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

@tasbihak said: Btw how does the result appear.? Like do we get to see where we were wrong.? Do we get a report regarding the exam.?

You don't get any feedback, you will just get a Pass/Fail and Score.

For my section C, the very last question was to do with pricing. It was a discussion question on price skimming, complementary pricing, price discrimination. They were 4 marks each, based on engines. I actually flagged the questions on labour planning variance and material operational variance as I completely forgot how to work it out based on the information given. I know how to calculate it, but must be pressure which led to my mind going blank. I went back later and did manage to calculate the correct answer for the material operational variance! Was super happy! For the ROI/RI question - I wrote about how a large percentages of IB College's cost are non-controllable by the management team, as a result they would feel demotivated and discouraged, as the target is not achievable, as such will make decisions which are not goal congruence. This may sound silly, but for one of the question related to this scenario, asking for an alternative metric to RI, I wrote ROI, was going to write ROCE, but I remember John.Moffot in his lecture saying that ROCE is the same as ROI but depends on the situation. I think that the questions that vary from one to another are the 10 marks which doesn't count...just a wild guess. I do hope that the questions I didn't answer are the ones that doesn't count.

guys anyone remember exactly what was the b part of 2nd question of CBE it was sth about give comments on the budgetary ctrl but I want to remember what was exactly asked.

Overall the paper was not bad as questions were drawn from different area of the syllabus. Section A was a bit straightforward except for few objectives that were tricky like the question on the quick/acid test ratio and RI. Section B again was appreciable looking at LCC, advanced variances and linear programming. I think the challenging aspect was with the variance calculation. But again it was not that difficult. The linear programing question was a give away provided you understand the principles behind it. The LCC question was a good one with some tricks more so in calculating the LCC per unit. Most students must have left out the time period for the two stations. Section C examined budgeting and divisional transfer pricing. The RI and ROI was really simply and straightforward. The challenging part for some students would have been the discussion element. Accountants must provide meaning to their calculations. The budgeting question again was not really bad as students were asked to revised the budget for the six months period taking into account the changes that took place within the budget period. Beyond budget was a shock for some student but with only two marks which was just a token. As I conclude, we must study very hard, covering the entire syllabus and practice a lot of exam style questions and don't forget to expect the unexpected as the examiner is not restricted to draw questions.

@tyjac said: For my section C, the very last question was to do with pricing. It was a discussion question on price skimming, complementary pricing, price discrimination. They were 4 marks each, based on engines. I actually flagged the questions on labour planning variance and material operational variance as I completely forgot how to work it out based on the information given. I know how to calculate it, but must be pressure which led to my mind going blank. I went back later and did manage to calculate the correct answer for the material operational variance! Was super happy! For the ROI/RI question - I wrote about how a large percentages of IB College's cost are non-controllable by the management team, as a result they would feel demotivated and discouraged, as the target is not achievable, as such will make decisions which are not goal congruence. This may sound silly, but for one of the question related to this scenario, asking for an alternative metric to RI, I wrote ROI, was going to write ROCE, but I remember John.Moffot in his lecture saying that ROCE is the same as ROI but depends on the situation. I think that the questions that vary from one to another are the 10 marks which doesn't count...just a wild guess. I do hope that the questions I didn't answer are the ones that doesn't count.

I did the same for the BM College and Limb Division, i also wrote ROI as i felt that for divisions we use ROI not ROCE (even though the same thing)

@dipatil said: guys anyone remember exactly what was the b part of 2nd question of CBE it was sth about give comments on the budgetary ctrl but I want to remember what was exactly asked.

It was why the revised budgetary control statement calculated in part (a) important for the (whatever the name was of the company)?

I think it was more about why your new statement is better for measuring the performance of the production manager (it was this wording which made me check and change the labour rate reduction). On the question of my past marks, they range from 78 to 93%, 85 average. I studied for about 11 weeks. An hour a day during my commute and in the last month I did eight hours at weekends, four each day. I studied for half the weeks and revised/practiced questions the rest of the time.

Beyond Budget was a surprise! I was expecting to see ABC Budget, Incremental and Zero-based budgeting. Anyway, revise budget statement would make an impact.

@simspetya said: I pointed ROCE too for better approach to appraise new investment even if I don’t believe it has a lot to do with it. But I just thought that I have to consider only a measurement out of f5. And why not reconsidering the room and ri of BM College would be “disastrous”? /as in the question/ We may say it’s unfair demotivating and leading to dysf.behavior and avoiding new investments, but disastrous?

