notes. You can search on words.
4 After a day or two, revisit the kit section and again try the questions you got wrong. if you get it right, mark with a tick. Repeat. You should gradually be able to get more and more correct.
5 Near the exam, try lots of question again.
I think that is correct. Certainly, the directors/board run the company on behalf of its shareholders and there is a fiduciary duty there (ie to act in the best interests of the shareholders). However, given that the company is offering a very valuable, perhaps essential service, to the travelling public (customers), I think there is alco an agency relationship there. For example, the public would expect trains to be safe and to run on-time and would expect the board to fulfil those expectations on their behalf.
Although often in law the board’s responsibilities are confined to shareholders, increasingly it is recognised that they have a wider responsibility to other stakeholders.
1 A generic answer is better than a blank sheet! However, make sure there is no way that your answer could not be directed towards the scenario,
2 I look at it as follows. Let’s say that the scenario suggests that the economic situation will worsen. In your answer you could perhaps write (depending on the scenario)
1/2 mark: economic situation is worsening
1 mark: economic situation is worsening and this is likely to adversely affect the profit and cash flow of the company.
1 1/2 marks: economic situation is worsening and this is likely to adversely affect the profit and cash flow of the company, particularly because they produce and sell capital goods where expenditure can be postponed.
2 marks: economic situation is worsening and this is likely to adversely affect the profit and cash flow of the company, particularly because they produce and sell capital goods where expenditure can be postponed. The company is already heavily geared so this could pose considerable financial risk.
Honey and Mumford said that there are four learning styles: theorist, reflector, activist and pragmatist.
Kolb proposed the theory of experiential learning, which emphasizes that learning occurs through a cycle of four stages:
Concrete Experience: Engaging in an experience or activity.
Reflective Observation: Reflecting on the experience to understand what happened.
Abstract Conceptualization: Formulating theories or concepts based on the reflections.
Active Experimentation: Applying the new theories in practice to see if they hold true.Yes, irritating when at this level of exam you are expected to merely(?) regurgitate facts.
Many questions can be answered primarily using common sense, but there is a syllabus and some of it refers to knowledge. Your example of a question on board diversity and talent management could be asked in two ways:
1 Advise on the qualitied of board diversity and talent management (factual).
2 For the company in the scenario appraise board diversity and talent management policies (using scenario information).
For both you need to know something about diversity and perhaps its advantages and disadvantages, and you need to know about the mechanics of talent management. However in Q1 above your answer would be factual but for Q2 you would be applying your knowledge to a scenario. In both cases the examiner would be looking to assess that you know what you’re talking about.
So you do need to know theory.
Our notes are much more succinct than text books and, to be safe, I think you should study the theoretical areas as well as practising questions.
Correct.
The cross elasticity of demand (XED) measures how the quantity demanded of one type of good changes in response to a price change in a different type good. It is calculated as:
% change in the demand for good A/% change in the price of good B.
The value of XED helps determine if two goods are:
1 Substitutes will have a positive XED). Eg the quantity of gas demanded is likely to rise if the price of electricity goes rises.
2 Complements (negative XED). Eg the quantity of ink cartridges demanded is likely to fall if the price of ink jet printers rises.
Sorry for my late reply but I was without Internet for a couple of days.
It’s easy to put too much emphasis on theories, in particular you might spend too much time explaining theories rather then applying them. Yet, the exam has got theories in its syllabus so they need to be referenced to some extent.
My suggestions are:
1 Consider a question on a common sense basis.
2 See of you can use a theory to analyse the situation in any way. Using theories or parts of them shows you have studied the syllabus and can help you organise the data and to deal with the issues using a recognised approach
3 Using theories where appropriate adds strength to your arguments.
Ask the Tutor Forums are for short questions, for example, to clarify a concept. Tutors will not write answers to whole exam-type questions/tasks/case studies.
An environmental analysis implies PESTEL and, in so far as the information allows, 5 Forces for competitive environment.
A PESTEL analysis cannot be complete without estimating the effect on the company concerned. For example, considering Donald Trump’s import tariffs (an economic factor), these would adversely affect a company exporting to the USA, but could be a positive effect on a company which had manufacturing facilities in the USA.
Everything has to come back to the effect on the company for which the analysis is performed.
No, but be careful that a recommendation etc is really not required. Eg a report on the viability or feasibility of a project implies that a conclusion is needed.
I don’t think that would be a safe assumption. I’m sure if you are asked for a report then they expect a report format ….which actually takes very little additional time to produce.
It is probably simply that the BPP tutor who was responsible for the answers was a bit careless in hitting the requirement accurately.
