PM*** F5 June 2012 Exam was … Comments and Instant Poll ***

@natasya said:
Guys, how did you solve Q1? First we calculate costs, which depend on whether we produce components or outsource. We found that outsourcing is not profitable. Then we take costs per limiting factor and find out which is more profitable to produce ourselves. But which costs we take? Which we calculated or which is given to us. I've got an answer that we should produce 100,000 and 66,667.

I started to do the limiting factor analysis only to realise they didn't provide a selling price to determine contribution, so I calculated it by looking to see which product incurred the most cost per limiting factor. That way I got 100,000 screens and 50,000 keyboards.

I think this was a very difficult exam, but with practical experience, it can be passed.....I was very upset when i saw the paper but i just did it based on practical experience rather than from the books. I am hoping it was enough for a pass as i studied VERY HARD and nothing i studied came. It just goes to show you can NEVER tell what's coming in the exams. The statistics from the survey is HORRIBLE and believe me, its the general consensus with my fellow students. Good luck everyone, I hope we all pass! To God be the glory!

I did really well on 1 an 2, but then all hell broke lose with the rest of the paper. My heart beat feverishly throughout the exam and i just lost it. At 15 mins to go i was now starting Q5. I usually do well on the theory side and that was my game plan. Would you believe i forsake my game plan and spent endless minutes on calculations that i didnt even get out.

Pulling my self together now. Studying for F4 for next Monday.

Opentuition's exam tips was very misleading, thank god i didnt depend on it. the exam was based on everything in the syllabus , however it was too demanding with too little bit of time. I think ACCA should increase the time from 3hrs to 3 1/2hrs

Mostly Theory.

Simple question on Variance and Reconciliation Statement.

Make or Outsource with limiting factor, Fixed Cost Saving, could have easily scored marks here.

TQM.

ROI and RI

Forecasting.

omg...dreadful.....im still feeling depressed...feel like all my sleepless nights and hard work went to waste...this was an exam from hellllll....this examiner is nuts

Ok So that's it F5 done...have F6 in the morn...truthfully the exam was quite like some parts of Mock Exam2 BPP text:/ I thought the first question part a was about relevant costing...anyone else? Couldn't recall how to start the outsourcing question so I skipped hoping for time to get back to it never did :(. This was so stressful for me I'm not sure I want to continue till I get results...Forecasting had me going nuts...jumped to part b :( the list goes on....answered parts of all the quests....hope it's enough for a pass. :x(

m really worried about my strategy to exam preparation as i passed all f1-f4,f6 in first attempt with an average of 60%.....n i thought i can rely on what m doing....solving all the questions in exam kit n practicing and going back to the study text for the hard parts.....bt until now.....bt today i lost my confidence totally and fcked up.....i felt like running out from the exam ......i now c the acca wants us to be a master in all topics,u can't afford to pay less attention to any single topics.....n more than writing n reading i should have thought much about topics .....i have a wise friend george geraldo who practiced 4-5 questions from the exam kit and was able to get a first class in f5 some previous sitting ..he even didnt study the kaplan or bpp study text.....all he did was learning as deep as possible even with 2-3 books.....and understanding n he really was able to apply his knowledge to any scenario n got good marks.......anyway i know m going to fail so badly, my family already started throwing stones at me.....as they sacrificed a lot for my study.......BUTTT m nt gonna mourn....coz .in my next attempt in dec im gonna break the examiners teeth with my answers....i ll do anything for that .....researching,using much materials and thinking or linking or studying p5 if necessary....thats my only purpose in life at the moment.......thanks

Let's just say Ann Irons is tough. I never had a time problem with any of the past papers (I did them as mocks and scored well) but like lots of people I just couldn't get started with whole sections of questions.

It's not that she has gone off-syllabus (although I didn't read anything explicit on services vs manufacturing and whether there would be need for standard costing when TQM employed) it's just that she picked some really minor topics and made them huge, missing huge chunks of the syllabus off.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but target costing appeared in 2 questions. Never seemed to be enough material on TQM to warrant this many marks in an exam.

The other thing is the way she hides the requirement so well it hurts. It's not enough to know the calculation steps, I found it tough to apply my knowledge to the question to see what she wanted from me.

I look forward to the slating she will give me in the report, probably accusing me of question spotting even though I went in thinking I knew almost all the material.

This is the first ACCA paper I have sat and I'm questioning carrying it on

What I am feeling...
This examiner is lack of creativity. She doesn't know, how to make an innovative question on ABC or throughput accounting or target costing which tests the intelligence, knowledge and understanding of a candidate.

What she is doing...
Playing with us...like...Catch me if u can...

She told us about herself in the "F5 Examiner's Approach" article...
"I studied law at both degree and prefessional level..." etc.etc.

I am really confused now about ACCA.

After reading the question paper, I lost my interest, my enthusiasm...

It was terrible paper.I do not know what to do with F5

F5 was really a big disaster, only ROI question was sensible. All other topics were pure non sense. ACCA is just trying to fail more and more people to earn...........
Forhad is right examiner is lack of creativity with topics....
Now I am really hate ACCA (a profit making machine) . Really Terrible

I studied the entire syllabus ! I did NOT question spot an still couldn't do large part of the paper.

Bring back Geoff Cordwell stupid fcuk ACCA ! !

