[klown]

57%

The last ever ACCA exam I had to take, and one of the more comfortable ones for me.

[klown]

Passed 54%, am now affiliate, and all first time passes!

I balls-ed up the first part of Q1, so missed out 6 quite easy marks there, so would have had a much more comfortable pass if I’d done that properly…oh well a pass is a pass.

[klown]

passed – 53%, which seems to be a common mark judging by this thread. am now an affiliate.

Thought the exam went very well, but I guess I may have lost some marks due to the confusing nature of the questions. Think I might have not done so well in Q1, but gobbled up the marks on Q3 and Q4.

Still very happy with this result, as this was probably the hardest ACCA exam for me (well this and F5).

[klown]

What exactly is complicated about it? It’s not complicated it’s ridiculously simple!

It’s a 3 hour exam with 15 minutes at the start, the mark breakdown and structure of the paper is well known, so it’s up to organise your time management and how you approach the paper; if you’re spending too long on some questions that’s your own fault. This exam was not particularly time pressured, P3 and P5 are time pressured, P1 had nothing like the time pressure of them.

One has to wonder how you’ve managed to get as far as P1 if you can’t cope with the extremely simple structure and schedule of the exams?

[klown]

ah found the exam paper, so can give it a full going over:

Question 1
part a) – family business vs company….thought this went okay, not sure if I raised enough points though, mainly differences in terms of board structure, share ownership and committees. If company was listed Mr Mara would have been challenged more by NEDs, wouldn’t have been able to appoint an inexperienced FD, wouldn’t have been able to intimidate staff so much, and audit committee would have identified illegal products.
part b) – criticising Amy Tsang – lacking professional competence to be an FD, lacking integrity, letting undue bias influence her decisions, lack of professional behavior
part c) – risk varying from sector to sector due to nature of business and products supplied – i.e. construction having more of an effect on the environment. Legal risk especially concerning to Lysus as any problems with product can cause serious injury and likely legal claims.
part d) i) Non-executive chairman would stop Mr Mara having unfetted power, give independent views, challenge and scrutinise board decisions, appoint audit, risk committee, etc.
ii) embed risk by establishing culture of risk management, appoint risk committee, training employees and make employees aware of inherent risk to company, establish internal controls to prevent fraud and reduce probity risk.

Question 3
part a) independent in terms of have no links to the company and no conflicts of interest, being able to give unbias external viewpoint and properly challenge company, etc.
part b) someone with proper financial knowledge required by corporate governance, and required because proper audit of financial statements and reports must be carried out, currently lack of professional competence.
part c) assumed this was about audit committees objectivity being compromised? Talked about familiarity, self-interest threats etc, and manager distance with committee.

Question 4
part a) Mary Wong takes post-conventional absolute ethical viewpoint because she is not pressured by rules, and does not obey her clause not to publically disclose information.
part b) environmental information of sub may be burried under too much information in group report and not give extensive info. benefit of website being more easy to access, able to show more data, can be updated more regularly than report and website could improve relationship with pressure groups.
part c) definition of internal control, control system needed to accurately record information and ensure management not making false figures to please pressure groups.

….well that’s what I put anyway!

[klown]

hmmm, it was okay, not the easiest paper I’ve done, but nowhere near being one of the hardest.

Question 1 was nice and straightforward, wrote loads for it and think I gobbled up plenty of marks, hopefully I’ve done well enough on this question to not need loads of marks from the other 2 to pass. Ethics and NEDs are good areas for me, so glad these came up.

Question 2, saw loads of stuff on CSR which I hadn’t revised enough, and knew straight away this was the one to skip!

did Question 4 next, had revised Kohlberg hard the night before so part a) was a nice opportunity to trot it all out. part b) was a bit of a funny one, wrote a combination of the advantages of a website over a report (can be updated any time, ease of access to information etc) and the extra improvement that could be on there not confined in a group report, and benefits to the company’s reputation. Part c) dunno how well that went, wrote about what internal controls do, then about being able to monitor performance and preventing false information being published to appease pressure groups.

Then with time running out quickly hammered through Question 3. What was Question 3??? Forgotten already, seem to remember it being okay, but need someone to jog my memmory to I can remember it!

[klown]

hmmmm, so I thought the exam went well, much better than I thought it would be, but it’s a obviously a difficult one to call seeing as how particular the marking can be.

Question 1 I was flying through and wrote an absolute ton for, the bits about analysing the metrics, suggesting new metrics (I drew out my new design for the dashboard, did other people do that?) and risk analysis I thought went well. The bit about the value chain is a difficult one to call, I just wrote about the benefits of having further knowledge into the areas they’re currenly detached from – i.e. opertions and sales.

