FR*** ACCA Paper FR March 2019 Exam was.. Instant Poll and comments ***

On the lemon and lime q i totally messed up, couldn't do the adjustments for section a so had to just do ratios on non adjusted figures. Hopefully managed to get some marks from the ratios and comments on the non adjusted figures. fingers crossed for a pass, guessed alot of the MCQ

I didn’t get a lemon & lime question?! I found the exam quite odd, I had hardly anything on consolidated groups, or goodwill etc which I had revised heavily. I had a strange question about sheep and biological assets, including apportionment of overheads. I had to double check I was doing the right exam. Not sure how I’ve done, my interps on the final question about Samba Co were not strong at all, I had total mind blank and panicked as the time was running down. Ended up running out of time half way through a sentence!

I just got back from giving the exam. It was a good exam, but lengthy. Section A had lots of Group questions very similar to bpp kit mcqs, some asking to tell which is part of any IFRS or IAS. Section B was easy, one question was regarding Borrowing cost with PPE, another about investment property, one about taxation and another about revenue. Section C included Consolidation of SOPL and ratios. The consolidation question was very simple but the Ratios question was tricky. They had given a company Citrus who wanted to acquire a subsidiary and had option either Lemon or Lime and the first part required calculating the following in the Cost Model for Lime Co (as Lime’s N.C.A had been calculated at revaluation model and Lemon’s at Cost model). We had to adjust N.C.A, operating expenses and equity. While part b and c was to calculate ratio and interpret.

I found section a and b not to bad which I was happy about as this is my second attempt then got to section c and it all went wrong. I had the sambo question and another question about ratios which I can calculate but am no good at explaining what they show. I had revised statement of financial positions and goodwill etc a lot and was hoping a question like that would come up. I’m hoping I can scrap 50% but not sure as section c probably only got about 8-10 marks all together.

I got the Samba questions as well. Left me confused. I completely forgot how to calculate disposal. I am also resitting and I am not confident that I pass.

Does it mean that we wrote different quetions? This is very strange to me.How on earth can ACCA prepare different quetions for the same exam? i can see from the comments people are taking about citrus and limon company which I never saw in the CBE. But is it fair that students can be writing different quetions at the same time.Am getting worried about the way ACCA is handling these exams,.

I feel it’s wrong we sit different generated exams as I don’t think it’s fair

I just did proceeds and then a separate calculation of net assets, goodwill and minused nci for the disposal but i don’t think the figures were right but I had no idea what else to do. I think section c has ruined my chances of passing ??

I got Lemon and Lime. Pretty much did only the b) and c) part without the adjustments. Wrote a lot of explanation to make up. The Consolidated profit and loss felt too easy. Finished it in 30 mins but kept going back to it like I was missing something. Goodwill was about 6,999, pro rated the sub, got a loss after tax and blanked out at dividends. The MCQs were slightly tougher than I expected and didn't expect that many question about fleece! Never read that chapter but I guessed them right luckily. Overall, it was pretty difficult and hope I squeeze in about 50%!

I had also had Lemon and Lime section C...For the equity adjustment crazily I did adjust for the extra depreciation in terms of the revaluation but forgot to adjust for the actual revaluation itself in equity! Hopefully this doesn't screw me coz obv I relied on this figure later for gearing etc. The other annoying thing is I forgot to do ROCE comparisons in the discussion which prob would have been 2-4 marks. Other than that as a whole was ok overall.

@emily1001 said: I found section a and b not to bad which I was happy about as this is my second attempt then got to section c and it all went wrong. I had the sambo question and another question about ratios which I can calculate but am no good at explaining what they show. I had revised statement of financial positions and goodwill etc a lot and was hoping a question like that would come up. I’m hoping I can scrap 50% but not sure as section c probably only got about 8-10 marks all together.

I felt exactly the same!!! I revised consolidated groups and goodwill and SOFP etc and nothing came up, I was so annoyed as my tutor had said these areas are heavily tested, was totally gutted when I saw the section C questions!

Had no absolute idea on what to write or where to start on the Pirlo and Samba Question. That was such a disasterous question. I've managed my profit or loss question but not really sure if I'll get full marks. Day and night all day I practised a lot of questions on the Group accounts and Single company accounts and of course the other chapters and I was told that it's highly likely to have a single company or group accounts as one of the 20 Mark question. I underestimated the writing part thinking I could come up with something with the writing. Turns out I couldn't. Most of the questions on my CBE was from the disposals and Intangible assets. Didn't get anything from Cash Flow A and B were OK but not so great. This was my first attempt and I really wanted to be satisfied when I was coming out of the exam hall. I wasn't. Aiming to get atleast in the 40s

I honestly felt like I was doing a different exam to what I was lead to believe would be involved in the FR exam. Nothing on consolidation, I also have the Pirlo and Samba question which was really difficult to interpret. Also the question on free marketing I had no idea as to what to do with it, I put it as an intangible asset but on reflection I think it maybe should not of been recognised at all??? Pretty sure I’ve failed this exam ? so disappointed ?

