PM*** December 2023 ACCA PM exam – Instant Poll and comments ***

I had the same questions, for the resources I found it quite confusing, the layout and what the question was itself. Very confusing exam overall

Section A and B seemed ok, but section C got me, it was awfully, I spend so long time on question about budgeting, preparing a budget based on activity. I did not understand it, it was a confusing question. Other question in part C was about transfer pricing, at least a bit more understandable and did make some calculations, so maybe scored some marks for that. This was my first sitting. I really hope, that I managed to get at least 50 marks.

Was the adjustment for the 2 assumptions at the bottom of the budget needed in budgeting question? I thought this wasn't a revised budget, but actual budget & the flexed one which is only corrected on direct costs through level of activity?

I thought overall it was a bit of a tough paper in comparison to previous ones I’ve done. Section A was pretty tough. Section B was a lot of variances and ABC Section C- one was on a charity Zedlands (14 marker on analysing performance on 5 set areas) and I believe the can’t remember what the 6 marker was on The other question was flexing the budget. I messed up on this one as I only divided this by 2 and didn’t flex for the number of units. Hoping I wouldn’t have lost too many marks because of this?:( (10 marks) 4 marker on beyond budgeting 6 marker on the importance on revising budgets (planned and operational) and performance analysis

I did the same, as there were 3columns one with original budget( I took the figures from question and divided everything by 2), One with revised budget (I put same figures as original apart the ones with 10%and 5%decrease and 1%increase) and the 3rd was actual already in. I calculated variances and almost all of them were adverse. Mine is 6th attempt, I keep my fingers crossed ?

I missed that budgets were for 6 months. :( that's why I got all variances adverse. So shame as I though question was quite simple but seems I didn't read question properly

Guys in Multiple choice questions regarding relevant costing, it was about inventory, did you get 12,220 there?

I think I got the same set of questions as yours, My section B were: Bottleneck, Incremental and ZBB budgets, Relevant costing and in C section I got ABC budgeting and transfer pricing Actually I found section B pretty Fair, However, section C for the ABC budgeting was a shock to me as I never saw a similat question in past exams, even though BPP revision kit included a similar one, but I mainly focused on RI, ROI, Variances and financial perfromance and I barely got anything related to them. That thearotical question about dealing with uncertainity I was not sure what am I supposed to write? I can't even comment about the transfer pricing because I do hate it.. and I was praying to get variances over this but life happens. The good thing is that the included multiple of theory questions, praying I get rewarded marks over this to grant a pass. to be honest I found section A a bit challenging comparing to the mock and past papers,

Tell me about it.. I was laughing hysterically when I saw it was transfer pricing. and the ABC Budgeting? what did you do with that question?

Same question set as mine, I think I did pretty well on the theortical questins about transfer pricing system and the uncertainty I was able to write around seven points. But the calulcation part in both I am not sure If what I did is write.

I found section B pretty fair, but section A was challenging especially that only few of them were direct multiple choice.

I revised so hard for Variance and they come out as 2 small questions in Section A. Not even need any calculations. @_@ Session C The transfer Price and ABC budgeting. TP is quiet challenging. I have no clue. ABC is madly on spreadsheet. I could not type a sensetense. I don't know if the table get any marks.

You need to do calculations for the first three questions; i found the spreadsheet pretty useful. The seconed question about uncertainty of student numbers and sales volume wasn't included in the spreadsheet space. I mainly focused on variances too.. got two questions in section A only

I go that question Budget one and other one was NFP organisation

This is my third time sitting this exam after getting 40 % 45%! Only had one day to study last time thought as I sat tax the day before and did manage to pass that one!! Really not feeling good about this one. Struggled with section A & C! Thought section B was okay. Didn't even answer all of section C as I got the ABB and transfer pricing. The budgeting one seemed too easy so pretty sure I got it wrong - what did you do for that one? I couldn't think of any aims of transfer pricing either so just wrote goal congruence and keeping costs lower. Ah well, just a long wait to results day so let's try and forget about it and hope for the best. Good luck all!

Does anyone remember what they got for the ROI and RI figures?

I got transfer pricing in section C. Disaster

I think we had the same questions for section C. Transfer pricing was rough. I feel ok about the ABB question though

[QUOTE] was operating profit/(current assets + non current assets – current liabilities). RI was final profit – (non current assets + current assets – current liabilities)*0.08[/QUOTE] Problem is that when you did this calculation for the other Depots, it didn’t add up to the ROIs or RIs listed in the question. There was defo some other twist to this question

How were you supposed to calculate the question on section c Activity based budgeting?

How many exam versions are there? Section C 1. Flex Budget + RI/ ROI 2. ABC costing + TP was there the 3rd one?

I messed up this one because in usual practice questions you’d be given the overhead number and I was flustered and could not think of how to do it properly until after I finished the exam! But I would have done this: 1. Work out how many activities are required by multiplying the number of activity per unit of the vocational course, by the number of demanded units. 2. To find the total budgeted amount I think it should have been budgeted amount per unit of activity multiplied by the total required activity as calculated above. 3. Find the OAR for each activity by taking the activity total in #2, and dividing it by the total in #1. 4. Use that OAR and multiply it by the total activity required by that vocational course. That will give you the total budgeted cost for that activity under activity based budgeting, and you’ll just need to repeat for all vocational courses. Can’t remember the question clearly but I think that’s the general gist/ approach in activity based costing!

I had the transfer pricing one and found that absolutely awful. Just had to throw something together for the calculations and went with my gut instinct. Also waffled on the uncertainty question as well and I talked about using expected values as well, and also made other points and stated an advantage and disadvantage of each. On ABB I did the calculation wrong and kicking myself because that could have been easy marks. Only thought of what I should have done instead after i’d finished and gone home haha. I found section A and B ok. Tricky in some questions and I think I had to guess 1 or 2. Did you get question in Section B relevant costing? I think it was a question on IT infrastructure or services, and what the relevant cost was. It had a note saying that next period it’ll have maintenance or upgrade costs. Did you include that as part of your relevant cost? I thought that because they’re providing a service surely they should be committed to upgrades as that’s expected. But wasn’t sure if I was thinking correctly?

What's the answer to first Section B question regarding Target costing? I guess the question was, which one of the following is suitable with target costing? 1. Positive Feedback 2. Negative Feedback 3. Feedforward control 4. Double loop feedback

i chose feedforward control

I chose feedforward too

I had this as well. With the Retail & Growth division? I didn't great but could only do what i could do... They required that we suggest an alternative Transfer Price once the P&L statement had been completed. I ended up saying that Fixed Costs still needed to be covered as the Growth division was running at a large loss while the Retail division was making a huge profit Managed to get the buzzwords in, 'Goal Congruence' but i think they were looking for a policy name like 'Full Cost Plus', which i missed... A very difficult exam it was

Did anyone get relevant costing question in section C. The question was to calculate the net impact of closing neville shop. I got -583000 as net impact. What answers did you get?

Why to divide by 3. Wasn't it TPAR=30,000/30250=1