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I can’t answer this without full access to the question.
Anyhow, we don’t comment on exams just after they have been set.
I can’t remember, and have no record off, all the syllabus changes that happened from 2019 to 2026. However, over the past few years there have been none of any consequence and before that I can’t remember being heavily burdened recording updates to our material. You are probably relatively safe, but as a precaution also read our notes because they are up-to-date for 2026.
Exhibit 1 mentions that the company has weak cash flow. Good cash flow is vital for the survival of businesses and I think the model answer makes a fair point that you should want any performance reporting system to report on that.
Your approach is as folows but I have added a couple of words here and there
1 always start with exhibits because they will [nearly always] frame the expected answers;
2 never ignore the exhibits;
3 [usually] get the points of the answers from the exhibits, [but more might be needed]
Exhibits are very important but often they need to be approached by applying some sort of model or theoretical knowledge. This is not just an examination in common sense. There is a substantial syllabus that requires study.
1 Essan: star = high market share and high growth rate. To maintain that position you have to ensure you keep your market share in a growing market so revenue growth rate is fine.
2 Yes, marketing spend is important (NB stars often said to be cash flow neutral because of the high marketing spend needed to maintain star position).
3 Problem children are unlikely to be very profitable because of their low market share and consequent lack of economies of scale. If thy are going to stay with the problem child (rather than abandoning it) high expenditure is needed and you should be anxious that this results in higher and higher revenue as you gain market share.
4 R&D can be important for problem children. One way to gaining a higher market share for the product is to bring out an improved, enhanced product so that you beat the competition.
I suggest you use the ACCA practise platform and also select some questions from the revision kit, just to give variety.
Revision kits usually give an indication as to which syllabus area a question relates to. However, many questions require a mix of skills.
In your exam, the dates will be current, so use the date the question says it is.
The bit I worry about is “…simultaneously copy the important points from exhibit to the response word.”. You will attract very few marks for copy and paste. You have to move forward from the question to a solution. O viously, what is said in an exhibit is important, but you have to react to that, use it, make comments on it.
If the exhibit said “Sales have fallen by 25% in 2026” Yyou get nothing by saying that again in your answer. Instead say “The steep (25%) fall in sales will put pressure on xash flow”. You could say “Sales have fallen by 25% and this will put pressure on cash flow”. Either way, you are making an interpretation and really using the information.
The question asks you to examine the three directors’ views so you have to concentrate on that rather than a fell MM analysis. Of course, MM could be useful eg in saying that a director perhaps underestimates the importance of a key player.
Prevention cost as you set out above is fine, but perhaps add staff training and indeed staff morale so that a pride is taken in the work.
Just think of appraisal cost as the cost of checking and testing materials, performance and the work done. Use the word ‘audit’ if you want to (eg auditors check accounts). Without that you wouldn’t know if the prevention measures are working effectively.
Appraisal will certainly look at output (eg testing 1% of production) but it can also appraise the effectiveness of the prevention techniques. So, if under prevention you have specified that raw materials supplied have to have a certain purity, appraisal might show the quality is below specification. You would then have to revisit the prevention stage and for example, change supplier to a more reliable one.
HTH
I think TrustPilot is more a business to consumer thing that business to business.
The example is wrong, but not in the way you thought. Gutenburg’s salary should be $100 million per year.
That adds 100,000,000 to the total wage bill and 1 person to the number of people.
The mean salary is always:
the sum of (Number of people x their salary)/number of people.
Note that the amounts in the example are in 000s
The points you make and the structure used in 1 and 2 above are excellent. No problem at all.
With 3, the growth in the number of projects undertaken is a bit lacking, I think. As it stands it ignores the quality aspect. Something like …number of projects successfully undertaken would be better.
To really attack the world class requirement I might have suggested in issuing clients with a post-project review sheet so that they could score aspects of performance like: innovation, flexibility, understanding needs, communication skills, satisfaction with the outcomes. That approach gives more external validation of the company’s success.
I suggest you concentrate on past papers, but maybe throw in an occasional exam kit question – especially if there is a commentary provided that helps you to assess your answer or planned answer.
As I’m sure you realise, question practise is essential in this exam as the new ‘knowledge’ content is relatively small and the exam will concentrate on application, not knowledge.
Many workings can be contained within the cell formulae. However, this also acts as a form of concealment from you which can lead to errors. It can also lead your to doing many calculations on the calculator and using the spreadsheet as little more than a wordprocessor.
So, if to work out wage costs for 5 workers, each with the different hourly rates and different hours, at some point you have to type in hours x rate for each. Better to enter a row of five, then a row of hours, then a row for the wage amounts.. Little work is saved by effectively entering hours*rate five times.
32.60 is correct, but the year 0 spend is 25 + 0.64 = 25.64
32.6 – 25.64 = 6.96 (the published answer bar rounding. You seem to have forgotten the initial working capital.
As for you last query, you have to assume the reinvestment rate is the same as the discount rate if a rate is not explicitly given.
The 0.64 working capital recouped figure has been typed in the wrong column. However, the free cash flows are correct (0.64 types in year 1 is not in the 12.56, but is included in year 3).
I don’t know why you get an answer of 7.6. You must be doing something different to the model answer. Compare carefully.
Sorry, but I’m not aware of any changes to the CBE platform, particularly with respect to APM. I suggest you repost this query on the ACCA General Forums.
Absolutely. The examination team has spent days writing and reviewing the question and has deliberately included a problem ie the security breach. In general, questions should not be answered theoretically if there is something in the carefully constructed question that raises issues, questions or problems. To evaluate the security layers without reference to the breach that has occurred is not the right approach.
Think of yourself not as an examination candidate but as a consultant or expert who is to give a real, practical ‘report’. You wouldn’t last long presenting to the board if you ignored the real problem that happened.
That’s fine. In the real world you would probably write something like
From: J Smith, senior consultant, Performance Management Consultants Ltd
but there’s no need for that in the exam.
In general, % increase/decrease is more meaningful than absolute numbers. In fact, the use of absolutes is often used to mislead. However, if you are under time pressure you can still make valid points using absolute numbers. For example, it would be valid to say that the there might be significance if number of incidents has risen by 50 if the starting point was 200, but not if it was 10,000.