Okay I’m starting to feel like reading these forums doesn’t help my anxiety at all! I thought sections A and B were very average, not great and not awful, most an educated guess. Then I got to section C and it all fell apart. I had the goodwill and consolidated SOPL for Strawberry which I didn’t even have time to check afterwards so god only knows - then I had the absolutely horrendous Lemon and Lime question everyone is mentioning. I seem to be the only person on this thread who opted to invest in Lemon! My adjustments to NCA, Equity and Ops weren’t even worth the time I wasted on them as I know I got 0/4 on this. Roll on 6 weeks for the results because at this moment in time I’m not feeling confident at all and I did a lot of preparation!

The highlight and strike out function on both Section C, and one of Section B questions did not work, making it really difficult to highlight the important data. Invigilators said it wasn't a fault, it was the way ACCA set up the program! Did anyone else have this problem? The exam was nothing like the practice questions and test papers that I have done. The Samba question was a nightmare. I did a lot of practice questions on SFPs, SPLOCIs, Cashflow and consolidated financial statements, but nothing on disposal of a subsidiary. That is such a small topic, how could they put that as a Section C question! Think I'll be resitting in June.

I don't suppose anyone might know, in the Lemon and Lime, should the inventory ratio have been inventory/cost of sales or cost of sales/inventory?

The exam was not difficult but tricky though. Section A had lot of consolidation questions which was kind odd. Section B had weird sheep question. Section C was actually easy but I couldn't complete the paper due to time management issue. Not so sure about the exam fingers crossed. I have started studying after a gab of 4 years now so it was very difficult for me to concentrate all these months.

Studying! Practising! Confident of a pass only to be faced with confusing, much too long exam questions way different from published practice material!!! Really? I will liken whoever sets these exams to an imp rubbing his hands with glee because of the grief he/she will give to students. Samba and Pirlo? And that long Section B Scenario!! Putting in irrelevant information to muddle people up in such a time pressured exam. Consider that people have to stare at a computer screen for 3 plus hours straight examiner!!!!! And navigating that PRIMITIVE CBE thing in this day and age! Best of luck on your journey all you stoic ones. Mine ends today. Time for my fork in the road. Goodbye to ACCA. I'm done with them. I feel lighter now. :) NO MORE ACCA. BURDEN LIFTED. There are other education options that seek the best interest of students.

I didn't think it was too bad an exam although no idea if I have passed. I changed my approach for this exam, previously I would just start at Section A and work my way through and then end up running out of time on the written response questions. So I started with Section C this time. I got the Lemon and Lime question as well as the Strawberry SOPL question. I overran on Lemon and Lime and only completed parts A & B initially as the Word Processing box was too small. The exam centre hasn't caught up from 2001 and still has 17" square monitors which didn't help. I also found the highlighting tool wasn't working properly as it would only allow you to highlight all the text on a bullet rather than the individual words as its supposed to. Someone else also mentioned the highlight feature not working properly. Luckily the SOPL allowed be to claw some time back although I had no idea what to do with the dividend in the SOPL. I also managed to claw some time back on Sections A & B, I remember the free marketing question, I went for don't include as the company hasn't expensed anything for it, no idea if correct though. I also recall the Fleece questions, those questions were more apt for F2 in my opinion. Some people above have mentioned the length of the Section C scenarios, I didn't get the Samba question so no idea on that one but the ones I got were fairly short compared to what you get in AA(F8), those scenarios are long and you get 3 questions in that exam. Anyway, I hope everyone passes. I plan on doing F9 next in September providing I passed this one. I am skipping the June session as I need a break from studying. Regards

I got Samba and Pirlo. Hated that question, hadn't really studied disposal that much and thought that would feature only as an MCQ or Section B question. Didn't expect so much emphasis on the agricultural accounting, so wasn't prepared for that at all. I had studied a lot for consolidated SFP and had expected a 20 mark question on that, so that was annoying. However, section A was OK, a lot of similar questions in there. Overall not too bad, just the things I expected didn't really come up. Not that confident on either of my section C questions but hopefully I've done enough.

The multiple choice questions were challenging. I wasted so much time trying to get the adjustments in part C Lemon and Lime that I did not have time to fully complete the PL which is my stronger area. I was not able to write my figure for goodwill because I was calculating my NCI % of FV at date of acquisition when the screen disappeared (time up). wow! I was doing a working where I put the share capital at reporting date, acquisition date and post acquisition date, made my fv adjustment and was calculating the depreciation and the suddenly the screen went blank and the exam was ended. I don't know how many marks I can score with that for the good will question because I did calculate the consideration and put the FV of NCI which was the % shares x the share price but as it relates to the figure to substract to get goodwill that was not completed. What are your thoughts on this? Secondly having noticed that I did not have much time I went ahead to begin putting in some figures in my PL but in the rush I forgot to prorate the sub and I entered the figures at 100% of sub instead of the 80%, I think in the rush I also substracted the adjustment of intra company sale from cost of sale instead of adding to get the cost of sales figure. I did put in the pups, but forgot the depreciation adjustment which I should have gotten if I had completed the question for goodwill. I didn't get a change to read the question well and so I don't know if I missed anything that should be adjusted for. I got a loss after tax. But had not time to recheck anything. What do you guys thinks about this, having calculated at 100% will I still get any marks here? I felt I should have looked on this question before attempting Lemon and Lime.

