APM*** ACCA P5 March 2018 Exam was.. Instant Poll and comments ***

Time always seems to be an issue with this exam? Digesting, interpretation, analysis and developing a relevant answer in relation to the scenario is time consuming.

Agree, need more time!! I think I might spent a little too much time on question 1 and not enough time for question 3...

The exam went well. However, could have been better

..too much to read, analyze and interpret in too little time.. some questions were also very vague - but that's the case with this paper anyway.. I'd still vote 'Hard'..

What were the main topics?

Did anyone attempt Q2? What is unified database exactly? Don't tell me it was to do with EIS or ERPS... I kind of just went with the flow... told them Unified database is where all departments are linked and etc...

Q1... cascading down the business through CSF's and KPI's... went for some points around the performance pyramid and spoke generally, ZBB marks were pretty easy to grab with general definitions, characteristics and comparisons to incremental which was used in the case. Q2... UCD seemed as though the issues were clearly in the case study to pick out and develop into points in the answer... easy marks here it seems? basically time, cost(long term cost benefits), reliability, flexibility and differentiation improvements with a UCD. Q3... EVA calc, not sure if i added or deducted the right depn, one way meant a huge value destruction and the other a small value added... i ended up with a destruction and made the point to compliment the figure i got. Hopefully that gets credit! Fingers crossed for the results!

q1 (i) csfs and kpis (ii)how wms strategy link to glc strategy (iii) (iv) incremental vs zbb plus link to wms q4 (i) effective transfer pricing (ii)performance related remuneration from profit to share options q3 (i) value base management (ii)value base management to adapt to current performance (iii) EVA

Q3 (c) EVA NPAT 10 Add: Interest 15 Less: Tax effect on interest (3) Add: Capitalization of ad. expense 0.6 Add: Accounting depreciation 6 Less: Economic depreciation (14) ?? amount NOPAT 14.6 Capital employed 250 Less: accumulated economic depreciation (16) Add: Reversal of provisions at the beginning of the period 4.8 Adjusted capital employed 238.8 WACC=0.6*0.1*(1-0.2)+0.4*0.12=0.096=9.6% EVA=14.6-238.8*9.6%= -8.32 Any idea??

I think the topics were okay but it's the bloody time pressure. I hope I scrape through, this was my second attempt. P5 and P3 are the exams with which you simply can't tell how well you did. It's a massive syllabus and they can ask any little thing/topic either as a small 5-6 mark question or as a full 25mark one. I feel like it's never ending. Impossible to know everything in detail. I love performance management but I hate this paper and can't wait to have it over and done with. Once I pass , I will treat myself to something and celebrate it. Btw I was good at performance management at uni but this paper sucks.

And I don't even bother reading other students comments about calculations and their answers because it only adds to people's stress. Exam is done, you guys need to forget about it and stop discussing your answers because it is down to the markers to assess it and you all unnecessarily stress each other out. No point.... What's done is done just move on, relax and study for your next exam. There is no way to tell with this type of essay-like exam like P5 and P3 whether you did well or not. Some think they failed but they indeed passed. Some think they passed and they wrote a lot etc etc etc then they get a slap in the face with a big FAIL on the result day.

@olshevskiy said: Any idea??

I also adjusted NPAT for tax effect on Tax effect of depreciation charge and reversal of bad debt provision as payment took place during the year. Capital employed - got the same and WACC as well. EVA was also negative But my presentation of calculation was a bit messy I took q2 - though it was about big data and built my answer around that. Not sure if it is correct but keep fingers crossed

@olshevskiy said: Q3 (c) EVA NPAT 10 Add: Interest 15 Less: Tax effect on interest (3) Add: Capitalization of ad. expense 0.6 Add: Accounting depreciation 6 Less: Economic depreciation (14) ?? amount NOPAT 14.6 Capital employed 250 Less: accumulated economic depreciation (16) Add: Reversal of provisions at the beginning of the period 4.8 Adjusted capital employed 238.8 WACC=0.6*0.1*(1-0.2)+0.4*0.12=0.096=9.6% EVA=14.6-238.8*9.6%= -8.32 Any idea??

I got the same for NOPAT and WACC but i think i got a different CE... either way im in the same boat as you, negative EVA, value destroyed! With a comment should pick up most of the calc marks, maybe 8-10 of the 11 here..... FINGERS CROSSED

Question 1-used prism as a model to link mission to kpis, said dashboard was focused on one aim of clg, didn’t pick up on the public vs private detail in benchmark...totally went over my head and zero based budgeting was ok Question 3-vbm talked about creating value for shareholders and customers, full participation throughout org, etc...very vague though...calculated Eva but was negative...didn’t have time to comment Question 4-transfer part ok Share options only a few points Third attempt! Thought it was my toughest p5 yet

