How I pass Sept 2017 P5 Sitting.

Intro
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Before I begin, just like to say that this was my 3rd sitting and I got 53. Previously I got 44 for my first attempt and 37 for my second. In all the forum, people talking about some login thing, firstly, I would like all of you to stop believing such nonsense. Because if you believe in such a thing, you’re giving yourself an excuse that, oh, I fail this time, not my fault but some non-existent system making me fail. So please stop there, instead, rethink WHY you might fail, how you could’ve answered properly if you were given the time.

Then, there have been many writings on how I pass p5 etc or people always telling to just do more past years and still leaves you some unanswered questions, here is my own experience and hope it’ll help you out just a little bit!

1 ) I bet many lecturers told you that your aim is to get 50 not 100 but not many tell you in detail how to do it. I’m very lucky in a sense that my p2 lecturer taught me about it. She told us, each question, you have subquestion. For example, q1 a in Sept was 15 marks, I told myself then I’ll attempt 10marks, then you multiply by 1.8mins, which give you 18mins. In this 10 marks, I told myself I need to identify at least 4 points in the scenario.

So the question was why the report was considered to be industry best and how it can applied to our organisation. The first thing you need to do, is identify the co’s main strategy, and the last part was maximisation of shareholders’ wealth. I remember writing this down,
The company’s strategy can be seprately categorise as
a)
b)
c) maximisation of shareholders’ wealth
I begin writing by saying, on headings in the report. In the Financial heading, it was being measured using EVA, which measures how well the company is generating revenue for its shareholders by adjusting the accounting figures to show a better picture. This measures is also in absolute value which will help the shareholders to understand better. Therefore, the measurement of EVA will satisfy the need of maximising shareholders’ wealth.

Most important thing is that you need to always link back to the scenario given. Examiner put in a lot of effort into writing scenario so it’ll be appreciated if you link it.

Then I remember I’ve written 4 points based on each heading, and I still have some time, if you still have as well, write some general points in it, like, overall, the report enable users to conduct comparisons. Further, the report contains not only relative measures and it contains absolute measures as well.

Then, it have target costing, that was like a bonus, so of course you wouldn’t want to let it go, I dont remember how many marks it was given, but I remember it asking to calculate what was the target cost in the end only.
So, of course I did just calculate the target cost, but remember to put on appendix before going to calculate the full amount, like multiplying the full amount of revenue to calculate the fixed cost, this is I feel very important. Then, after calculating the target cost, although it didn’t mention anything afterwards, I wrote down 2 methods of how to close the cost gap.

I remember written down something like this,
There are ways in closing the cost gap, the company could maybe replace some parts which are cheaper as the the item was a less luxury and a more basic item. ( forgotten what it was so replace with item )
I wrote one more was to negotiate with customers whether are there ways it could remove the cost gap.
I ended it with, it’s very important that the company to close the cost gap as fast as possible.

If it’s possible, read the scenario, read whether the industry is regulated or not, this can help you to get one more point down

For example if it is regulated, then you’ll have reputation damage and fines etc.

One more thing, don’t forget to use PESTEL and Five Forces if you have the chance.

There’s also one more thing, this technique was actually used in evaluation of the report, but I use it as well when I’m preparing to write the report which is,

Purpose of the report

Audience of the report ( reader )

Information ( What is it asking )

Layout ( Tidiness )

2 ) Now that the exam technique above I mentioned is done, next you must keep in mind when you’re writing a report, you’re writing to a manager or a senior executive. These people are of experienced people and have financial background, so of course they are only interested in HOW the method/ suggestion/ answer that was given by YOU, a consultant will help them improve the company. So long winded explanation won’t be bringing you any marks, instead make it as brief as possible then focus on how the method YOU suggested can improve the company’s profit/ efficiency etc. Make it straight to the point!

and ask yourself this, if you’re reading this report, will you yourself find it useful

Note that explanatory questions are mostly found in optional questions, so focus on there instead!

3 ) In attempting q 2, 3, 4. I attended q2 and q4, I remember Performance Pyramid came out in q3 because I was really prepared for it, but then, when I read the question and scenario, I realized that I don’t know anything at all. Therefore I skip. So here, I just want to say that, it doesn’t matter whether you know a topic very well, but if you read the scenario and question you feel like you can’t do it, attempt the other question instead! Don’t dwell on it. q2 was alright so I’ve done it, q4 was a 11 marks and 14 marks on performance related pay to tax professionals. I was quite scared at first, but I told myself, rather than wasting time on q3 trying to crack the question, I might as well risk it all on q4, because I told myself that, 11 marks, I’ll attempt only 6 marks, so basically 3 points will do, then part b I’ll attempt 8 marks, 4 points will do. So that’s it.

I think the most important thing you must be really honest with yourself. IF you think you can’t do it although you’re quite familiar with the topic on the question asked, then don’t do it., rather put in more time on the other questions and you’ll be really surprised for it.

And of course, the usual advice, practice past years, I’m very lucky to have a lecturer to prepared for us past years questions all the way back from 2008-2017 June. Although there was a change in examiner but doing more is good. When you’re practicing past years, you’ll notice there’s a trend, I can’t really tell you what it is, but you’ll know when you do it more than once. Again, when you’re attempting past years, tell yourself, I need to at least get a minimum of 3-5 points to write on. That’s your goal.

On your first attempt, do your best to attempt and write as much as you could then read the past year answer on how examiner writes and structure the answer. You need not follow 100% on the amount of words it wrote but understand how it was answered. Then second attempt is where you’ll begin to put time pressure on yourself, use the method I mentioned,
q 1 a 15 marks ( I’ll attempt 10 marks ) 10x 1.8m (18min) <- write this beside the question
b 9 marks ( I’ll attempt 6 marks ) 6x 1.8 ( 9min)
c 6 marks ( 4m) 4×1.8m ( 6min)
etc etc.

Remember question 1 you’ll still have 4 professional marks, so that’s an extra 6 mins, but most probably you’ll be using it on reading the scenario.

Finally, before I forget, we’re all now given 3 hours 15 mins of writing time. I would highly recommend not to follow suit instead, spend 5 mins reading q2,3 and 4 question briefly then identify which one you’re the most confident of the 3, for me, I chose q2, so left with q3, I used the marks method and roughly say how many marks I should be able to get, of the 2, I could score 13marks in q4 rather than 11 marks in q3, so I decided to take up q4. By the time you’re done with this, you should have spent around 5-8 mins, then now go back to q1 read the scenario. Then it’ll be 3.08, you still have 7 mins till 3.15pm, if you can’t finish reading when its 3.15, remember, the professional marks of 4min = 6mins, you can use it to continue reading till 3.20pm. So once you’re done, read the question 1a properly again, then start the timing, as mentioned above, I would spent my time till 3.38pm, after that no matter how much you write, MOVE ON to attempt q1b!

Always check on the ACCA Articles on p5, what I did was, I click on each and every articles to see how soon it was updated. I will read that articles first because it shows that examiner is emphasizing on something in there.

Just want to say, p5 was my last paper, and I’ve this marks x time method on p2, p3, p7 and finally p5, all pass. I’ve attempted all these 4 papers at least once, once I’ve applied this method, I’ve pass all in one go and the difference in each of these 4 papers that I attempted was that, I was actually able to attempt all the questions. So it have worked on me.

Of course I’m not saying that it’ll 100% work on you, you need to also read the texts, articles and practice past years MIN twice. 3 times will be good.

So that’s it, I wish you all the best of luck in attempting this paper! Never give up because I myself didn’t give up as well and finally pass! And remember! YOU’RE REQUIRED TO GET 50 MARKS NOT 100 MARKS !