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@mustapo said:
How many mark is attributed to the evaluation of the report?There were 14 marks for Q1 part a- evaluation of report
To start with the exam was pretty fair this time around (comparing i sat last two attempts as well). Overall the exam went pretty decent except the EVA part (I messed the a part of that badly).
Q 1- A- 14 marks on evaluation of report – No NFPIS, Mission statement parts not taken into account, Not enough comprehensive financial measures such as liquidity, working capital and gearing ratios, Suggested that report should include a more comprehensive analysis along with NFPIS, measures addressed to specific parts of missions statement and other financial measures.
B- Op per Square meter and Revenue per square meter- Overall decent measures but they on their own not enough to present the part of mission statement ” Using all our resources”, Calculated both measures and briefly compared them, Suggested rivals or past year data should be given as well to compare and look for growth.
C- Residual Income Vs Roce/EPS- Encourages manager to look and build for future as the capitalized investments are taken account of, Good divisional measure compared to ROCE and EPS, ROCE can be manipulated by holding assets which are aged.
D- Calculated ROCE- Expected values of Revenues around 13.05M and Op margin around 4.9% smth, calculated ROCE and argued that it is not comprehensive enough measure for company to decide on new stores to be built, NPV should be used and Effects of new store on ROCE should be calculated.
E- Information systems- Customer Retention, Customer Loyalty, Increases knowledge base of the company regarding customers, Buying habits, Aggressive marketing and a more target based approach.
Attempted Q2 and Q4.
Q2 A- BPR- Changes to production lines, faster production, greater motivated workforce, autonomy, improved production lines and methods, employees having a feeling of their own (freedom), adaptability, savings on Supervisor costs, particular disadvantages could be quality compromised and inconsistency and behavior issues of machinists regarding how they see the change
B- Bonus on number of times sewn per week is outdated after BPR, suggested team bonus should be announced related to quality standards being in place, can use a grading system for Jackets produced, A bonus should be given to team over number of A (best) graded Jackets produced and a further bonus should be given to team who has most A graded quality jackets made without defects. Also argued briefly that supervisor cost savings could be used to increase hourly wages of machinists.
Q4- A – Calculated EVA- One was negative one was positive, added back lease payments, added back acc depreciation of 1 in each as i thought economic depreciation was 9 and 4 and in income statement 10 and 5 was deducted, added non cash expense, adjusted capital employed as well, Wacc was around 9-10 %.
B- Cant recall what this was about but wrote in favor of EVA being used as performance measure system against traditional methods.
C- Value adding activities vs non value adding activities, shifting management focus, addressing mission statement of maximizing shareholder wealth.
Hoping to scrap a 50 this time around and get done with exams!I don’t think there was any group created at all, So kindly message me at +923463880227 along with your name so that I can create a group.
I got 49% as well, I guess the exam review thing is a waste of money as from what I have heard they just add subtotals and make sure there’s no mistake in that, I’ll rather pay some 40 odd pounds more, prepare better and resit in June.
The exam was rather fair and okayish when compared to what i had expected, Time management was the key and crucial thing, Here’s what i did
Q1- a- EVA. Took opening balance of CE, Adjusted tax in calculation of WACC, Operating lease 115/5- Deducted this as economic depreciation from profit, and added 115-Depreciation in CE, Added RD expense to profit, added marketing expenditure assuming life of the brand was 4 years and ammortised it, EVA was higher then that in question it was 200+.
Q1-b- Different product mix, new products don’t have to be successful
Q1-c- JIT- greater supplier interaction, a culture inducted into company- would decrease wastage, decrease innovation and decrease labour hour as well. Kaizen- Innovation and autonomy to employees, Would increase labour hours, Greater innovation. Zero-defect, Conformance, non-conformance, Increase labour hours as more care is put in quality, Less wastage and Less innovaton.
Q1-d- Had only 20 minutes for this and Q4-d- so blabbered random stuff.
Q3-a- Takes look at wider perspectives so address concerns of all parties involved, helps avoid focus on a particular measure, control, assist in evaluating decisions by different Point of views.
Q3-b- Overcrowded only in Peak time region A, others had spare capacity, government comments were generalized and wrong about whole right to the extent of region A peak times, should be addressed as we depend on government for contract renewal.
Q3-c- cant really remember what was it.
Q4-a- Explained how high threats can be managed, Wrote about barriers of entry for New entrants, Diversification or strategic alliance for substitute, Long term contracts or supplier acquisitions, difficulties to measure and quantify threats, PMs- Dependency on suppliers, sales lost to substitutes, number of potential entrants.