Ann Irons is a B1+ch ! I

It doesn't matter if you question spotted and those questions didn't come up. I studied the whole syllabus, I mean EVERYTHING over and over and I was still lost in the exam. ACCA is intentionally making people fail, I guess they're making lots of money out of our hard work, disappointment and failures. Well done ACCA, you've succeeded in failing us, this is called good business ethics!!!!

oh well lets hope December 2012 will compesate for this June. Im really gonna try my best to continue studying F5 since i know how this F5 exam went; hope you all do the same and do your best in your remaining papers.. :)

Uterly deflated! I dedicated so much time to studying this paper, read every article in SA relevant to F5 and thought I understood what Anne Irons was looking for?! I thought I had covered the entire syllabus, I felt well prepared, a totally wasted effort! 
It makes me mad, do they not think about the time and money we dedicate to our studies and the pressure it puts on family life, once again missing the loveliest part of they year hiding in doors! Even if they adjust the pass grade to up the pass rate I have no hope!!
The only think that makes me feel a bit better is knowing many of you feel the same!
Need to pick myself up and get ready for Law on Monday, aaaagh! :(

Nosheen is right. The only F5 standard question was, question 5(ROI, RI).

This is a very serious issue now.
What is about F5 Performance management? What's its objectives? What's the intellectual level of a candidate, ACCA expects? Who are those EXAMINERS? What's their background? How capable r they?

What is ACCA? What is it doing? Maximising profit? Quality education? Or what else?

Non-qualified examiner! Compiled study text!
It's not education!!! Of course, it can't be...

We need to start thinking...

natasya
Guys, how did you solve Q1? First we calculate costs, which depend on whether we produce components or outsource. We found that outsourcing is not profitable. Then we take costs per limiting factor and find out which is more profitable to produce ourselves. But which costs we take? Which we calculated or which is given to us. I’ve got an answer that we should produce 100,000 and 66,667.

you re right i got d same tooo

What a disaster, just to make students to fail... in practical environment you do not half of it.. are we studying to apply it into practice or just have a intelectual masturbation....? Very dissapointed..

al4sarah even i did the same=p
it was my second attempt, paper came hard but my preparation was good enough so i tackled it

guys i think we should report ACCA to check out the mentality of Anne whether she is capable enough to be the examiner of f5?? what she is doing totaly disgusting!

F5 exam was from hell, I'm still in shock... no chance of passing, already revising towards attempting it again in December! Phew!

I think this paper was less about finding out what students knew from the F5 syllabus and more about an examiner trying to trick people into making mistakes while they are in a very stressful siutuation. The exam was a disgrace and should never have been used.

How the hell did anyone answer the question on forecasting/seasonal variance? There is nothing in the Kaplan book about "moving average" thingies - I've simply never heard of them.

I attempted it by applying the average growth model equation to the average monthly forecasts and then adjusting by the Q3 and Q4 seasonal variance, but I've no idea if that is right. It only took about 2 minutes which clearly wasn't enough for a 10 mark question.

Anyone have a clue?

oh friends,
F5 paper wsa not as usaul though i hope that i have done satisfactorily and hoping for pass with resonable extra margin.

goodluck for every one those who work hard.

@amerscelian said:
guys i think we should report ACCA to check out the mentality of Anne whether she is capable enough to be the examiner of f5?? what she is doing totaly disgusting!

I would refrain from using the words like "checking mentality" - it's inappropriate and disrespectful and not in line with the professional behaviour norms, which we are expected to abide by.

However, generally speaking, I agree that if such high proportion of students (including very well prepared students) consider that the exam was a "disaster", there must be a way to make ourselves heard by ACCA.

Perhaps we should consider lodging some form of official letter-petiiton signed by the candidates stating that the choice of the questions did not fairly reflect the syllabus and relied heavily on fringe / non-core areas.
I VERY MUCH DOUBT whether this would actually help our pass rates on this sitting. But in the very least, if we manage to make our point clear to ACCA, perhaps the examiner and the exam committee will be more careful with the core areas coverage when designing and approving December exam questions (which is when a lot of us will be re-sitting).

Anyone agrees?

yes! i trully agree with the previous posting. the exam yas far from what everyone ihas ever expected. the difference between this exam and the previous papers is more than obvious! i think that having a question that is divided into two sub-question each giving 10 points is not fair. or at least this is not a way to check what does the student know.

Hi everyone.
This is how it goes:
"After each exam session, the Exam Review Board (ERB) meets to discuss the ACCA Qualification exams. The board consists of ACCA Education staff and six representative members of the Approved Learning Partner community. The board reviews the examination questions, answers and marking schemes to ensure that the papers are a fair and reasonable test and recommends changes to the syllabus and format of the papers. All Platinum Approved Learning partners are able to provide written feedback to be included in discussion. Consideration is also given to comments from students, submitted using the exam survey.

Minutes from this board summarise the comments made by the tuition provider representatives, report survey results about the exams from student questionnaires and detail the responses. The minutes can be found below".

From: https://www2.accaglobal.com/learningproviders/tuition_provider/erb_minutes/

I guess we should all complete the survey. It is not open yet. It will be at the end of the examinations. Below is the link where we should find the exam survey:
https://www.accaglobal.com/en/student/december-feedback.html

Good luck to you!

That's very good information by fasb.

We all should strongly protest against this unethical, unfair, unprofessional, unacceptable approach by F5 Examiner.

F5 is talking about motivation and achievable standards.
Well, this paper was quite the opposite!

I feel like someone has stolen my money...and not taking into account that huge time lost.

Maybe I should have started to prepar for this paper few years ago to make sure I cover each line form the study text and and then make some guesses what should I have t know more.