SBLACCA Paper SBL September 2020 Exam was.. Instant Poll and comments

The exam was hard. Can someone remind me of the questions. Need to remark myself

What questions were in exam ?

I had private charity i.e. wildlife charity. One tasks was to write about agency in case on non fin organisations, benefits of two tier board and entity financial and non financial performance (think like 15 points in total.. or 30, really sorry) there was also, for around 15 points if remember correctly, to write about proposing some extending of their IT services for their e-business (3 slides). There was also external environment analysis+ something I forgot. Both 1 & 2 for total of circa 60 points? Third one - company had some risks in the risk register and you had to be sceptic about these (ie. if need to be updated). Last one was about why trustee board should be diverse and why management board should constantly develop. Maybe someone can correct/fill, suprising how easily you forgot on what you have spent 4 hours just a moment ago.

The paper is about a public sector, non profit making company, unlike usual practice of a commercial business. The most challenging one will be like all answers were merely the same, anyone facing the same things

that was soooooo typical of ACCA to set a paper on a not for profit organization when they KNOW 90% of us focused on private companies in our studies

I was really happy with the questions. Just a pity I couldn't have another hour at it. ? Disappointed with myself

Hi My exam got rescheduled due to some techinal error I was left with only last question of 13 marks And 20 min left, then suddenly some technical issue happened Is any body else faced the same issue

I had the same questions as stated above. I was actually quite happy it was the difficult now a days type organization. Good luck everyone for the result. I have another exam tomorrow of APM.

I faced similar issue ,last 15 mins my on screen cursor wasn't working , I answered foraround 90 marks at tat point ,they told me to revoke ,but I didn't agree and let it submit ,had raised the issue through mitigating circumstances in Acca .

I had the same. Was charity company BCO. It was ok, but you never know how they gonna mark. I was a bit unsure about risk register... Lost my inspiration to generate ideas.

It was a charity and when I saw it, i was so surprised. ACCA was definitely able to surprise everyone this time. Sitting in masks was absolutely awful and taking exam after all this covid hassle and lost of motivation definitely put in depression. I messed up with risk register, perhaps said it still needs to be updated. Remember that the committee met one a year, that not acceptable defo needs more than that. Plus it was made of only trustees and not included the people from management board. In total 15 points. That's alot. Slides: could not understand what recommendations they wanted us to offer. Ended up with creation from somewhere... What structure you used in evaluation of external environment impacting on strategies? (it was probably question two a) I had to adapt pestel... worked fine with me. Ended up with lots of typos, hope it will be fine. Anyway, will see, how it goes in October...

I also had the charity question which referred to the org BCO a wildlife charity. Generally the questions were pretty easy and the information wasn't too much to read in the allocated time. It was a good balance. However, I spent too much time on some questions particularly the risk register. I also wanted to apply VFM model for the performance analysis of the org but couldn't make the info work which lost me a bit of time and made me feel a bit disappointed because I figured out how to do it after leaving the exam hall. Managed to complete all questions with some being answered better than others.

Q2 about the application of Information technology really threw me :-/

Charitable organisation, BCO. Was interesting question, I managed to apply my plan to the question and completed all answers and topped & tailed them all. Hopefully managed a pass but was not alike to any mock exams I attempted.

Had sat for SBL last Sept but with no such preparation. I feel last year's paper was definitely easier than this one. Technology application..I wrote virtual educational programmes, rate and family pack rates for different screen's visits, online shop with maybe half price postal cost for inland shopping, and virtual visit of the wildlife park. No idea if that answered the question. Was running out of time and had to attempt questions 3 & 4. What did you guys write?

Big Data, Online Education courses, Better use of E-marketing.

Did ANYBODY have an issue where the exam put an error message saying that the 'character limit' had been reached and it stopped you from typing? Please, please let me know.

Difficult

Did anyone have a 2 slide question about opportunities?

I had a different paper, BCO though. Q1 a - agency, stakeholder Q B - fin and non fin performance Q2 - 5 forces Q3 a - collaboration in private and charity B - something on change Q4 a - risk assessment start and op B - talent management

My computer would not work so I had to start my exam 30 mins late. They definitely tried to trick us by having charity. What did people put about change I just went in circles in that part. I don't think was enough to finish 100% on each question

I put culture change was needed at BCO, current management team was incompetent in retaining or motivating staff

I got this question, I just suggest the entity can collaborate with two type of organizations, not sure if it is what the examiner is asking for.

My paper exactly as described by micksymooresy16. Did anyone had in the room F6 and ATX people? They have finished their 3h exams and made a lot of happy noises in the room? I will put a complaint to ACCA. It is reduculous to do that to SBL students who paid a lot to have normal conditions.

Can someone tell me are we only not allowed to repeat the same issue in the same question or the whole exam?

I had those same questions Katie. It was an odd paper I felt and a little unfair to say the least. I felt the second half was harder than the first. I felt the same re less to write and i felt i was very well prepared, but didn’t expect a case study on a charity at all. Most of the studies are aimed at businesses ? Was suprised by the collaboration but i used the info from the exhibits and expanded as logically as i could. That said I think ( and hope) i’ve done enough to pass.

I wrote one l slide how they can get opportunity for new staff with apprenticeships, work exp and the other about how can get new suppliers with same values

You can discuss the same issue in the whole exam just not in the same question

What risks did you put in? And talent management? I didn’t know the talent management theory just blagged it like no rewards, no development, no career plan etc

Hi, I also had Collaborations in my exam, however I wrote about potential strategic alliances e.g JVs and Licensing agreements. Not sure if this is considered a collaboration, but thats the only thing I could think about at the time. I also had a question on Talent Management...