PM*** ACCA Paper PM December 2018 Exam was.. Instant Poll and comments ***

@dontreeg said: I found all the questions in Section B very difficult especially the Nuclear factory and the theatre one. I thought I was quite well prepared for variances but couldn't even do those.

My exact thought...i studied that topic down to the last minute..thought i was well prepared..but

What was section A 2nd question ans roi And Abc ans

I was pretty well prepared with variances but couldn’t do them in the 10 points question. Unbelievable. I even noticed a mistake in the question for sales variance- the profit for the second material was written 25 price, 15 variable cost, contribution 5

What was materials planning and labour operational varienced Any guess

I presume there are different questions for the exam even if it was sat at the same time? I knew the papers differed from AM to PM but didn't expect the questions to differ in the same sitting.

Sosa In the flexed budget did you apply the formula for variable costs Cost allowance x actual units/budgeted units?

@tyjac said: I studied hard for this exam, but I think I failed! The style of questions is what really made it more hard to understand and apply the calculations. A lot of throughput calculations!! My mind went completely blank, I even forgotten how to do the planning and operational variances!! So gutted!! Some questions appear as though there were missing figures/information in order to apply the calculations like the flexed budget question for section C. Down side, there were a few environmental questions which I simply guessed!!

Exactly my thought

@sosa said: I did a flexed budget. .for six months which involved dividing most figures by 2 with the assumption that sales revenue and costs are generated/incurred evenly throughout the year. Then i adjusted for the three items in the notes (eg material costs falling by 10% in the beginnig of the year meant total direct material costs * 0.9 then divided by 2 to get flexed costs) After flexing everything, i compared flexed results to actual for the variances. The total of all the variances should be equal to the difference between standard flexed profit and actual profit in the table.

Did you apply the formula for variables: Cost allowance x actual units/budgeted units.

Yes, part C was easy because all 4 pieces in part B were very time-consuming. Hopefully, the worst answered wouldn't count.

I had 4 parts in part B.

I found it very hard overall...probably failed. The budget part C I was very pushed for time did the revised budget for the level of activity and revised it for the changes in the notes but then realized afterwards I probably shouldn't have made the changes for materials and labour as I think these were both controllable by the production manager, I didn't have to time to go back and change though coz had to get onto the next questions. Think I got a few marks on talking about why we need to revise the budget atleast.

@tyjac said: This is my third attempt already!! Anyone think going to lecture classes at BPP or Kaplan and attending revision classes would be more beneficial? P.S I only watch lecture videos and don't practice pass exams or practice questions. My workplace is planning to fund my education after new year, I'm afraid the Finance Director might see my exam results history. :(

Seriously? You wonder why you’ve failed two times already. Practice questions and exams are key to passing. Your FD isn’t making a sound investment if he does pay. You aren’t putting in enough work. Are you sure accountancy is right for you? You don’t seem motivated.

Material weren’t controlled by the manager, the new price was via the purchasing manager. I double checked this myself and referenced it in the next question.

The question with margin of safety was horrible. Like most people I studied hard and practiced many question from online past papers u name it and had a practice kit. I want to see what will be acca review on these questions. These people set this exam with an iron heart.

@missboo said: Pretty good for me. Not hard at all but a few marks dropped no doubt. Panicked at the control statement but it was just a flexed budget with variances. I do the variances at work anyway. Few practice questions came up on beyond budgeting so should pick up a mark or two for that even if I was sketchy. Got the three Es but I can’t see any practice questions which cover this. Again I do similar at work so it should be ok. Covered spend per capita, % solves crimes, spending per solved crime for efficiency and some employee no.s per case etc. Then summarised. The nuclear power station was tricky because the numbers were so large. Had the bikes one which was fine - last minute change as realised it wasn’t sales mix then quantity but total quantity. Had the ties and hats questions. Section A was easiest. Surprised (relieved) no minimax regret etc. Or value of information. But no profit maximisation. Lots of learning curve which was good. The equity question was tricky, I got an answer somehow working out interest then debt first.

