ACCA Paper SBL December 2020 Exam was.. Instant Poll and comments

@alique I believe it’s because the companies we write about in SBL are fictional, from fictional countries, and set in random years like 20X5. COVID-19 is an anomaly in today’s business environment and I assume ACCA would want us to analyse/evaluate (etc) issues that arise in the normal business environment. Pandemics and their effects are not in the syllabus so ACCA can’t expect students to write about them, as well.

For the first question the benefits and drawbacks of corporate structures, the benefits that I wrote for 1)supervisory board was that I was able to take long term decisions and due to neds working in the board it would ensure that the independence won’t be threatened 2) it is used to ensure that fair remuneration is given to the staff 3) the members who hasn’t worked for this board gets staffed this would be beneficial as oversees knowledge would come within the firm leading to more ideas and skills etc. for executive board the benefits are that 1) it is used to ensure that internal controls and working effectively and ensure that quality control procedures are in place with voluntary disclosures to ensure everything is running smoothly2) it is used to implement risk management policies and identify risk and to mitigate it 3) the member of the board is elected due to voting this would be beneficial as fair and independent member would be elected with the Satisfaction of other board members etc. the drawbacks which I mentioned was that these two boards are working separately so there is no unity of one leader but rather separation of two leaders and if both combines them there would be more ideas and knowledge which isn’t happened. Hope this is correct as well ?

But is my answers correct ?

“I used Exhibit with sale detail (it also had list of subsidiary services provided and forecasted revenue, costs and profits for the next 4 years).”

Was there such Exibit, with forecast revenue , cost , profits? And Was there question, about potential sale of subsidiary?
Why I did not see them, strange. No need for me to wait exam results, fail))

Such a junk system, it freezing 15 minutes before exam ended. I unfreezed it somehow, but I lost valuable time.

I took remote exam and the Piersons Vue application has frozen on the last 15 minutes. I couldn’t submit the answers in the end. I called to PV immediately to report the issue and only after long and tough conversation they could ensure me that 95% chance that my results were saved, but 5% it could be lost based on previous statistics, and that only in 48 hours I can know for sure.
After that I called directly to ACCA and they asked me my ID to check if results were transferred, and they gave me 100% assurance that my responses were transferred.
Hopefully it transferred all my answers, but it’s so frustrating after 4 hours of hard work, and 2 month of constant preparation. In addition I lost 15 minutes, which I could use for filling the slides for the question 5 and score extra points.
I do not recommend taking remote exams, and won’t be taking any remote exams again.

same here, I think people are reading too much into the exam questions. It appears not too difficult, but you can fail it easily by focusing on what was not required. A tricky exam no doubt. I think the time pressure really affected people. Most of the answers are in the exhibits if you settle down to read all of it, but if you do that, it is highly likely you will not finish the questions and would you have written and developed enough points to pass? So the only way I feel to balance things out is to pick a question, read the questions first, scan through the exhibits with a particular objective in mind to look for where it is substantially discussed. By the time you are doing the rest of the questions, you pretty much know where to find your answers so you just go directly to where issues relating to the questions were discussed. You might not get the overall picture, but you will most likely generate enough points to pass. Except you are super intelligent, you have practised over and over again and you want to score 99% . Then you have to read the whole thing first . Gathering the points is the easy part , but articulating and developing your ideas under time pressure is where the problem is

I received an audit paper

It seems there were two variants of the paper; I had office closures and other people have had the sale of a sub. Don’t panic 😉

You think my answers above are correct ?

Thanks and what about this answer ?For the ethics and investigation I wrote 1)Hr issues- there has being communication problem between the senior and junior staff and work has not being assigned properly leading to work not being done effectively. This threat would be investigated by implementing adequate timetable in the planning process to ensure that the employees record the time in which the work has being completed and to ensure the supervision is in place so that there is proactive communication within the firm 2)familiarity threat: as Toby and tim use hang a lot golfing and going on vacation this has lead to Familarity threat. This threat would be investigated by having quality control procedures and voluntary disclosures to ensure the threat doesn’t occur in the engagement of the team.
3)Business threat: there was a mutual business threat between Tim and Toby regarding the property which has led to the opinion being judgemented. This has led to self interested threat. There has being allegations of the properties which are listed on Tim and his families name. If this is similarly natured then allegations of ethical principle has not being justified. 4)Lost documentation: there has being three large payments of which the documents has not being noted or verified. To investigates the risk it need to be ensured that an authorized person has being staffed to ensure he keeps proper record and accurate bookkeeping. -5)Self review threat: duby co managed Tim so audit client as these two are different firms this could lead to self review threat as it threaten the independence. I’m order to investigate this risk personal control needs to be in place to ensure that staff are supervised fully and there independence are not threatened Are these points correct as well please do reply and out of 20 marks how much would I get for these points ?

So happy to see there were two variants as when I first read about office closures, I thought I had definitely failed.
For the sale of the sub, I went through the pros and cons of the financial and non financial reasons. Complex specialist company that targets large firms and gov sectors – not the norm for Glendon Farr – small/medium target market. But may open doors into a new market/sector. Staff costs were a high % of sales (can’t remember the figure) and expected to increase. If sold, staff could be used to focus on other services/objectives. Revenue from new customers were not guaranteed – not reliable. Revenue from existing customers declining. I suggested that the company could keep the sub – obtain more accurate figures for Revenue and manage (try reduce) staff costs – bring in technology.
However, I utimately said they should accept the offer to sell the sub as the projected profits over the next four years were declining and lower than 25 m without even taking the time value of money into account. The profits may be lower again as the revenue estimated is not reliable. I suggested the company focus on small-medium firms as these firms are moving away from big 4 to firms that relate to them. Selling the sub and focusing on this market – by offering more personal experience and better communication.

I see most people suggested to reject the offer to sell the sub so hope my points weren’t off the wall.

The rest of the exam was pretty general. I don’t really remembering answering Internal Controls so feel I missed that one. I answered the pros/cons for automation but obviously missed the second part to that question.

I rushed through Q.5. – used cultural web for one of the slides. and again general for the other ones.

Best of luck to everyone. I honestly just can’t gauge how I did. I wouldn’t be too surprised if I failed (I’d be so disappointed though).

i just mentioned how they could stop expense rising and possible point out ways to better processes with automation.