Blabbered random stuff about Part b due to lack of time though wrote that outsourcing would require greater supplier interaction, and management accountant would be asked to analyse data provided by systems.
Hoping for the pass, Attempted 80 marks in full spirit and the other 20 marks were just random blabbered stuff. Overall a fair time-pressured exam.@seagoat same here mate, same exam and same condition as you.
Great and when referencing from website links that are websites of newspapers, should i cite them as websites or documents from websites? And in the year row should i name them all 2015 or the year it was published in?
Hello, I have referenced from a website 3 times in the RAP. Basically there are two links, one used once and another twice. The issue is should i reference the links as
(FFC, 2015a)
(FFC, 2015b)
(FFC, 2015a)OR
(FFC, 2015a)
(FFC, 2015b)
(FFC, 2015c)
First and last links are identical but used two times in RAP, Kindly help!Hello, can anyone tell me do we include Profit after taxation or Total Comprehensive income while calculating Net Profit margin?
Passed P4 with 50, Relieved and kind of interesting to see quite a few people on this forum passing with 50 😀
Can i choose to do a project on a local bank? Like it’s not of that small scale, it operates in the whole country, Banks do attract me and i know someone close working in there so i could get a lot of junks about reports and stuff? Do you think it is suitable ?
Here’s what I did.
Q1 a- I Pestel, ii Five forces iii OT of swot
B- Didn’t had any idea what to do tried putting up conclusions and concluded that bidding directly is suitable but company should look around whether if it as at all worth to join mobile operator industry in TFS.
Q2- A- Put up calculations, calculated total cost of production now and total costs under outsourcing, outsourcing was beneficial by 16500 and mentioned that its a little margin, the only reason outsourcing is benefcial are cost savings and we can make up product b c d cheaper, loss of sales, quality issues, redundancy cost
Q2-b Explained all strategies with relevance to scenario and suggested cost leadership should be followed as labour costs are particularly low and did include that company could look into differentiation if enough cash reserves, focus were out of question.
Q3- a- redefined scope, constraints, objectives
B- sale of land, increase in parking revenue, less congestion, increase in number of commuters using bus, better services, less private cars. Costs including wages and buying buses and lost contribution due to the sale of land
C- Mendelow matrix- mayor power high interest high, Ofroad power high interest low, motorist power low interest unclear
All in all, it was my third attempt and very hopeful that gonna edge it this time around.Plus the questions have not being released yet so how’d you know it was an easy exam? Just wondering.
You’re partly right that it was doable but examiner was messy and it should be compensated who expects a conversion rate of 100’s involving 3 currencies? There were easy marks but Q1 was just asking too much in specified time, You passed it, with high marks, good enough but everyone has their opinion as you just said and people who actually sat the exam unlike you have every right to call the examiner unfair etc.
Well here’s my perspective of the exam.
It was a fair exam, a bit lengthy a bit confusing but that’s what you should expect at the level of P4.
Would i pass? I don’t think so.
Did 3 and 4 from choice.
Q1- Npv was positive, assumed company successfully negotiates the price of components to be 280 and royalty fees increase by 80%, charged tax at 20%, no tax in year 1 and 2, had loss in year 1 carried it forward and set it off against the profit of year 3, npv was something like 56’s. Discounted at 12%, ignored redundancy cost, Stakeholders analysis, their concerns, bad publicity, concluded project should be done but npv should not be looked in to isolation other investment appraisal techniques such as sensivity analysis should be taken, risk of changes in currency movements.
Q3-Did part a fairly well, didn’t had any clue what i was doing in part b and c, tried though.
Q4-Blank on it, tried calculating futures etc. part b did fairly well, wrote about margins, losses charged on mark to market basis.
Overall my only chance of passing is getting around 35+ in Q1 which isn’t realistic but considering i did report in report format concluded well and wrote all assumptions and risks i could think of, It could get me through chances are very low though.Thank you for your help john, But i still feel amazed when i go through book there’s a lot of stuff which i haven’t come across earlier, ill prepared maybe.
Okay thank you very much, I’ll still keep looking for your guidance in these last hours 😀
Is two asset portfolio examinable? I don’t see it’s formula on exam formula sheet in Dec 2014?
Well after looking out what i do with numbers i will most probably take a shot at theory junks.
Thanks, i’ll try. One more question what’s the theory weight age in average P4 exam. Is it 50/50?
By practice do you mean write answers or go through them if I’m struggling with them?
