[salmiak]

Passed 🙂 Together with P3! Last two exams :)))
I am so happy! No more ACCA exams!

Congrats to all others who passed!

[salmiak]

So, I think basically the paper was OK… but too much work on the FX translations and adjustments in Q1. I am sure I messed up a lot…

b part of Q1 was OK, I wrote most on general differences between IFRS and UK GAAP, but also on the May amendments on IFRS for SME and that no deferred tax on revaluation gains under UK GAAP

Q2 cannot really remember, I did not really finish it, but classified the lease as operating one

Q4 with 15 marks on IFRS 15 was good for me… hope so at least 😉 for the b part, I nearly forgot that the differences between the old and new standard were asked for and just wrote a few words on it. I argued that at the initial conditions the bonus should not be included, but in my opinion, contract was replaced by a new one (new transaction cost) and as then the bonus was likely, it should be included in transaction price

Cannot remember anything else and I just hope that I managed it narrowly.

Hope dies last 😉

[salmiak]

Passed with the first attempt with 50 marks and self-studying:-D
Had no clue how it would end… I am happy!

Congrats to all others who passed and especially finished the ACCA!
Good luck for all who did not this time!

[salmiak]

@beaus said:
Many are saying that 125 contracts is right and many are saying that 68 contracts is right.. which one is correct?

I also got 68 as required borrowing time for which hedge is used is 6 months ( = factor 0,5).
Time until contract starts is relevant for unexpired basis to calculate the expected futures price.

@bravostar said:
Hi everyone, can i ask how much u guys prepare for this paper before u attempt the exam yest?

I started with with “light” preparation in early April, meaning approx. 4 hours/week and did hard work from May 20 onwards. This was my first attempt and I am pretty sure I did too less…

[salmiak]

@Sangria9
funny that we have the same difference 😀

I just ignored everything I had no idea on… and that was much!
Not only for Q1 but for the whole exam.

I am really excited about result, I bet on 30%… and thinking about taking September exams…

[salmiak]

Hi @all,

I did not prepare at all for the paper as I had no time, meaning I read maybe 3 hours old papers. I wrote F7 not too long ago and also sat P7 this June, meaning I had some basic knowledge.

I cannot assess whether it was difficult, I just went there knowing that I will fail for sure and did what I could do and saw it as good chance to get a real test. Never had such a relaxed ACCA exam 😉

What’s good: I also calculated NCI as most of us resulting in 13.68 mio.
What’s bad: my asset differ from my liabilities by 50 mio…

I wish you best luck to pass!

[salmiak]

I really hope it helps 🙂

I read in so many exam answers of ACCA: many approaches/answers are valid. So I count on this!!

[salmiak]

@lunip:

for me it was that easy too…

[salmiak]

@neilsolaris said:
I hope this doesn’t come across the wrong way, but I’m relieved many of you said this paper was tough, otherwise I naturally assume it’s just me being stupid and incompetent! I hope you all pass though.

I am pretty sure that no one who proceeded till P3 is stupid and for P3 there are many choices to attempt the questions. I also think you can get full marks with chosing Porters diamond for Q1 to get full marks!

Keep fingers crossed that we all passed 🙂

[salmiak]

@kainosvik said:
Q4 was about life cycle? Really? I don’t think so.
4a was financial performance. Required ratio analyses and explanation of the ratios
4b was about a learning organization (there is a technical article on it)
4c was about knowledge management.
4b and 4c were on People and Organizations

I think it was, see 06/2009 Q2. Of course supported with financial ratios, but that was not all in my opinion.

Learning organization –> I guess the company failed to learn in all aspects about the current trends … until maturity phase.

Knowledge management –> company should have known what ist currently expected from music suppliers

But whith b and c I am not sure, I derived it from part a

[salmiak]

yeah… first I was also wondering about the high marks but then I saw the likelihoods and tried to calculate with any assumptions… I think the values are wrong as I was really stressed, but the logic on the wrong values could be OK 😉

[salmiak]

@Jamie:I calculated expected value with certain cost (depending on acquisition/no acquisition,i.e 10 mio / 20 mio) and the expected outcome (contract income, efficiency benefits less acquisition cost (if so)) based on likelihood of change bidding process/ no change.

