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My heart sank when I saw the first question was regarding an NFPO, but after reading and going through it, I felt I did okay. I gave some reasonably good answers regarding the problems regarding performance management and NFPOs, using examples specific to EHAS such as EHAS’s commitment to patient care conflicting with its goal to meet financial commitments (I referenced the CEO shutting down the air ambulance proposal in here too).
For VFM I used and made points regarding the following:
Economy – Average Salary per T3 Doctor
Efficiency – T3 Patients per T3 Doctor
Effectiveness – Percentage of T3 patients treated classed as survived.For League Tables I again linked this to EHAS and how it would affect them, I basically ripped this idea to shreds (my own bias coming in here – League Tables and competition have should have no place in medical care, the patient should always come first).
For Section B, the Building Block model question I showed where the information in the performance report tied in with the six dimensions, however it was pretty clear to me that the performance report barely covered most of the dimensions, with one or two dimensions (Innovation in particular) not really covered at all, so I made recommendations for improved measures in all six dimensions and also noted the current performance report only looked at current year and prior year, so the new measures should use at least three years worth of data (where applicable).
The Cloud Computing question was straightforward for me. I gave a brief description of what cloud computing is, and there were financial gains in the form of very little up-front capex costs and lower maintenance costs (both passed on to the service provider), plus lower IT staff costs, and lower energy/utility costs due to more staff working from home. I felt I answered this very well.
I answered the PEST implications reasonably well, but almost forgot to recommend specific KPIs! I got bogged down in the implications of the PEST report for the company, and had to then tweak my answers to link them to (and therefore justify) the KPIs, I got there, but this cost me time when it came top the Performance Gap analysis, which I did not answer well and, yeah, ran out of time.
Overall I feel I have done enough to pass – just about. We shall see.
54, got through thanks to Hassan Dossani. Was surprised I didn’t score higher, I thought I did really well on this one. Still, a pass is a pass. Just another resit of APM left now.
loissaunders98 wrote:There was a line in the exhibit that said the marketing direction wants us to write why each point is bad basically in regards to the quotes. I think most people missed that ! That’s why the quotes were such nonsense as they wanted us to explain why they’re incorrect and suggest correct point
But the quotes were not nonsense, in fact only one of them was easily refuted (that it would encourage short-term thinking) The other concerns from the employees about having no control over EVA, not knowing how to contribute to EVA, and not understanding the EVA calculation were, for me, entirely valid criticisms of the proposal.
I got my EVA calculation completely wrong, mind you. It was a total horror show for me!
SevenUP wrote:But did the question even ask if EVA should be introduced or am I missing something?
Nope, in fact the marketing director wanted your support for it. But even at this early stage I knew I was on a hiding to nothing with this exam, and so I simply spoke my mind, because the proposal was nonsense.
Hey, I should at least score points for scepticism. 😉
Edit: I should point out I did not state in my response to the marketing director that the proposal was ‘nonsense’, I said it was ‘ill advised’. I do have some level of tact. 😉
The points about EVA per product and employee’s control over EVA were, for me, quite easy to answer. The issue with that question is the proposal was absolute rubbish. So I went against the Marketing Director’s wishes and completely ripped into the proposal of using EVA as a performance measure across the entire business.
You can’t calculate EVA per product, and employees have no control over the performance measure. Simply asking them to add value is way too vague. Also, showing the employees the calculation was a bad move, is the marketing director genuinely expecting all their employees to understand things like WACC and capital employed? EVA is a high level calculation for qualified accountants, using it as a performance measure should be reserved for board level only, and absolutely not those on the shop floor. Honestly, the proposal was terrible, proper ‘my mate down the pub told me so and so’ kind of nonsense.
Absolute disaster for me. Got stuck in the time trap of Q1 when I should have moved on. This was a resit today and I actually feel I’ve scored lower than the 44 I got last time.
For the five forces I used the same headings as the exhibit, and tried to apply them to Eve. For the risks I identified Competition Risk (highly competitive market), Technology Risk (could get left behind if they don’t adopt online sales), and Intellectual Risk (shortage of skilled workers in the industry).
The Data Analytics question I left until last, but I at least questioned the suitability of DA to Eve’s business to hopefully gain some of the professional marks for scepticism.
The appraisal of the sales contract with Adam Stores was a bit wishy washy for me, there was not much to work with in the exhibit, but I believe I scored okay on it.
