General ACCA*** ACCA P1 June 2017 Exam was.. Instant Poll and comments ***

How did you find it guys, I regret choosing question 2, I found it challenging especially the principle based part...

@taftan said: How did you find it guys, I regret choosing question 2, I found it challenging especially the principle based part...

I choose question 2, and now i regret for choosing this question :( so sad, but i think question 4 is also difficult.

So damn true about choosing question 2 without reading fully as I was running short of time and thought principles based governance question should be straight forward. With 20 mins left I started this question and found myself feeling miserable in the end when I realised that I had interpreted the question wrongly and wrote a stupid answer for the heck if it. I could have easily chosen q4 . Such a bad decision today. 25 marks at stake. :(((

@anhbao0123 said: I choose question 2, and now i regret for choosing this question :( so sad, but i think question 4 is also difficult.

Nooo!! Question4 was actually straight forward imo. I remember it vaguely ..it was about risk management internal control deficiencies and risk assessment. Easy questions but time consuming as it required elaboration which is y i chose 2 as I had less than half hour to go. Ques 2 turned out to be very twisted and difficult :(

Everything is about time- not enough!!!!

I also chose question 2, do you remember exactly what was it asking? Principles-Based approach and disadvantages if want to try internationlly, right? Principles-based approach, disclosures and diversification was another one. ICGN's guidance for institutional investors was the last one i think?

@tayyabom said: I also chose question 2, do you remember exactly what was it asking? Principles-Based approach and disadvantages if want to try internally, right? Principles-based approach, disclosures and diversification was another one. ICGN's guidance for institutional investors was the last one i think?

Yeah. It was basically the advantages of principles based gov for the fund manager and how voluntary disclosures will help her. Part b was how diversification will help reduce financial risk. Part c was about the reasons to adopt a principles based framework or the features (dont remember well) and d was limitations of that. I remember writing the generic points only and at hindsight I think I'm entirely wrong . :(((((

Question 4 was difficult i regret to choose it, I have done the 100% paper question 1 takes too much time and i think i write it good but q2 and q4 I don't know what examiner required and what did I write?

Do any one what the topic about? I find it hard to understand the question and what they looking for. It seen like this paper on a very niche side this time round

I wrote something like this about disclosures that since principles-based doesn't have any fixed guidelines or rules therefore competitors are disclosing more information due to the fear that if their competitor is doing they have to do as well and then resembling it to Kohlberg's peer pressure in conventional behavior. If your competitor is revealing more information about CSR and stuff then you have to do that as well hence more disclosures. there was no harm in contrasting this information with rules-based approach where there is fixed guidelines which makes it consistent and fixed closures for everyone, that was gist of my answer on disclosures. Diversification to avoid financial risk, you can diversify easily to avoid these 2 things: 1) Liquidity risk - in case there is credit crunch in your economy even if not today it can be tomorrow so diversification covers that risk 2) Currency risk - in country you are operating may deteriorate its currency and therefore diversification is a good idea to cover this aspect of financial risk.

For the benefit of others writing in future : Q1 - a public service organization which provided health care services to people for free out of government funding. The taxpayers wanted the govt to tighten the budgets on freebies and the govt had reduced the funding. So the healthcare authority has started charging people for secondary healthcare services (hearing aid) while primary care was still free. An old lady who was hearing impaired and not provided with the hearing aid suffered injuries in a fire accident as she couldn't hear the fire alarm. So get daughter took up the matter and wanted the org to provide freebies cos it was the elderly people's absolute right to get them . But the authority refused to do it cos of the budget constraints. Second part was about reporting by the authority to the govt abt performance etc.. The org was very particular about regular reporting cos non compliance wud entail penalties. A- stakeholder's conflicting needs (tax payers vs patients ) B- plotting 3 other stakeholders in mendelow matrix C- criticise absolutism theory of the daughter D- a letter by mgmt of healthcare org to stakeholders on Characteristics of info in the reporting , justification for reducing the freebies and sticking to the budget and how performance can be enhanced using 3E model. (D part had 22 marks ) Ques 3 - csr strategy vs strategic csr Identifying the position in gray Owen Adams matrix . Features of social and environmental audit and why it wud improve the assurance given by integrated reporting. There was also another part here..I can't remember that properly.

The real challenge is that what topics examiner testes from book to apply.

@aminb001 said: I thought you were meant to write about the type of investments to choose when trying to avoid financial risk. I.e. negatively correlated investments so that if one goes down, the other one goes up and offsets the financial loss/risk? Or doing stuff like backward/forward/horizontal integration?

So whatever these marks were gone for me :( what about my approach on disclosures, seems right?

@kireeti said: Mendelow matrix for all three.Anyone? Also, what happen if you put wrong roll no on additional Paper?

Doctor - high interest low power The funding agency - high interest and high power The health authority - high interest low power ( I wrote this cos question first said doctors were concerned abt it but couldn't do much abt it and 'similarly the authority was also forced to reduce budget' or something like that..) I mentioned that explicitly which is y i took them with low power. I also said if they could demonstrate higher power they will be key players like the funding agency.

what were the disadvantages of principles-based approach?

@tayyabom said: So whatever these marks were gone for me :( what about my approach on disclosures, seems right?

