FM*** ACCA F9 March 2018 Exam was.. Instant Poll and comments ***

Yes, got the same PBIT inflated due to new expansion.

Hi for q31, we can go either ways about it right with or without the 20% increase, because that will reflect at the end of next year, if we do the expansion at the beginning, same profits remain for higher capital ratio, they just stated after expansion, so it isn't clear whether they were referring to immediately or after a 20% hike. Just my opinion, I had worked it out originally with the 20% hike but then the Market price would be affected, because a year down the lane the whole impact of rights issue is wiped off i.e loss in market value immediately after expansion is lost, which made me rework with existing profits. Just my thoughts. Hope I get some marks for it.

I think this is the hardest paper ever? Some of the MCQs have matching answers and very difficult to pick right one even with good conceptual study. In section C cost of capital the big part of syllabus was almost ignored even the weighted in MCQs was about 4 to 6 marks. What makes things more disaster is investment appraisal question on joint probabilities.... almost 14 marks revolve around joint probabilities in sub parts of the question. Simulation is a broader term I focued on sensitivity analysis to answer this part and changing/varying project cash flows to try to answer simulation. I am not expert but adjusted discount factor is P4 stuff? F9 is more focused adjustment for business risk....asset beta gear and de-gear question. We will wait for tutors comments....???

I think this is the hardest paper ever? Some of the MCQs have matching answers and very difficult to pick right one even with good conceptual study. In section C cost of capital the big part of syllabus was almost ignored even the weighted in MCQs was about 4 to 6 marks. What makes things more disaster is investment appraisal question on joint probabilities.... almost 14 marks revolve around joint probabilities in sub parts of the question. Simulation is a broader term I focued on sensitivity analysis to answer this part and changing/varying project cash flows to try to answer simulation. I am not expert but adjusted discount factor is P4 stuff? F9 is more focused adjustment for business risk....asset beta gear and de-gear question. We will wait for tutors comments....???

This was an ok exam. I felt sections A and B were pretty good and the 2nd question in Section C about TERP and debt/equity was ok too. The really annoying thing wasn't so much that the NPV question in section C was with probabilities, which is actually harder than a simple probability calculation, but that the question isn't taught/looked at in any detail on any of the provider sessions. I actually did attempt to practice a very similar question in the Kaplan exam kit (The only one in the entire book) and it seemed so long to answer, I made the decision that it was unlikely to come up. Not one of the best decisions I ever made. The most annoying thing about this exam is there was hardly anything on Working Capital and nothing on WACC or even a section C question on business valuation/assessment. Oh well, not too confident on passing, but, I never am. GLA

Right it wasn't great. It wasn't a disaster either. I was not well prepared for the exam, I just sat for it with literally just revision notes in my mind. Which is why seeing the question about the joint probability NPV didn't faze me as such. I read Q31 wrong and spent over twenty minutes working on requirements other than the question specified. The only topic i focused on was Working Capital management because I expected a minimum of 10 marks from it, plus others in Section A. I was hella pissed we got only two questions on it. I performed really bad on the MCQs. Overall, I don't expect to pass lol. The question about the shilling exchange rate is still bugging me tho.

1.B 16.A 2.B 17.C 3.D 18.B 4.C 19.B 5.C 20.A 6.A 21. A 7.B 22.C 8.D 23.A 9.B 24.D 10.C 25.D 11.B 26.C 12.D 27.C 13.A 28.C 14.C 29.C 15.D 30.D Anyone who captured his/her answer ? please let us compare it.

On the TERP question.You had to adjust the PBIT for the 20% expansion in caluclating EPS and also adjust for change in finance cost for the debt financing and adjust number of shares for the equity finance. I based the choice of financing on gearing and interest cover since we were given industry average of those 2.

Part A was not too bad. Part B was tricky. Part C Q31 just before Islamic banking was a bit tricky. Though was glad it was only worth 3 & 1 mark. Q32 was ok. I read all material available and watched Mr. Moffat's fantastic lectures, but am impressed by the standard of ACCA questions.

In section B I spent some time on the hedging of an expected foreign receipt and but finally got the answer. If my memory serves me well the question required one to use the average/mid exchange rates to convert. If not the next question. I found that very interesting. I completed the paper with 4 minutes to spare

Mr. Moffat you are the best!