For the likelihood of change/no change I just assumed 0,5

The likelihoods of bidding success in any case were given, but not likelihood of both cases…. So I assumed (see above)

I also calculated the margins concluding that the targest must reduce administration cost (low NPM) to become more beneficial… what is difficult due to to the high redundancy costs

[salmiak]

and I also used PESTEL for the first part of question and mixture between Porters 5 forces and SWOT for the second part

[salmiak]

Hi guys,

I found the paper OK, even finished 5 minutes before time what makes me thinking that I missed major issues…

For Q1 I calculated that expected value is only positive if target is acquired, higher if with acquisition. In the final section my ccl was that there cannot be made any advice as substancial information: likelihood of change of bidding process, information on target is missing…

Q4 was about right strategy is differentiation by origin

Q4 wass about life cycle

… At least in my opinion 😉

Does anyone agree?

[salmiak]

@Elia-Shar-eK

Thank you for the mental support 🙂

What you described happened to me in F9… I attempted approx 70% of marks and reached 62%… no clue how this happened…

Here I attempted the same %, maybe 75% of marks, but I also know some bad mistakes I did within the possible ones… reducing the likely outcome dramatically

But whatever will be the result, I know what and how to improve. And that’s a good thing 🙂

[salmiak]

Yes, I noticed. And the (my?) inability to complete the exam in the 3 hours will also lead to my failure. This exam was the worst that could happen to me, I like mathematics and thinking, not using my calculator.
The exam was testing time management and ability to keep overview on mess, not much more in my opinion.

But what I can also say on my experience during learning: for this kind of messy questions I really improved my speed while practicising. Unfortunately not enough at the end…

Up to now, I am optimistic that special training on these time consumption questions will enable to solve such a messy paper in 3 hours with the needed 50%.
Maybe I will reverse this impression when I get a result of 30% 😉

[salmiak]

@lunix: I had no more time to read the question, so might be a liquid source and you are right with your argumentation. I just wrote in the last 3 or 4 minutes standard comments on high volume sales hoping they would fit.

I agree to teddy, core topics of P4 were asked, no special things and nothing intellectually challenging at the end… But for me difficulty was time management and avoiding mess (3 ccys, large numbers, long inflating calculations) as well as untypical question wording, requiring more time for me to simply understand the question.

I guess I simply did not put enough effort in studying.

[salmiak]

@lunix: thanks for your reply 🙂

for the CAMP theory I guess it’s more relevant how much % the shares make in the sellers portfolio, not how many % of the total shares are sold (or did I miss this info in the tetxt??) relevant is volatility of whole portfolio, not that of a single share and this is increased if whole PF gets unbalanced. selling needs not to unbalance but should be taken into consideration.
but I guess my writing time for this was wasted…

concerning the dark pool I have the same, selling so many shares at once could lead to price decrease and thus losses. especially if market takes some time to pick of the shares.

[salmiak]

concerning the shares question: did no one write about capital market theory and that the sales of such a large number of shares could unbalance the portfolio and that this should also be considered?

[salmiak]

I also got 68 contracts as time for which hedge is required is 6 months (factor 0,5). The full time until future end is needed for unexpired basis to calculate expected futures price.

I started early April with light preparation, approx 4 hours/week and with hard preparation from May 20 onwards. This was my first attempt and I am pretty sure, I will sit the exam again…

[salmiak]

this was really a hard paper, Q1 took me approx. 2 hours… and I am sure I did not calculate the NPV right, I got 540 mio…! this was more focussed on keeping the overview on a big mess of too many too big figures than thinking…

concerning the assumptions I wrote everything that came in my mind, beside the mentioned ones also reputation risk which could lead to inability to hire qualified staff and declining share prices as school’s measures are only short-time… I was really desperate 😀

Q4 was special but manageable/understandable… but too less time, so did not write for all the marks

for Q2 I had no time, I did the a) part maybe well (only 5 marks 🙁 and wrote in b) about capital market theory (risks arising from selling such a large number of shares) because I had no time to have a look at the figures themselves…

I am really wondering whether I got 40 marks at all…

[salmiak]

Ok, many thanks for the search tip 🙂

… and the explanation, which I could have come across by own to be honest… 😉

[salmiak]

The paper was really hard… at lot to think and only few standard questions. I managed to finish it 2 minutes before time, just leaving 2 or 3 potential points out. But I guessed in some cases. I did my best and I am really excited about the results.

[salmiak]

ah, ok. I did not know that.

Thank you 🙂

[salmiak]

For me it seemed to be very easy… never saw an exam easier than that. I managed to prepare all of the questions 😯 … that’s what make me doubt if I oversaw anything…

[Author]

Posts