Even I wrote something dramatically different like how flexible they are and how it can save time and efforts and encourage more disclosures which is why selecting investments is better etc etc.. Rofl.. 25 marks gone :D

@nidsy said: Doctor - high interest low power The funding agency - high interest and high power The health authority - high interest low power ( I wrote this cos question first said doctors were concerned abt it but couldn't do much abt it and 'similarly the authority was also forced to reduce budget' or something like that..) I mentioned that explicitly which is y i took them with low power. I also said if they could demonstrate higher power they will be key players like the funding agency.

there were three stake holders: 1) RICE - High Power - Low Interest 2) Oldshires - Low Power - High Interest 3) Doctors - Low Power - High Interest That's what I wrote. RICE low interest because there is no hint that they opposed this reduction. If they were pro-health care then why they didn't take any action? that was my opinion anyway.

@tayyabom said: what were the disadvantages of principles-based approach?

Can be diluted easily and made to look like simple box ticking and unless ethical culture exists it can be circumvented easily as the emphasis is more on complying voluntarily unlike rules based which is penalty driven.

Toughest question i've ever seen in P1(Today) trust me,it was disaster and requirements were so so confusing.

@tayyabom said: there were three stake holders: 1) RICE - High Power - Low Interest 2) Oldshires - Low Power - High Interest 3) Doctors - Low Power - High Interest That's what I wrote. RICE low interest because there is no hint that they opposed this reduction. If they were pro-health care then why they didn't take any action? that was my opinion anyway.

Rice has high interest as they are directly involved in the issue right ? It is through them that the funds get disbursed and they are definitely interested as they will be impacted which is why they even want the reporting done. I maybe wrong..dunno. But I feel there's no specific right or wrong answer for this part of the question as there aren't enough facts.

I also chose question 2 only because I ran out of time and with only 15mins left it seemed like the logical decision. Wrong! But question 4 was too long however, would've probably been much much easier. But guys how did you do the mendelow matrix? I took me almost 20mins trying to figure that out.

@nidsy said: Doctor - high interest low power The funding agency - high interest and high power The health authority - high interest low power ( I wrote this cos question first said doctors were concerned abt it but couldn't do much abt it and 'similarly the authority was also forced to reduce budget' or something like that..) I mentioned that explicitly which is y i took them with low power. I also said if they could demonstrate higher power they will be key players like the funding agency.

I wrote the same doctors and local authority were keep informed. Both had low power both high interest. Rice was a key player.

Letter had 3 elements: 1) explain budget situation 2) 3E's 3) characteristics of performance reporting about part 3, I used ACCURATE mnemonic, was that it or something else?

I tought Rice was very interested they wanted to know how each authority was performing againts targets and required reports. They were also powerful they had the ability to decide how much each authority got and they could fine them for not sticking to budget.

@tayyabom said: Letter had 3 elements: 1) explain budget situation 2) 3E's 3) characteristics of performance reporting about part 3, I used ACCURATE mnemonic, was that it or something else?

Me too but I left question one till last so I managed to mention all of accurate in my answer but I didn't have time to explain them. Could have done with another half hour or more!

@aminb001 said: With regards to questions 1e iii, i used ACCURATE but i thought it meant into in the context of the scenario.

Yeah i related with the scenario wherever possible but on the lines of ACCURATE.

@aminb001 said: 2a Describe elements of principles based and why Julia would benefit from volutary disclosures when finding investments - 12 Marks 2b Ways of diversifying risk in Julias investments - 4 Marks 2ci Why companies like AAM Investment funds should follow principles of harmonisation of global governance standards written by ICGN - 5 Marks 2cii Limitations of Principles based rules for Julia & AAM - 4 Marks

I remember that question a ask benefit from the voluntary disclosure environmental reporting. So I think we need to answer the benefit of disclosure of environmental reporting.

@essem said: not enough time, spent maybe 15 minutes extra on question 1 thought I would be ok but had a knock one effect on all the others. question 2a) 12 marks wtf? can anyone remember the diversification question wording? also did question 4. part a) wrote half a page of crap, thought it was worded strangely and in my answer I was regurgitating the case with no theory and then it hit me, Tuckers 5 stage model. Managed to write something down in relation to this but at the point in the exam I had the writing of a 5 year old with a broken arm

I feel ya man!! Your 5 year old anlogy legit made me laugh cos its so relatable ..cos even I did the same in the end haha!! Extremely time pressured.

@aminb001 said: I chose social ecologist because it spoke so much about social and environmental footprint resolution and that is what social ecologist underpins. Expedients do minimum CSR so having environmental and social audit in that position seems extreme.

I went with social contract although i think social ecologist would have been more correct. Reason I chose this was because they kept mention the honeybuzz brand and strategic CSR. They were clearly in business to make a profit however they felt they should give back to society. Hopefully both are right as there is arguments for both stances.

@aminb001 said: I chose social ecologist because it spoke so much about social and environmental footprint resolution and that is what social ecologist underpins. Expedients do minimum CSR so having environmental and social audit in that position seems extreme.

I decided to let the examiner decide by saying the company cud be an expedient or a social ecologist depending on the real intentions which weren't fully given in the question haha :P 'when in doubt confuse the examiner' was what I did.. :D