June 10 Exams POLL Paper F9 was Post your comments here

Paper is out on ACCA website for those that are interested in a second look. The last question seems to be okay in terms of mark allocation for DGM. The probability question (1) seems to be alright as well if you had a reasonable go at it and provided some analysis to at least i and ii you would have picked up most of the marks. Other than time pressure, seems reasonable. I hope we get a pass mark. I’ll definetely be thinking about it until Aug 23 comes around but my approach is going to be to start studying for other papers and if I do fail i’ll have the time to pick it up where I left off and still keep up with my schedule.

@tejal said:
Q1 – I got the closing account balances for period 1 and 2 that was pretty straightforward i think..but then the other two questions about calculating the probability of a negative account balance and calculate the probability that the account balance will exceed the overdraft limit or something (i dont remember it properly) those confused me so i skipped them..then there was a that part about trade receivables management policy. In that question I just waffled on about how they should assess the credit worthiness of customers and the usual debt collection procedures they should adopt…the last part of the question was about the importance of liquidity and profitability in working capital management and i wrote that a company need to strike a balance between the two…I was surprised at the 13 marks for the EV calculation..Didnt feel like it was worth 13 marks lol..
Q2 – Um..this question didn’t seem two difficult but it was a bit confusing. I calculated the after-tax cost of debt. Then we were so supposed to explain the effect the bonds issue had on the WACC..i wasn’t sure if the WACC should be calculated using the book value of the overdraft (4.5m) or were we supposed to use the new limit on overdraft 500,000? Anyone have any ideas? Or how did you people solve it? So yeah that part confused me a bit. The other part was interest cover and gearing if I remember correctly..I calculated the interest cover before the bond issue and after the bond issue and then compared them both the the sector avg. Same thing for gearing…Hmm I think that was it right? I dont remember the rest of the question…
Q3 – The trainee was quite retarded obviously 😛 included depreciation, didnt adjust for inflation rates..part of the fixed costs were already committed (therefore irrelevant)..used a DF of 10% instead of the WACC..The one thing I wasnt sure of was was the mentioned the REAL rate of WACC and then they also mentioned the rate of general inflation..I calculated the nominal rate of WACC using the formula (1+1)=(1+h) x (1+r)..but I’m not sure if i was supposed to or if we were just supposed to use the given WACC..anyway after using that formula I got a rate of appx. 12% so I used that..but my NPV was was too high to be true lol..I think i mightve messed up the calculationgs somewhere. Overall though the answer seems to be that the NPV is actually positive and the project should be accepted…The other part of the question about how to overcome certain difficulties in project appraisal (different asset life cycles, several IRRs, business risk), I kinda just guessed..wrote whatever came to my mind..again alot of points for that part, unfortunately 🙁
Q4 – While doing past papers I never felt the need for more time..3 hrs was basically enough to finish all the questions and review my answers but during the exam I found myself under a bit of time pressure when I got to Q4..I didnt really answer it as well as i probably couldve if I had more time..Used the formula for TSR and dividend yield is pretty easy to calculate..i forgot to caluculate capital gain though..oh well…and the rest of the question I answered what I could in the 15-20min I had left so yeah..I think Q4 was kind of a lost cause…..
Anyway..overall I was disappointed with the paper..It was so totally different from the usual question types..I bet even if we could solve all the past papers without any problem – like totally mastered them – we still wouldnt have been prepared to answer the questions on this exam..it was just so different. I just hope I get a 50. I dont think anyone is looking forward to taking this paper again..good luck to you all 🙂

For the Idiot trainnee question, I think the NPV was quite high , I got something that I cant remember but had the impression that the return was like lottery.lots of laughs………guess we must have been right.

the second part of the question was a blessing for me……….

1 Assets with different lifecyle….issue is comparism of costs.so u use Equivalent Annual Cost which is equal to PV of cost divided by teh annuity factor. The annuity factor would take the lifecyle into consideration and make the costs comparable.
2. Projects with different IRR…………u use NPV, that its main superiority over IRR . Just discount at teh firms cost of capital instead of looking for their internal rate of return, just check that the project will increase the wealth of the firm.

3. Project with different risk………u cannot use WACC to discout thus u need to find the beta of a firm in the same industry as the project u are diversifying into, ungear the beta by using the Beta asset formula, regear the beta to reflect the gearing of the firm and teh calculate the cost of equity with CAPM , u can then calculate the WACC and then appraise the project.

I guess EAC wasnt well answered last diet, that is why Tony Head tested it again.

i think you are quite right there. what they asking is about how to manage trade receivable, that is the way doing it.

@rvrvrv said:
what did people write for question 1 b) about the factors for trade receivables? i out stuff like credit control, credit system and collection etc, was this wrong?

what abt the first num on prob? how to calculate them?? last question abot cap gain n shareholders return too did not attempt!

Have you all seen the PQ Magazine article

https://www.pqaccountant.com/pmag-FFFF00500180018D02171957.html

If enough people complain then they’ll have to do something about it – Q1 was a joke!

All,this is the article in PQ Magazine Neil 249 was saying about.
Might be worth noting, CIMA students have just managed to get an extra sitting in september due to a poor exam! (it will be for people that failed and the ones resitting will have their results in 3 weeks!)
Remember we pay good money, and spend a huge part of our lives working towards certification. The ACCA should ensure they are acting in a fair and just way.

Problems with ACCA F9?

18 June 2010

ACCA students have contacted PQ magazine about the F9 exam. One student claimed that several areas of the exam were not taught on their courses.
She was shocked that probability was worth 13 marks. Another student was so upset that they are seriously considering giving up. Probability takes up just pages in the study manual. And if the entire syllabus is to be covered in 4 compulsory questions, then why she asks was so many marks attached to such a minor area.
PQ magazine also understands there was a problem with one of the questions at F1 – there was no answer to Q1.8!
Please keep sending in your comments about the exam to graham@pqaccountant.com

On acca website we can find past exams.Does anyone noticed that they’ve publisehed F9 June 2010 questions and than removed it ?I am curious why 🙂

Think it is very strange that ACCA has put F7 June 2010 exam on their website but not F9!!

I wonder why? Because it was so ridiculous perhaps?

Paper was okay. Hoping for 100… Haha:D Just kidding

Isnt it weird that all answers to ACCA papers for June 2010 sitting have been uploaded on ACCA webpage exept for F9? Why?

I still can’t see any answers??

Thats where I have been looking but there is only 2010 questions there when I look and no answers….