Hey wanted to ask that the Section C question you are talking about was for Revised Budgetary control statement, or was it a different question? Even I was about to make a mistake regarding the bikes question first q was regarding sales mix and the 2nd about sales quantity dont know what went through my mind ended up doing sales volume variances, corrected last moment. There was a q in section B though regarding Demingo and Luna divisions something regarding throughput and bottleneck do you happen to remember any answers to those? Also remember what you got the Equity as. I feel like it was 10,000 something I could be wrong. But with the help of interest cover ratio and using Operation profit (before tax and interest) there was profit after tax and interest as well. I feel like i got that question correct. It was a very different question. But i remember in one of the examiner's report there was a similar sort of question but it involved operational gearing

@missboo said: Material weren’t controlled by the manager, the new price was via the purchasing manager. I double checked this myself and referenced it in the next question.

Even so, I think the budget has to be adjusted with the new price, And the manager will not be kept responsible for the variance. Otherwise we should prepare a separate budget for every manager’ responsibility. This is my logic

@darciecoco said: Can anyone remember the three questions for Section B...? I remember there was one on variances, musical instruments and my mind is blank for the last one!

Hi, it seems we almost had the same questions for Section B. I remember 1 q was for Bikes regarding sales mix and quantity variance. 1 q regarding demingo divisions and throughput and bottleneck. 1 q regarding the concert to be held that included the private box with 10 seats. and 1 q had environmental costs. Honestly the environmental and demingo questions were confusing. Hopefully i got most of them right. What were you section C questions?

@tasbihak said: Hi, it seems we almost had the same questions for Section B. I remember 1 q was for Bikes regarding sales mix and quantity variance. 1 q regarding demingo divisions and throughput and bottleneck. 1 q regarding the concert to be held that included the private box with 10 seats. and 1 q had environmental costs. Honestly the environmental and demingo questions were confusing. Hopefully i got most of them right. What were you section C questions?

I seemed to get quite different questions...! I got a variance one but not about bikes, but it was really hard (and I was fairly confident with variances). 2nd one was about musical instruments costings / mark ups. 3rd one was about a florist using minimax regret and decision trees. Haven't seen anyone with these questions...! C questions were optimal pricing / marginal revenue and marginal costing and about three EE's.

@darciecoco said: I seemed to get quite different questions...! I got a variance one but not about bikes, but it was really hard (and I was fairly confident with variances). 2nd one was about musical instruments costings / mark ups. 3rd one was about a florist using minimax regret and decision trees. Haven't seen anyone with these questions...! C questions were optimal pricing / marginal revenue and marginal costing and about three EE's.

Oh yeah the questions are definitely different from mine. I feel like 2 OT Cases and 1 CRQ were difficult as in tricky and confusing. The rest of the paper was quite easy. Hope if I get the OT's correct it can compensate for the section C revised budget question.

The only question I have is how do you flex a budget without more information in Section C, the requirement read doing a revised budget for 6 months making the necessary adjustments....Actual performance cannot change in such circumstances...

@tdiddy said: The only question I have is how do you flex a budget without more information in Section C, the requirement read doing a revised budget for 6 months making the necessary adjustments....Actual performance cannot change in such circumstances...

Hi, it seems you got the prepare revised budgetary control statement. I feel like whoever got this question is confused whether they did it right or not. Hopefully ACCA releases the correct format for this question, it will help future students

@missboo said: Seriously? You wonder why you’ve failed two times already. Practice questions and exams are key to passing. Your FD isn’t making a sound investment if he does pay. You aren’t putting in enough work. Are you sure accountancy is right for you? You don’t seem motivated.

I've already been working in accounts for 3 years now, recently joined a new company. I passed AAT using same study method. Motivation has nothing to do with failing exams. Like others have said, the style of questions made it more difficult to apply the knowledge/calculations. Like I said, I do study but it's just that whenever I sit in the exam room, my mind goes blank, especially whenever I see one of those scenario based questions with a long passage of text. What is your method of study? I am keen to complete my ACCA exams hopefully by end of next year, but it doesn't seem likely now.

In the paper based exam, The 10 points question with variances... was quite unlogical to find operating and planning variances if there is no revised budgeted data. Even if I use the adjustments in the question I still couldn’t reach any of the multiple choices given. And I was very well prepared on variances and never met similar situation in the past papers or mocks.