Going back to the acquisition of the garden centre (Task 4), given that the professional marks were for evaluation and *not* scepticism, I decided to mostly take the figures in the financial appraisal at face value, and based my recommendation accordingly because there was no indication from the Finance Director that there may be any mistakes, and no implication that the appraisal came from a junior employee. I did challenge the sales projections slightly, but other than that I recommended going ahead with the acquisition based on the positive NPV (which for me was still positive even with 3% growth to match the costs), strengthening of the brand, growth of the business, and the company’s prior experience with acquisitions. The only issues I pointed out were the potential dilution of the customer base with another store, potential culture issue with incumbent staff at the new store, and the fact that taking out a loan to fully finance the acquisition will increase Eve’s gearing. I did this within the SFA framework.
I will be very unhappy if the examiner actually wanted the financial figures to be fully challenged, because that is not what the exam asked for. And I agree with others, the discount rate used doesn’t appear to be right – where did 12% come from? The interest on the loan to finance the acquisition was 7.5%, and tax is mentioned but does not appear to be accounted for.
The only thing I didn’t do for Task 4 which, in hindsight I perhaps should have, is calculate the payback period.
Hmmm, surprised to see so many having issues with the exam, and it does indeed appear there are two versions of Eve Garden Centre. I got the one with industry analysis, marketing mix, responsible leadership, and acquisition of another garden centre.
What surprised me was how much the exhibits gave you. I read task 1a and instantly thought “Hmm, that looks like a porters 5 forces question”, only to discover that the exhibits actually give you a 5 forces analysis! And the marketing mix question question actually gives you the 7ps!
I answered the responsible leadership question based on what I could remember from the technical article I read earlier today. As for the acquisition question, I used the SFA model even though the marks didn’t quite warrant it, and the professional skills were only evaluation rather than scepticism (which surprised me, I was expecting to have to challenge the numbers more than I did). In the end I recommended the acquisition.
A weird exam for sure, but for me it gave me a lot of what I needed. This is a resit for me, and I will be amazed if I have not passed this time around.
Hmmm, the more I read in this thread, the more I think I completely ballsed up the QH case study. Bloody hell…
Got the Quality Homes case study, and while I only marked it as hard (because it wasn’t a disaster), I hated it. I did not like the scenario, nor what they asked me to do other than the final question on the website which I know answered well.
miraji wrote:Hi, anyone remember what was Q3 on in the UK sbr paper, the paper with share based payment and differed tax liability in question one. Tanks for any replies.
For me it was a big chunk on FRS 102. The first part asked about the treatment of a retail unit under FRS 102, which I answered poorly.
The second part asked about the impairment of a credit customer under FRS 102. I felt I answered this pretty well, FRS 102 requires objective evidence of impairment.
The third part asked about the differences between FRS 102’s use of incurred losses vs IFRS ??’s Expected losses. I felt I answered this one reasonably.
On a different note, on Q4 I also didn’t have a spreadsheet, I managed, but that’s a bug, surely?
Just realised where I lost at least half a marks: In Q4 of my exam there was a question about the cost of taking on a second employee with a company car. I answered the VAT part regarding the VAT well enough (only half of the VAT on the lease costs is reclaimable). But I did not include that extra VAT in the calculation of the cost of the second employee. If I score 49 I am going to be so gutted.
Though I’ll be honest, I reckon I’ll be lucky to have scored in the 40s at all…
Absolute disaster, not helped by the remote system locking me out because a small program/process on my computer kept starting up in the background which I had to keep turning off in task manager. Happened about five times. The invigilators seemed understanding at least.
But also, there was a 16 mark question on relocation costs that I had to completely ignore because I ran out of time answering the other questions, badly. This was a resit, I studied hard for it (took all of last week off work and went back through the entire bpp text book again), but I’ll be lucky if I score better than the 38 I got back in December.
So deflated right now.
Managed to book my ATX exam now for March. Decided on an afternoon exam this time. Bit concerned about the stipulation where any outside noise is heard voids the exam. I live two doors up from a busy shop…
39 – Didn’t put enough work in (already addressing this for ATX I’m sitting in December). Will make sure I’m 100% ready when resitting in March.
Absolutely! The issue with multiple windows open for me was exacerbated by the computer I was allocated at the test centre. The monitor was a tiny 14″ widescreen monitor that was really low to the desk. I’m 6’2″, my neck was aching from hunching over the desk to look at the bloody screen. I’ll be mentioning this when the ACCA ask for feedback on the test centre.
Printed sheets of all questions to refer to would have been very helpful.