Question 2 – saw ERPS and instantly knew this was the one I was going to avoid (looks like most other people thought the same!), so on to 3 and 4!

Question 3 – I devoured this question like a rabid piranha, thought it went well, but once again you can never call it. Was happy with my responce to working out the customer KPIs and analysing the rewards system, but I don’t know if I answered part a) the right way, we shall see…

Question 4 – had revised EVA like mad so overjoyed to see this come out, but the issue remains whether I actualy answer the question right. Happy with my ROI and RI calculations, but dunno about part a), running out of time at this point slightly so just churned out what was in my head….for last bit I thought maybe beyond budgeting for Baby and budget constrained for Chocolate. Q4 is probably the one with the biggest question mark over it for me.

So it was an okay paper, I knew the questions at least, and it wasn’t massively time pressured, just the obvious issue of whether I worked out what they were asking properly.

[klown]

I voted “okay”, to be honest I couldn’t have asked for better questions, consider how tough it could have been, that was definitely an “okay” exam.

I ballsed up the first have of Q1 and wrote more about tendering that audit planning, but thankfully that was only 6 marks, and I thought the rest went well.

Knew Q5 was the one to avoid straight away when I saw construction contracts and integrated reporting. Q3 was best question for me, the professional scepticism was straight forward and had revised forensic and goodwill quite a bit.

Hopefully a pass, would be gutted if I’ve failed because the questions will no doubt be much tougher next time.

[klown]

I’m taking them together as my options too, I want to get everything out of the way in June and thought these were the best 2 (the advanced tax book looked massive, and I’ve heard very bad things about P4, so they’re both out!)

I think it’s a good combination, obviously both require you to really put the hours in, good luck.

[klown]

The best advice I could give would be to revise all the models (5 forces, value chain, BCG matrix, etc), and there application.
Also the examiner is very keen on applying questions to the “real world”, so remember to put in things like use of internet advertising, websites, etc.
Also try to time it write, last time I spent way too much time on question 1 and had to rush though the other 2 at the end, so if you know something try to get it down sucinctly and don’t spend too long labouring a point.

Practise questions is always the best preparation, I found the BPP book very useful, get that and do every question in the book at least once before the exam.

[klown]

Go for BPP, they’re a platinum provider of study aids, so recognised as the best.

I’ve used Kaplan material before, and I much prefered BPP.

[klown]

Hi, I’m going to attempt both P5 and P7 in June as well, so I’d say if you think you’ve got the discipline to put the hours in for both, then go for it.

Probably an idea to start revising now if you’re going to go for both – buy the BPP question book and start plowing through as many questions as possible.

[klown]

63%

absolutely over the moon about this result, never wanted to revise that exam again!

Was a bit lucky that the CSFP came up because I’d only revised that one, if it had been the P&L or cash flow statement I’d have failed without a doubt.

[klown]

64%

first time pass…was a bit concerned about this one, because I really waffled with the first question and spent way too long on that and rushed the others, so really happy with this result.

[klown]

I’m just about to start the final options, fortunately passed all exams 1st attempt so far, my thought on the exams I’ve done so far:

F4 – boring but easy, just revise plenty of cases and their application.
F5 – interesting but very tough, got my lowest mark on this and only just scraped a pass
F6 – all calculation, so this is all about revising the formulas and rules. Found this one quite dry and tedious, but pretty easy
F7 – has a fearsome reputation, and a lot to revise, but if you put the time in and revise enough, the penny eventually drops and it’s quite straightforward.
F8 – audit was my favourite exam and the one I found the most interesting, maybe I’m in the minority here because lots hate it, but I found it fun and quite straightforward.
F9 – like F5, this one is interesting but very hard. Did this exam by itself with no others, and I’m glad I did because it demanded so much time itself.
P1 – probably the easiest exam, touches on a lot of what has been learnt already.
P2 – like F7, this is tough but achieveable if you make yourself put the time in. Make sure to revise impairment, disposal of assets and the 5 ethics of accountants, as these almost always come up and are easy mark.
P3 – enjoyable and straightforward, just revise the models and their application and you’ll be ok. Also remember a lot of this exam is common sense and not from the book – i.e. the effect of the internet, advertising, etc.

Going to attempted P5 (adv Performance Management) and P7 (adv Audit) as my options.

So, for me F5 and F9 have been the hardest, with P1, P3 and F4 the easiest.

[Author]

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