SBL*** ACCA Paper SBL September 2019 Exam was.. Instant Poll and comments ***

It was a total disaster for me. Never expected this after the June Paper (easy paper). Had no idea how to relate the questions and scenario. My worst nightmare

There was overload of presentation slides in that exam for sure and the last question was mental for 20 marks had no idea how to do that, my 3 Rd attempt as well need 50 marks out of first 80 to have any chance

This is my second attempt of SBL and didn't do well this time also. I couldn't think of non financial implications of orders. I don't know two control recommendations suggested by Finance Director. The last question was unfinished...

Found it pretty difficult but i think i did reasonably ok. I think i may have just about passed. But agree with the comments about question 3. For example there was no information elsewhere about data analytics

I think it was a good exam, planty of things to write on each requirement. Obviously required lots of preparation and long answers. I had very few time left for last question, 20marks for very few details and lots of suggestions to make... Any comment about the 2 control recommendations?

I spent more than 45 minutes just on the last question read, reread, wrote two lines, scraped, re read, re-wrote again ended up with half a page that made completely no sense. Other questions were ok, they were difficult but I did expect it to be but the last one I just didn't know what was required at all!

Yeah I thought that last question ruined the whole exam for me also. They just mentioned Strong gov./ strong mgt./ strong leadership - how that all related to customer retention and loyalty I have no idea. Horribly laid out paper too, the exhibits didn't seem to correlate to the questions as much as in previous exams.

Two controls I wrote about developing and investing in programme to educate child labour, can be part of csr activities, as exhibit mentioned lack of initiative in this. Another one is agreement with supplier on working condition of child labour. Anyone with different answers?

i didnt use tara in my answer of 2nd question will it effect the marks ?

I wrote about revision of contracts with suppliers include extra strict terms regarding child labour in farms and Frequent visits to farms to physically inspect whether there are any child labour or not. Does these make sense ?

For two control recommendations, I wrote as below. 1. Set terms in agreements with cocoa farmers regarding child-labor using 2. Audit cocoa farmers for child-labor using Notes: 1. Agreements should clearly state obligations of cocoa farmers of not using child-labor. Cocoa farmers are required to provide list of their employees information including name, gender and age for Dulce 2. Regularly audit by field trips to observe and inspect whether they use child-labor I just hope it gets some marks :( And share the same feelings about Q3. I even did not understand the question :(

Although I read the Baldrige model, I could not understand the exact requirement examiner want us to write. Can anyone show me how to tackle this 20 mark confusing question :(

Hi what financial implications did you find please and which order you chose??

I said to go with bb supermarket as higher contribution for question 1b I think I half answered the question ?? This was my 2nd attempt and it was horrible !!!

First sitting for SBL. Found it quite okay for knowledge part perhaps but shame I didn't practice as much questions to help in the prep. Well two control activities... No idea and disaster maybe... But surprise checks at farmers location and paying more to farmers so it would increase their living wage and they don't have to make their children work and can educate them. Complete disaster answers I suppose. Question 3 was..... Well.... Uum I don't know, I read it a few times and started writing but was nearly time over... But was a bit very confusing that one. Hopefully std costing was fine for the order thing... ? But overall I don't think I'll pass it for today's sitting... Lack of question practice unfortunately.

1(a) - i used SAF model to determine which sale development strategy to opt.

Shoot, yes indeed! I wrote it that bb supermarkets gave higher contribution but didn't include as a reason for recommendation! Oh damn.

I was soo clueless with this ..I wrote joining fair trade organisations and lobbying with the government to end child labour practices...do u think they make sense?

Paper was total disaster...Q3 was out of no where....I could'nt relate it to the main exhibits neither it was clear how to answer... Presentation question was also ambigous.. examiner did not ask like this in previous exam.. Definitely one of the toughest SBL paper..

It does to me. Because it's a control activity I suppose..

i actually got the opposite, 94k for excelsior and 91k for BB

Higher contriubtion however higher hours but when I worked contribution of labour it resulted in the same amount

Although question 3 was a difficult but as i understand he gave a brain storming presentation that how do they achieve professional excellence an examiner was asking at what extent they were following it. The controls i recommended were not good I recommend that surprise checks should be made to farm and continous monitoring to be done and report submitted by risk commitee to the board about the risk. Can anyone confirm wether i will get any marks for the internal control recommndation part?

I pretty much wrote nothing for financial side and wrote loads of points for none financial side and fact better long term and use your own branding My worst area is presentation skills as isn't completely subjective and was over 30 marks for those questions, probably be trying this for 4 th time now

Disaster.. Q1 threw me, like writing notes for the 4 slides, did they want notes for Slide 1 which was just the Title of the Presentation? Such nonsense to be even thinking of this in an Accounting final exam. Unnecessary complications. Wasted ages on Q1 then had little time for Baldrige which is annoying as I actually knew it but oh well thats my fault I guess. See you in December SBL!

omg i got the same thing !!!!!!

I wrote that bb gave the higher contribution of 138,000 due to there being 2 hours per box for example therefore so instead of times the amount of boxes by the the labour hour contribution it was say 2000 boxes x 2 hours per box x contr pre labour hour does this make sense could be wrong and the explanation was that E is taking another contact on in the future the contribution made on the labour hours only make you up to the level of bb I.e. 92 and 46 labour contribution gets you to 138 so you would only be making profit on the box contr. Also the last question I wrote the reasoning behind each part of the model then done a separate 3 lines on each part and linked this back to the exbs however I found you have to look at questions done to find the answers to this such as product combination, lack of skills mentioned in the table for risks My 2 controls where to physically inspect regular visits to ensure child labour they are getting paid and that they are there on their own free will And that workplace accident book reviewed every month due to dangerous equipment and invest in new equipment and review training of this I didn’t use Tara I used coso stating that the objective setting for competive, event identication for one regarding movements in prices and the other control activists due to the product impure Part one I used pestal Question 2 I done a table but just end up writing stuff rather than referring to the scenerio Can anyone advise if this sounds ok I failed last time by 2 marks due to lack of time

Did it not say in the question that the two orders could not be done together? They could only do one or the other and not in parts? Therefore there was unused skilled labours for both, 16,000 remaining with excelsior and 6000 with BB? Both have the same contribution per labour hour, but obviously BB gave a higher margin as it used more labour hours

Are OFR marks applicable to SBL? I got Excelsior 60k by mistake But I got BB 91k correctly Will I lose marks for my implicationsand recommendation?

Yes I agree Aisling that's what I arrived at although 6000 Labour hours for box b chocolates with excelsior

@aishling82 said: Did it not say in the question that the two orders could not be done together? They could only do one or the other and not in parts? Therefore there was unused skilled labours for both, 16,000 remaining with excelsior and 6000 with BB? Both have the same contribution per labour hour, but obviously BB gave a higher margin as it used more labour hours