For the budgetary control section C question, I just assumed that we needed to flex the 12-month budget to a 6-month budget, as the original was comparing an annual 12-month budget to the actual results for the first 6 months, and that seemed illogical to me. Flexed the costs and revenues to a 6-month budget and to the actual activity level of 950 units, and then compared how the variances differed from the original comparison that was given to us. NO IDEA if that was what they were expecting, but it seemed logical to me at the time. I even stated that at the beginning of the question so the examiner knew what I did: "My Assumption: Flex budget from 12 months to 6 months and compare". Hopefully, they'll give me some credit!

@tyjac said: I've already been working in accounts for 3 years now, recently joined a new company. I passed AAT using same study method. Motivation has nothing to do with failing exams. Like others have said, the style of questions made it more difficult to apply the knowledge/calculations. Like I said, I do study but it's just that whenever I sit in the exam room, my mind goes blank, especially whenever I see one of those scenario based questions with a long passage of text. What is your method of study? I am keen to complete my ACCA exams hopefully by end of next year, but it doesn't seem likely now.

Why don’t you do practice questions/past papers? Everything points to this being critical. The knowledge doesn’t sink in just watching lectures. If you aren’t motivated to do practice questions how do you think you’ll pass the P Papers? I manage an accounts assistant, if they told me they’d failed an exam twice (possibly three times) and hadn’t bothered to do a few practice papers I’d be questioning their commitment to this career. This exam was not hard and was very similar to the practice questions I came across. Stop making excuses and put in more effort - loads of practice questions. I manage my study around work and two young children, it’s not easy but it’s doable. No wonder the pass rates are so low for ACCA.

@simspetya said: Even so, I think the budget has to be adjusted with the new price, And the manager will not be kept responsible for the variance. Otherwise we should prepare a separate budget for every manager’ responsibility. This is my logic

The materials is like a planning variance so was changed for the purpose of assessing the Production Manager. The labour decrease was an operational variance so I kept it the same as budgeted. The statement was to judge the performance of the Production Manager. And yes they may well do a different one to judge the Purchasing dept. At work we provide separate summaries with variances for different teams. Although not like this due to the nature of the business. If you made reference to these you may gain points anyway.

And remember this isn’t a formal budget but a performance management task - a “statement of budgetary control”.

@missboo said: Why don’t you do practice questions/past papers? Everything points to this being critical. The knowledge doesn’t sink in just watching lectures. If you aren’t motivated to do practice questions how do you think you’ll pass the P Papers? I manage an accounts assistant, if they told me they’d failed an exam twice (possibly three times) and hadn’t bothered to do a few practice papers I’d be questioning their commitment to this career. This exam was not hard and was very similar to the practice questions I came across. Stop making excuses and put in more effort - loads of practice questions. I manage my study around work and two young children, it’s not easy but it’s doable. No wonder the pass rates are so low for ACCA.

Indeed the exam overall wasn't that hard, but was just the information presented wasn't exactly easy to take in and to apply what was learnt. FYI I passed F6 taxation without practicing questions. I pushed the pass rate up for F6! :) Do disclose your pass marks for previous exams and what study kit you use. However, I feel like the key for me to pass this exam is to buy a revise kit and practice questions.

Hopefully as the manner in which Section C question 31 part a was asked isn't logical . The requirement is rather vague and ambiguous....

@tyjac, I didn't take this particular paper and was just nosing around in this topic, but seeing your comments I felt I had to post to give you some advice. Take it from someone who has just taken their final ACCA exam, you will NOT finish this qualification without question practice. You might have got away with that in AAT, but you won't in ACCA. You say it wasn't easy to take in the information and apply what you learnt. There's only one way to practice that skill, and it's not watching lectures! And once you get to the final 4 papers, it will get much harder as you will be much more time pressured. There will be a lot of information to take in for each question and you need to be able to quickly absorb what is given to you, link it to your knowledge and get planning and writing. You need to start practicing this now while you're on the lower level papers or you'll be completely out of your depth when you get there. I practice lots of questions for every exam (using the Kaplan kit but BPP is also fine) and so far have passed every one first time with a good mark. Practice lots of questions before your resit. As you've already taken it twice you might as well start now. You've probably watched enough lectures! Anyway, I hope you take my advice, but best of luck to you for next sitting.