Hi i said the same points but wrote ROI (its the same as ROCE). I felt that way the suitable answer for that question. Do you remember the answers you got for ROI and RI?

@simspetya said: I pointed ROCE too for better approach to appraise new investment even if I don’t believe it has a lot to do with it. But I just thought that I have to consider only a measurement out of f5. And why not reconsidering the room and ri of BM College would be “disastrous”? /as in the question/ We may say it’s unfair demotivating and leading to dysf.behavior and avoiding new investments, but disastrous?

I mentioned the same but wrote it as ROI (same as ROCE right?) and also wrote those reasons for the next parts, hopefully they score us students full marks. Why do the results appear so late.? I started from FIA and I am so used to getting my results immediately that it has become a habit.

How come you guys have questions about ROI and RI? I didn't have those qs at all. My section C qs was about transfer pricing, marginal cost & revenue thrn pricing strategy.

Do know how can I get the answers and the solutions of the exam questions? I had questions about variances and some others that seemed unlogical and couldn’t reach any of the given answers. So I need to know how to deal with them if I happen to deal with them next time.

@zdzl said: I did the same. Another C section question for me is police force. It was disgusting.

Lily Please tell us what exactly had to be done about the police office

@tasbihak said: I mentioned the same but wrote it as ROI (same as ROCE right?) and also wrote those reasons for the next parts, hopefully they score us students full marks. Why do the results appear so late.? I started from FIA and I am so used to getting my results immediately that it has become a habit.

F5 and beyond take so long for the results due to an element of the paper needing to be human marked. It would be nice if they could show how we scored for the computer marked section(s) though so we know how many marks are left to be needed from the human marked section.

@simspetya said: Lily Please tell us what exactly had to be done about the police office

The questions was to discuss the performance of the police force using the three value for money Es

@ervlin said: How come you guys have questions about ROI and RI? I didn't have those qs at all. My section C qs was about transfer pricing, marginal cost & revenue thrn pricing strategy.

I had the same questions as you. Think ACCA must have a question bank that randomly assigns the questions to make sure theres no questions spotting and to avoid cheating. Thats my guess anyway

Just wondering if we all wrote the same paper or it was just random as the Foundation module CBEs but from most of the contributions here seems like we wrote the same paper. I think ACCA has shuffled the questions but maybe few as some questions are familiar some are not

I think ACCA has shuffled the questions but maybe few as some questions are familiar some are not

I am going to get ready for PM in March, any comments ;) ?

@faridd said: I am going to get ready for PM in March, any comments ;) ?

Don’t skimp on practice questions and past papers ;) Seriously, spend four to six weeks on study (watching videos and making notes) and the rest of the time revising (rewatch videos if needed and make flash card revision notes) and practicing as many questions as you can get your hands on. Use all the free ACCA resources especially examiners guidance. I enjoyed this paper, it was a challenge but not too tough. I may be the only one not surprised the questions differed on CBEs. See the point on the examiners guidance and any webinars on offer by ACCA. The past rate for students who use these resources is much higher than for those that neglect to do so.

@missboo said: Don’t skimp on practice questions and past papers ;) Seriously, spend four to six weeks on study (watching videos and making notes) and the rest of the time revising (rewatch videos if needed and make flash card revision notes) and practicing as many questions as you can get your hands on. Use all the free ACCA resources especially examiners guidance. I enjoyed this paper, it was a challenge but not too tough. I may be the only one not surprised the questions differed on CBEs. See the point on the examiners guidance and any webinars on offer by ACCA. The past rate for students who use these resources is much higher than for those that neglect to do so.

Also to add more points, practice the past paper and kits questions on Word and Excel, or more useful is to use the Constructed Response Workplace (available on ACCA website), as this will help you to get a grip on how to solve the Section C questions, the tools available to you. Also as mentioned above, watch webinars. There are some old recorded webinars on youtube for 2017, watch those, and there will definitely be a new one before the last 2 weeks of exams. Good luck.

absolutely right I also got the same thought as you guys.. I was well prepared for variance solved around 20 full questions including all type of variances ( planning, operational, mix yield) but this was completely different and I was wondering what the heck with my results and the saddest part was, the options were limited as those are already given If no options were given, I guess examiner would had easily get my workings

FYI, the december 2018 report has just been released, and I am so worried that I messed up the section C.