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Passed with a nice mark, delighted, hope it went well for everyone, it was a peculiar paper which suited me but it wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea.
I am sure those that didn’t get it this time will succeed next time out.
Best of luck to those.
At midnight 64 might be a 46 or a 46 a 64, think I will need to double check in the morning
I am a finalist waiting on p6 Ireland, just take a chill pill folks, its not life and death, if we don’t get it this time, we will get it next time, nothing can change that we gave it our best shot in December, best of luck everybody!
All the colleges are good to be fair, you just need to find the right lecturer for the right subject, for each subject there are 2 or 3 really good options, nevertheless either way, the work has to be put in.
Strange exam, did q4 and q5 as two options. Thought both questions nice, q2 was very doable, q1 was a mix bag but at least if you didnt know something it was smaller marks, ppr relief, seed capital and start up relief, werent bad, q2 part a loss consortium relief for 10 marks was very reasonable.
Learn the basic models but more importantly practice past questions. Look at the requirement in each question and do up an answer plan of bullet points what you would say, i.e. strengths / weaknesses – what does it mean for case co., what’s the story in the case? what’s the financial information saying, for example it could be 3 different business units?. Knowing what the question is asking is half the battle. Also know all your F5 stuff back to front.
The majority of the marks is the application of the models, I passed it well in last sitting using template like,
As………….make your point, this means / this is a strength because………..reasoning
or if its a model like mendelow eg,
As employees have high interest because their jobs are at stake and have low power because they are not unionised and cant influence decision, mendelow states these stakeholders should be kept informed.
This means…….co. should have a strategy to deal……etc etc.
Do not draw unless asked to state it / draw it, very few marks go for stating the model, its application and justifying your decision is where the marks are in my view.
Whilst agreeing with the general thrust that you need to have knowledge of the whole syllabus, some subjects such as P1 / P3 have a lot to cover and reality is no repeat of topics from one paper to another has occurred in recent times, so if something has come up in September extensively, it is unlikely to come up in December and allows students to focus in areas that have been lightly examined, I do not think its unreasonable for students to focus on areas that have been lightly examined in priority to areas that have been recently examined such as September.
Just as an illustration, the P7 pass rate fell from 40% in June to 29% in September, a drop by 28%.
Surely the examiner report is critical to explain this drop and where students went wrong.
In the absence of this, students are actually disadvantaged in December compared to those in previous sittings.
I have already passed this paper so I am not saying this from a personal perspective.
Critically and most important, after every exam, ACCA have produced an examiner report which is vital to students preparations. In fact, some examiners specifically state that students are not reading these reports.
Will ACCA produce examiner reports for September 2015, if not it flies in face of their own advice to students, if they do produce reports, how relevant can report be in the absence of questions and answers?
The examiner reports are critical for student advancement and is advocated by ACCA examining team and this is compromised with very little comment made on it.
in my view part b) was set out really bad, numbers where everywhere it wasn’t clear what and who was doing what, I had council at 50k profit and then 70k profit on the current situation, it did not give greendream costs and the contract said 10% of profit, the financial case for me I sat on the fence and said it was not over whelming because 1) 10% to council was based on profits not revenue, 2) the 50% take up may not be accurate since its free service at the moment, 3) additional financial costs for increased fly-tipping which wasn’t considered.
needs and objectives for stakeholders is similar to previous P1 question on it, spoke about communications and objectives for different stake holders because they could prevent, disrupt or cause reputational damage and ethical issues to consider, also outlined the mend matrix in this section about power and interest to try and nail mark or two
TGee, that’s sounds reasonable.
I think you got mendelow justification right, I was slightly different to you but justified different stance on CEO and regulator.
Also theory on stakeholders hoped to grab 3 out of 4 marks going for that.
Q4. ABC costing and variances was a nice question, hoping to get 16-18 out of 25 here, flexing the budget showed the sales performance to be poor, materials and labour variances favourable and a problem with fixed costs budgeting. I mentioned there may have been a step cost that wasn’t budgeted for originally because activity had been higher than previously budgeted. That brought on to section b which was ABC costing and if it was suitable to co. Really nice question, if you knew F5, which for some reason I surprisingly could.
To be honest, I never read all the scenario in q1, its too long, just scan it and go to the requirements straight away and see what they are looking for. Time management in this exam I feared to be the toughest but todays paper I finished it all with a minute to spare. How well I finished it is another matter…best of luck everyone.
Looked at question 1 and went what!! But stayed calm, was actually a nice 20 marker, just follow the template for the other one.
Outsourcing financial case was tough, figures were all over the place and weren’t that clear.
Mendelow is friendly.
Q4. was F5.
Q3. Obscure too, F5 stuff
Not much P3 stuff examined which is unfair to some considering the amount of information that has to be covered.
I didnt even cop on to that into the exam.
Surely IAS2 Fr. Jack drinking the stock might have got you an audit risk mark!!
