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

It was hard as for me...There were following topics: 1. Decision making produce or buy 2. Target costing 3. Seasonal variation 4. Variances 5. ROI and RI

too dificult. :(

Hi,
Here are some discussions.
1. Decision making make or buy. Is the answer to make ?
and how many to make given the constrain, is it to make 100,000 screens and 50,000 keypads and outsource 50,000 keypads ?
2. For variation , are you supposed to use regressions ? are the data points the centred points or the original points ?

I found it difficult! For the time series one I think I got 1150 and 1560?

Hi yuskadeepak.. Yes i got 100000 screens make, 50000 keypad make & 50000 outsource :)

I thought the target costing question 2 was tricky.

Did anyone use the formula sheet for any of the questions? I find it odd that i didnt use it :(

Tqm got me!!

Given some date, we were required to find the seasonal variation using multiplication model.. And we had to forecast sales for Q3 & Q4.

For theory, the topics tested were: steps to set target cost, Standard cost vs. TQM, behavioral aspects of budgeting, effect of using solely ROI for decision-making, difference between service & manufacturing.. A few more i cant remember

data*

so gutted about that exam - no regression, no EVs, no relevant costing, no learning curve, no PV chart, no complex limiting factors, no demand pricing.....!

They really made you work for every mark!

I got make 100k of whichever took 0.5 labour hrs, 66.667k of whichever took 0.75 labour hours = all labour hours used. Then out
source the remainder. I just went on common sense and use efficiency of the limiting resource, but I thing we were supposed to calculate variable cost for both (K + S, in house and outsourced) to help answer the question.

Q3) Totally messed up the seasonal variation bit, and ran out of time for that lovely part B on budgets for 10marks.

I know/think I answered the other three questions 1,2,4 well, so hopefully it's evened out for a pass... :(

It was a disaster, the topics were pure non sense.... nothing to do with F5.....i got the same answer on buy 50000 and make 100000 units of one and 50000 units of the second one...outsource 50000.
Forecast - did not touch it .... ,wrote a lot for the theory parts... , the varainces were giving me a difference of 480 .....and overall NIGHTMARE!good luck guys to pass.

too hard

it was tough...

how did you guys forecast sales for Q3 2012 and Q4 2012 if not using regression ? i used regression but i think i did it wrongly.

the part about TQM was also unexpected. it wasnt in the open tuition notes.

The questions were not just hard, they were irrational... the examiner was very unfair...

Quite simply a nightmare!! Left feeling destroyed and like I didn't know anything, despite all the hours of studying...!!

I failed the first one with 46. I dont know if something was wrong with me today. i was jumping from one question to another without doing any real work. i could not get the grip. that is it 2.nd attempt and i am giving up.

yes i agree examiner seems to have given a different type of questions this time.

I dont ever remember seeing tqm in notes has tqm anything to do with abc? Maybe were were to compare benefits abc vs standard costing? As for the outsourcing one, i must have spent 30 min trying to figure out what was going on. In the end i took vc for each and less the amount the outsoucing co. Wud pay to find some form of contribution(loss) then Divided by. 5 & .75. To get a ranking. Failure.

Damn it! I think Im a bit nervous about the time constrain. Q1.(b) i answer it 80,000 units should produced from own factory, 20,000units should outsource. because keypad 0.5hrs p.u, screen 0.75hrs p.u = 1.25hrs per control panel. labour hrs limited at 100,000hrs. 100,000/1.25 = 80,000 units...zzz Damn it, i totally gonna failed this subject for sure.....

It was dreadful! The only topic that I'd practiced that came up was variances.

Definite fail for me too. Most subjects I studied were not in the exam. Seasonal variations were a nightmare.

Looked at the paper in the reading and planning and wanted to walk out.

Try again in December I suppose!! :(

I took the last two exams for practice last week and creamed them.

Couldn't make head nor tail of this one though and am pretty certain I've failed.

Couldn't work out how to perform the make or buy calculation at all; whatever method you needed to work out the seasonal variance question isn't in the Kaplan book.

I was quite confident going in, but now just feel wrecked. Either the exam was far more difficult than normal, or my brain stopped working as I walked in the door.

It was awful for me!!!
I am sure - December again / for the 3th time /.

This is the first time since I came into CAT/ACCA that I'm pretty much sure I'm gonna fail. What the hell is wrong with the examiner? The exam was TOO HARD! the first question took me 1 hour to solve, even then I wasn't sure if I did it right or wrong, Part a of Q:1 took so much time it was just for 8 marks, what the hell?

Question 2 was okay.. Question 3 was a disaster. I never expected this.. how was I supposed to solve that? and then a 10 mark theory part. wow

Q:4 had a stupid part as well, the part b, what was examiner thinking when he gave that?

Q:5, well, here's why I'm gonna fail this exam.. I didn't have much time left at the end and I was totally blank, for several minutes I didn't have any clue what am I supposed to do..

I can't believe my money's going to be wasted. Pathetic exam!

For me it was disaster. Its the third time im trying to pass F5.
Exam was very time pressure and some parts very confusing.

Q3)I didnt do seasonal variances, all question didnt make sense for me, I didnt know from what to start...
Q1) I thing it was cheaper to outsource...?

guys i feel that are too many ACCA students in the market and they want to reduce the chances of passing .....means making the examsmuch harder to get more value of ACCA qualifications.....i guess i will shift to CPA ....just 4 exams evey 6 months .........can't think to study for the 3rd time the same BOOK !!! is above ridicoulos,,, feeling pathetic as an accountant to fail 2 times F5!!!

ahh the formula sheet was useless!!!they shouldnot give it as nothing related to it:(

re-sit in December too :(


I think that examiner forgot that we are ONLY students. I personally do not have any acca-related experience so I have only book knowledge and logic thinking. I completly didn't know what to write about how to derive a target price for operations and services for UHS.

I didn't also know how to do the question about ROI. I know that ROI= profit/capital employed x 100% WHat was the value of cap employed? Was it 23.2 m ?

Anyone remember what was the 10 marks theory question for Question 3?