I really think that time given to complete the tasks asked from us is to short. Even if I would like to attend all the subjects, I couldn't. Time is my biggest enemy.

I think this exam was pretty tricky, questions were not difficult at all but not an area that majority of people revise with deep attention. So you know its an easy question but you have lost the approach to the solution, and yet you cannot say its a hard exam.

same thing i am thinking. because it seems like me and everyone here did a completely different exam.

for paper base exam this is what i remember about section A. don't remember order of questions though. not for profit, working capital cycle, how to reduce inflation, cost of discount accounts receivable, senstivity analysis, reverse yield gap, dividend growth model for supernormal profits, conversion value definition, market value loan note, perfect capital marets, SME financing, share price after rights issue with issue costs involved, strong form efficiency market, pecking order theory. Section B and C money market hedge, forward rate. discounted payback period, how to hedge foreign currency risk, business valuation

Anyone remembers how much marks for Section C question 31 paper base for parts b and c where you had to calculate EPS using equity finance and then using debt finance.Was it 4 marks for part b and 4 marks for part C?

@magradia said: for paper base exam this is what i remember about section A. don't remember order of questions though. not for profit, working capital cycle, how to reduce inflation, cost of discount accounts receivable, senstivity analysis, reverse yield gap, dividend growth model for supernormal profits, conversion value definition, market value loan note, perfect capital marets, SME financing, share price after rights issue with issue costs involved, strong form efficiency market, pecking order theory. Section B and C money market hedge, forward rate. discounted payback period, how to hedge foreign currency risk, business valuation

My section A and B sound the same. Section C I had ENPV and WACC. Do you remember seeing the exchange rate quoted v2 - v3 1.18 - 1.21 v2 - v6 1.17 - 1.19 or something like that, numbers made up. I cannot find it anywhere in the study text. Thnxs

I agree! The March F9 was a retake for me and I was shocked at how much harder it was than my first attepmt in Sept 2017. I studied very hard for the exam, read the books, articles, used BPP books and 2 online providers, went through all the past papers and revision kit and... not sure of the effect! I found that some of the A and B questions were checking a very deep understanding of issues, something you wouldn't just read in the books. I really put a lot of effort into the C questions, but must say I didn't expect joint probability, or a calculation of REPO (in section A)! I had no idea how to calculate a new share price when using both debt and equity for business expansion. And it was my first CBE exam, when coming from Excel to the functionality of the exam spreadsheet was quite painful... All in all, I think ACCA overdid it this session!

Regarding the pecking order question, which option was correct... companies will choose unsecured debt first over secured debt, or will choose secured debt over unsecured debt? I put that they would prefer secured debt because it would be cheaper

@LOLABUN The pecking theory states that you take retained earning first, secured debt, unsecured debt and then equity shares.

Thanks lukman! I think that's what I chose.

I also got 7.78% in WACC I have 2 MCQs repeatedly About Macroeconomic Policy objective plus Simulation Adjusted payback. I WANT TO KNOW 10 extra marks will it be counted or not?

My Npv was 0.87$ anybody got same?

What was the Islamic finance question?

@sonalsethia said: Probabilities was very straight forward. Refer to Open tuition notes. That was easy 6 marks. Looks like we all got different section c. Here in India we got One section c was probabilities and another one was Debt vs equity finance for business expansion. I felt MCQs were tricky and section C was easy. Except 6 marks for Islamic finance..that was not expected

What was the Islamic Finance question?

guys lets remember mcq answers.....These will create the result....I remember there was a question about how to value a company.....i choose nrv of asset less liabilities....and onother one that i remeber only that i choose wacc for an answer.....

It was advice to a company on 2 alternative Islamic finance sources besides the usual Equity & Long term Debt. I explained Ijara (....Lease) & Musharaka (....Venture Capital/Partnership). I hope I was right. If you read the 'Technical Article' this should have been relatively easy.

Not sure whats worse: 3 weeks before exams or 3 weeks before results LOL!

1. B 2. A 3. A 4. D 5. C 6. B 7. B 8. B 9. B 10. C 11. B 12. D 13. A 14. C 15. B 16. A 17. C 18. B 19. D 20. A 21. D 22. B 23. A 24. B 25. D 26. C 27. C 28. D 29. C 30. D