Is it just me or was the scenario in Section A just confusing? >.<

Sigh,,.. just sigh. It was an ok paper for me, but due to some traffic getting to park at the exam centre and the exam staff setting the clocks 5 minutes earlier than regular time, I didn't fill out the cover before I started as I got there as soon as they said begin. :-| Time ran out just as I was filling out the cover sheet of the answer booklet. All I got in was my name and student ID .... Just sigh... I have no idea if they'll even mark my paper now or if I just wasted the session..... *sob*

Q 2 and 3 were okay.. Section A 1 i and ii were confusing, not enough data to benchmark.. What are we suppose to benchmark? A had more collections than VMS? B had recycled more waste than A? I just didn't get it

I don't think that they doubled collection of days. It was saying every X number of days , which would mean every 14 days the collections took place? Which is in line with the benchmark against org A , as A had collection every 7 days their staff cost was higher compared to WMS..or this is what I think.

I think you had to create metrics like cost per tonne , labour cost per tonne , % split of private / commercial/ public-other , recycle vs landfill and show all as percentages in order to do the analysis and commentary...

A, B & C were (in my head anyway) categorised as ... like for like, aspires to be like , private sector

I agree. And I used 3E value for money as a guide for analysis

Never even crossed my mind I felt so under pressure after the horrible part a of q1! Threw me off completely! And I’m normally good at benchmark questions...barely did a calc. Q4 for me was definitely the easiest

@ds3ce said: And I don't even bother reading other students comments about calculations and their answers because it only adds to people's stress. Exam is done, you guys need to forget about it and stop discussing your answers because it is down to the markers to assess it and you all unnecessarily stress each other out. No point.... What's done is done just move on, relax and study for your next exam. There is no way to tell with this type of essay-like exam like P5 and P3 whether you did well or not. Some think they failed but they indeed passed. Some think they passed and they wrote a lot etc etc etc then they get a slap in the face with a big FAIL on the result day.

You inspired me not to visit this thread again! See you all the 16th of April.

@cm69170 said: Q1... cascading down the business through CSF's and KPI's... went for some points around the performance pyramid and spoke generally, ZBB marks were pretty easy to grab with general definitions, characteristics and comparisons to incremental which was used in the case. Q2... UCD seemed as though the issues were clearly in the case study to pick out and develop into points in the answer... easy marks here it seems? basically time, cost(long term cost benefits), reliability, flexibility and differentiation improvements with a UCD. Q3... EVA calc, not sure if i added or deducted the right depn, one way meant a huge value destruction and the other a small value added... i ended up with a destruction and made the point to compliment the figure i got. Hopefully that gets credit! Fingers crossed for the results!

___________________________________________________________________ Q1 part A , what does it want exactly? i'm not clear with the requirement. So my aswer was explain the meaning of the Mission, CSFs and KPI and how they are related to each other. Also, part C the Benchmarking, how do we answer this question?

I agree-Adios

Q1. a, Explanation of mission, CSF, and KPI of WMS & GLG, 10 b, Performance evaluation of WMS, 10 c, bench marking of WMS, with A,B,C, 12 d, Zero based budgeting, incremental budgeting. 14 4professional marks. Question 3. a, Explanation of value based management. 5 b, change in management for use of value based manage, - 9 c, EVA - 11 Question 4. a. Transfer prizing -12 b. share option - 13 marks I am fkup, good luck to all of you!

@tomlloyd393 said: Q1 (ii) Wasn't this more asking about the adequacy of the dashboard i.e. no qualitative data etc and not about WMS performance??

To my mind, that was exactly about the adequacy of the existing dashboard in the light of WMS/GLG mission, CSFs and KPIs.

Q1. Waste management services WMS, not for profit a/ Advise how to cascade from mission to KPIs b/ Evaluate existing performance metrics c/ Evaluate performance and bench marking with A,B,C from other countries d/ Evaluate use of ZBB for Air Pollution project and compare it to incremental budgeting used currently Scenario was a little confusing and I did manage to write everything I wanted, time management was tough... Q2. Company designing, producing, selling womens shoes a/ Benefits of database system - currently they have one person preparing spreadsheet with data about sales, prices, competititors. There were plenty of benefits to describe from capturing, processing to presenting data, speed, quality, .... many easy marks. b/ Problems with performance management in joint venture with company producing childrens shoes - companies seemed to have different stragegies - differentiator and cost leader. Very similar to question APM 6/14, part c, some easy marks. Question 4. One division purchaisng tomatos and producing pulp. Another division selling canned product from pulp. a/ Propose improvements in trasfer pricing between divisions. They currently use full cost + 15%. Very theoretical question, no calculations required. Basically easy marks, but only if you knew theory very well. b/ Compare current profit-related remuneration scheme with proposal to give share options to managers - many easy marks to spot in scenario.

Appears like i might be here for sometimes with this paper on my back..may be i try P6 i get over with this qualification