I think you were correct in having them at 100% I think the adjustment for percentages is only done at the end for retained earnings? However it did need to be pro-rated by 9/12 coz they'd only had the subsidiary for 9 months.

Thank you for responding, I didn't read the question well because of lack of time, I'm feeling disappointed about it. I hate these exams because to much pressure makes it difficult to even concentrate when there are so much information to search for. I am wondering will I still be awarded marks although the figures were not prorated?

@france125 said: Thank you for responding, I didn't read the question well because of lack of time, I'm feeling disappointed about it. I hate these exams because to much pressure makes it difficult to even concentrate when there are so much information to search for. I am wondering will I still be awarded marks although the figures were not prorated?

I am 1000% sure you don't pro rate from 100% to 80%, Chris one of the tutors was says in one of his lecture that you don't do that, if you do that you may just go home as you will fail...so be confident about that...but if you are referring strictly at the pro rate fr midd year acquisition then is okay, we had to consolidate only the 9 months... You get marks even if your numbers are wrong as far as I know, if your workings are fine...Best of Luck

Thank you Alina, I think in the rush and disappointment of things I was doubting and becoming confuse. Maybe I can get 3 out of the 5 for the incomplete goodwill calculation and some marks form the PL.

For section A I have mostly business combination and consolidated account adjustments for group, some of conceptual FW and some on the impairment of assets. For section B I have (OMG!!?), government grant, agricultural and revaluation. I got the SoPL and Lemon and Lime also. But for Strawberry I have a profit after tax deduction. For Consolidated PL, we need to show Profit contributable to NCI and parent separately. So the after profit for sub was time-apportioned 9/12 months and I did like 2 adjustments: 1. Extra depreciation - Plant 2. Inventory FV increase (accounted for on acq.) Then scale down to NCI proportion. => NCI’s share of profit after acq. For the group SoPL, I have a few adjustments 1. Extra Dep’n - Plant 2. Inventory - FV increase was already accounted 3. Unwinding of deferred consideration - Finance costs 4. UP (sale is from parent to sub - if I remember correctly). Then substract the NCI’s profit from final group profit, we have profit contributing to Parent. Finally for Lemon and Lime. I did go with Lemon, looking at the final figures, however, considering that Lemon’s profit might be overestimated with historic accounting and problem with liquidity (very low level of cash reserves) but high level of net assets turnover for a high-end company, and since the project is only 6 months in for Lime, my advice was to obtain more information in both companies. Lime for the full report of 1 year after project start and Lemon on the fair value assessment of asset, then we could judge which company should we go for. I couldn’t calculate current asset ratio tho, because I was a bit short of time and wanted to revise on my exam before submission. But the exam wasn’t so bad. I just hope I earned enough to pass *praying*

@hayleyrelph said: I got the Samba and Pirlo question - a bit tricky but hope I managed to write something meaningful in the 12 mark part. The other C question was more manageable - the P&L and OCI, but struggled to squeeze 15 marks' worth out of it. Is is just me or was there no cash flow whatsoever? Would have preferred a long reconciliation question on that!

Was it def OCI? Unfortunately I only did profit and loss. Yeah I would have liked some cash flow qs too...and tax.

@sankenga said: Does it mean that we wrote different quetions? This is very strange to me.How on earth can ACCA prepare different quetions for the same exam? i can see from the comments people are taking about citrus and limon company which I never saw in the CBE. But is it fair that students can be writing different quetions at the same time.Am getting worried about the way ACCA is handling these exams,.

Hi, I can assure you that the ACCA is handling these exams perfectly well. If you are sitting the computer based exam, then you should not expect to see the same questions as appear in other people's exam. Thanks

@emily1001 said: I feel it’s wrong we sit different generated exams as I don’t think it’s fair

Hi, Please rest assured that the processes that the ACCA have ensure that it is fair to all students. Thanks

@alinawallner said: I am 1000% sure you don't pro rate from 100% to 80%, Chris one of the tutors was says in one of his lecture that you don't do that, if you do that you may just go home as you will fail...so be confident about that...but if you are referring strictly at the pro rate fr midd year acquisition then is okay, we had to consolidate only the 9 months... You get marks even if your numbers are wrong as far as I know, if your workings are fine...Best of Luck

You're correct! I do say that in the video so good to hear that you've listened and learned. If we have control then we consolidate the revenue and costs in full from the date we obtained control, so if it is a mid-year acquisition then we pro rate the results. Top work!