SBRCALLING ON ALL P2 STUDENTS WHO SAT THE DEC 2014 EXAM

I find it tough as well. After the exam, when ever I think of the paper and what I have wrote I will be afraid. Hopefully 8Feb the result will prove will be something good.

I found it very tough as well. Couldn't think of enough things to write on the paper and the questions were hard to decipher! I'm keeping my fingers crossed for February 8th.

The exam was tough

@alee certainly the questions were hard to decipher, especially in the consolidation parts. I think we should write to ACCA to tell them about this P2 sitting of Dec 2014. I think we were put at a disadvantage as our exam was comparatively way too difficult compared to past sittings (e.g. June 2013 or June 2011 or Dec 2009). Does anyone agree with this point? I find that the P2 examiner is quite harsh and very unfair on us. I studied so much in current issues yet none of the current issue parts on the syllabus cropped out in question four :( Sheer disappointment!

I thought Section A was fairly reasonable with the consolidation question...However the examiner failed to test knowledge of IAS in q1)a instead embarked upon a procedure of confusion on the net assets / goodwill element. Q2 was reasonably fair too because it asked 4 different sections of IAS. The bad was that Q4...even reading it a number of times - I could not understand the discussion requirement. Market capitalisation? wtf? Also no current issues on paper and nothing relating to student articles. Q3...was very vague and the scenarios in my view...very extremely difficult to discuss, q3 b...IAS 16 was not totally unreasonable but part a) for me was just a poor question and very difficult to interpret how to answer the question, let alone answering it. Overall section B was poor and I felt that preparation on all IAS / Current Issues / Student Articles was a complete waste of time as the examiner went of on his own tangent....I would say only 30% of IAS's were covered in entire paper.....

I would love to know what the opinion of the tuition providers is to this paper and whether they view the criticism as credible. I often wonder of the cosy relationship with the tuition providers and acca as a cosy cartel without an honest and robust opinion (good and bad about papers)...either way you will never hear criticism of an examiner who happens to be a professor and therefore "a man of entitlement".

@tallaghthoop yes the tuition providers always give a biased view as they are "so called partners in crime" with ACCA. The ACCA will never consider student views, they will just defend the examiner. What you said was correct, the exam wasn't spread across the whole syllabus, and question four was indeed very unfair as he just focused on "extant accounting standards". I read the discussion paper on the new conceptual framework like a hard working donkey (and this had been tipped by most tutors) and it didn't even come up for one mark! The examiner is a ruthless man, he will just say that "well prepared students pass and others fail" but does he even have any idea how much hard work "so called failures" have put in? @tallagthoop and others I suggest we should all write to the ACCA about our P2 grievances as they are genuine so that ACCA knows the situation we face when it comes to P2. I encourage everyone to openly criticize this P2 exam to ACCA so that our circumstances are taken into account in processing our result. The deadline to report grievances to ACCA closes on 15.Jan.2015 so please hurry!

@gabriel, agree with you mate, practicing the past papers I was so much confident of not only passing but scoring somewhere in between 60 and 70. Turns out the efforts were useless :( true the examiner will just say well prepared students passed! Can you give us the link to report to ACCA? I googled but found nothing with a deadline of 15th January.

@Alee yes past papers were a waste of time. They didn't help at all in Section B and even section A question 1 on consolidation was so different. @Alee as I said we need to write to ACCA: go to myACCA and then "contact us" and then write to the exam department about all your grievances regarding the Dec 2014 P2 exam. Then you will receive a letter from ACCA, saying that they will consider your circumstances in processing the results; however, the deadline to write to ACCA is 15. Jan (as will be stated in the feedback you receive from ACCA once you write to them) as I think by 15. Jan all the papers are marked.

To be honest, I think writing to ACCA is a waste of time. It will be interesting to see the pass rates in due course and see if what the trend is compared to recent years...I would say it will be low 40% pass rates...

@tallaghthoop why do you think writing to ACCA would be a waste of time? After all we are ACCA students and we have a full right to express our views.

Everyone has a right to express a view...I just don't believe it will be listened to.

Believe me guys when i say i fully understand what you are going through. ACCA is increasingly becoming exam oriented... too much emphasis on exam technique than syllabus content, papers are time pressured, lacking a true representation of real life situations. However, sitting a hard paper is by itself not reason enough to complain. The examiners need not set exams in the same format as previous ones, certainly they do not have to set from the topics that you have read. The marking equally does not take into consideration the difficulty of the paper or questions therein. Care to look at P5 pass rates are you'll see shocking figures like 29% in June 2014 diet. This means a whole 71% failed!!!! Shocking!!!!! If the topics set are outside the syllabus then you certainly have a point and you deserve to be heard. If pass rates for P2 have been consitently low throughout the globe sitting after sitting, then surely you guys deserve to complain. Otherwise all your efforts will be futile.

The frustrating part of P2 Dec paper wasn't that it was extremely difficult. It was that it was extremely obscure with 70% of IAS not examined and nothing on current issues or student accountant material.

Well it's surprising all the P examiner's answers are out apart from P2. Even if we could look at the marking scheme then we would have an idea of how badly we've done: My rough calculations are: Question 1 - 17.5+1+6 = 24.5 Question 2 = 2+3+2+1+1(professional mark) = 9, pretty poor! Question 4 = 6+7+2(professional mark) = 15, hoping for the best but a bit optimistic Total - 24.5+9+15 = 48.5 which will be rounded to 49 so that's a fail :( Feel free to calculate your own estimates and put them up here guys.

Gabriel My understanding is the markers want you to pass and if you have been marked as you suggested they will desperately try and find another mark to make it 50. Giving you an additional professional for example.

@amcterna what if I have 47 or 48? Will they still try and make me reach a 50? I believe I could be get 45 also so will 45 straight away qualify for a fail?

I have been told that the markers check any that are originally marked 46-49 to see if there are any additional marks they have missed. If they do find some and you reach 49, they will try as hard as they ethically can to bring the mark to 50. The easiest way to do that would be to award an additional professional mark if you have not already been awarded 4.

Well there we are! Five days to uncover our failing or achievements in P2. I just hope that considering the super difficulty of the exam, the marking team have been generous with their marking. I just hope I can clear it. I feel I've got 47

My revised predictive calculations for P2 are: Question 1: 17.5+1+5 = 23.5 Question 2: 2+1+2+1+1 (professional mark) = 7, this is miserably bad Question 4: 6+7 + 2 (professional marks) = 15, way too optimistic especially on the professional marks Total = 23.5+7+15 = 45.5 = 46 so I fail by four marks. What a disaster. Others who sat in Dec 2014 please feel free to add up your marks and show the breakdown here so that we can then know what each other's position is.

The only positive of a tough exam is that a total collapse of the pass rate would place questions on the examiner...the lowest pass rate to-date has been 44% in P2. The obscure nature of this paper may mean that it falls below that but I cant see it being at 30%. Therefore if you get 46-49% before professional marks, the markers may be lenient on professional marks in this sitting if the pass rate is low.

@tallaghthoop I don't think it can go all the way down to 30%. I think it might be 47% like June 2014. Even the Dec 2013 exam was very challenging, still the pass rate was maintained at 49%. As you must have seen @kibalka commented that p2 markers are quite lenient in their marking so the worst I think it can go down to is maybe, at the very worst, 45%. Even the P7 pass rate is 31 - 33% and never 30% so for P2 to be 30% would not be possible.In fact in June 2014, the P7 pass rate was 36%. The highest P2 pass rate has been in Dec 2009 when it stood at 58% but from Dec 2011 it has been maintained at 49% with a slight drop in June 2014 to 47% so we'll expect Dec 2014 to fall maybe to 44% (again?)

I don't think we will see such a huge fall of the pass rate. Perhaps P2 examiner was feeling some boredom because of consistent 49% and he decided to tweak something. I think I have read somewhere that ACCA has a policy to reconsider their model answer and adjust marking scheme if most of the students provided different answers than expected ie. the question set was understood differently by majority.

Loving the fact we are all in this boat together.. Question 1: 20+1+5 = 26 Question 2: 5+2+1+1 (no professional marks - v. unprofessional!) = 9 Totally got the wrong angle for this question - thought provisions actually fin. instruments Question 4: 3+3+3 = 9 most on impairment? But really obscure about discuss impact or significance of indicators.. annoying - I could have wrote loads on indicators - but was not sure on what question was asking Total = 26+9+9 = 44 - would be my best mark to date though - and this is me being optimistic!!! 5th time taken :( Cannot stop calculating it - was talking to a client today and just kept adding up marks in my head

@seagoat would be mind showing your predictive calculations too? It would be interesting to see how well you think you've fared.

Q1. 25 + 2 + 4 = 31 Q2. 3 + 1 + 2 + 3 = 9 Q3. 2 + 6 = 8 Total 48. No professional marks allocated.

@Gabriel it is especially difficult to estimate those for P2 and I would have to look into answers which I don't want to do. One thing I can say If my destiny is to fail I want to see less than 40 marks. Expecting anything between 40-49. Now I know it contradicts last sentence but this is how it is.

@seagoat - everytime I read your comments I imagine your that dog / it sums up how you feel .. lol

@Craig actually this is a good topic for sociology/psychology students to do their thesis: how ACCA impacts life of their students.

okay changed mine to reflect my mood