SBR*** P2 December 2011 Exam was: Post your comments and vote in Instant Poll ***

hmmm paper was tough
i read question 2 ...and got stuck under exam pressure such a question is a disaster.................moved on to current issue attempted it well

paper was a bit unexpected no tax, lease,share based payments....and i dont know u have whole p1 and f8 on ethics what the hell ethics doing in p-2???

i read employeee benefit adjustment 3-4 tymes at at the end i atlast figure it out that is assest cealing...:D BUT I CALCULATED IT WRONG HOPE TO GET ATLEAST 3-4 MARKS IN THAT ADJUSTMENT

i read employeee benefit adjustment 3-4 tymes at at the end i atlast figure it out that is assest cealing...:D BUT I CALCULATED IT WRONG HOPE TO GET ATLEAST 3-4 MARKS IN THAT ADJUSTMENT

Hmm..i see pepople commenting about question 1b, on segment reporting..but i
( my opinion).. did not personally relate to operating segment.. actually it made no sense... i think they were asking on ethics regarding disclosure and how it may affect the shareholders and stakeholders...... ( i may not be right).. what do you guys think could i possibly be right?

////aileenhughes41 Treated the matter of “fees” as potential agency income for which under IAS18 they could only recognise “commission” element thereon.

I believe transfer fees were paid, not received, therefore I was writing about capitalization. Well, excepecting my head to explode in a minute, I am not 100 percent sure that I read the question correctly. Other guys, what do you remember and think? IAS 18 or IAS 38?

Thanks.

Please where do I send my comments on ACCA website or wait for the Exam Survey?

@redrose said:
Hmm..i see pepople commenting about question 1b, on segment reporting..but i
( my opinion).. did not personally relate to operating segment.. actually it made no sense... i think they were asking on ethics regarding disclosure and how it may affect the shareholders and stakeholders...... ( i may not be right).. what do you guys think could i possibly be right?

Wasn't that Part (c), can't remeber what's asked in (b) exactly, I could be wrong
Ok I remeber now, part b was about commenting on the situation, and part c was about CSR Vs Shareholder's rights.
I commented on part b by thinking that somehow the segment report doesn't need to tell everything since it could be commercially sensitive to competitors, so things like expense and revenue stream may not have to be disclosed in a great detail blah blah waffle
Part C would just be indirectly discussing profit Vs CSR.

I cudn't help but laugh inspite of myself, especially at the person who said acca should test their brand for impairment. I think the exam was difficult as I had no clue whatsoever about Q2 on restructuring. I read somewhere that the examiner was not interested in testing the 10% corridor in IAS 19,alas, I got to the exam hall only to find myself on the corridor,lol. I also struggled with the financial instruments adjustment as I used 8% as the DF instead of the initial rate. Q4 found me writing mostly from common sense and the regular IAS 18,infact at a point, I thought I was developing my own accounting standard. Overall, we can only hope for the best as I do not even know if what I have written is enough to score 50!

Well reading all this makes me feel better. It feels like a "ha-HA! I knew you wouldn't study that!" from you know who.

Roll on tomorrow, who's up for P1?!

Examiner has lost direction...the paper was very hard

Think the intent was to let some of the retakers to pass only. Exam was a noncence with obsolete knowledge like partial goodwill and corridor approach as well as narrow questions on unpopular segmental reporting subject and reorganizations. Where are the current issues gone?

Total disaster...I went blank and even forgot how to calculate Cr reserve. only did 2 questions....

iam destroyed..:(

Q3 was very hard. I read it 3 times but still nothing came in my mind on how to deal with it. Q1 was easy but 15 marks segment reporting part was unexpected. Instead of examining different IAS the examiner examined only Intangibles in Q3.
Level of difficulty ? Very Hard

love the posts on question 2, 'did anyone actually do it?'
i did! absolutely no idea why, i just saw accounts and figured it would be easier to bull sh1t that, than writing crap on impairments and embarrassing myself! might have been wrong!! them segments q's were hard and i was expecting segments, but not that, didn't really have a clue.
the study texts should just have everything you need in them, if they have to be twice the size fair enough.

@aileenhughes41

Thanks for clarifying.

Ahwell, Im partially right & partially wrong. Hopefully that gets me past the 50 marks.

By the way, for anyone feeling disheartened. I get the impression that the examiner is generous with the marks.

The reason I say this is, from reading his comments on past papers, he says things like "many students scored highly on this question, although they failed to come to the correct conclusion"

Which to me says, that he rewards marks for putting in a good effort & analysing the situation using your knowledge of IFRS, even if you end up incorrect.

Remember, you dont need 100, just 50.

There are more than 30 examinable IFRS in P2 and he chose company reconstruction and operating segments??? God!!!

Question: How many balls are there in an over?
Answer: 6(SIX)

If this were a ACCA exam question the answer would be WRONG and the examiner’s comment in the suggested answers would be

“Most of the students answered the question. However, students have not understood the question correctly. Answer points to a lack of in-depth understanding and conceptual clarity on the subject. Correct answer is 1 ball which is delivered 6 times, if the umpire did not declare any no ball in all those deliveries. In case the umpire declares a No Ball as defined in the Byelaws 24 Rule 3 of the Laws of Cricket (Lords), then there will be an additional ball delivered for every no ball declared by the umpire. Similarly for wide under Byelaw 25 Rule 3 of the Laws of Cricket (Lords) an additional ball will be delivered for every wide ball declared by the umpire. Note that such additional balls will not be counted towards the number of balls...:D

I attempted Q2 Reconstructions because I had some knowledge on it because I went through the December 2004 question on reconstructions on Saturday morning which proved quite helpful. Q3 looked horrible! I mean football???? Has Graham Holt gone mad?

@muju said:
Question: How many balls are there in an over?
Answer: 6(SIX)

If this were a ACCA exam question the answer would be WRONG and the examiner’s comment in the suggested answers would be

“Most of the students answered the question. However, students have not understood the question correctly. Answer points to a lack of in-depth understanding and conceptual clarity on the subject. Correct answer is 1 ball which is delivered 6 times, if the umpire did not declare any no ball in all those deliveries. In case the umpire declares a No Ball as defined in the Byelaws 24 Rule 3 of the Laws of Cricket (Lords), then there will be an additional ball delivered for every no ball declared by the umpire. Similarly for wide under Byelaw 25 Rule 3 of the Laws of Cricket (Lords) an additional ball will be delivered for every wide ball declared by the umpire. Note that such additional balls will not be counted towards the number of balls...:D

This is hilarious, I am laughing the first time since coming out of exam hall this afternoon

@manosmanos said:
There are more than 30 examinable IFRS in P2 and he chose company reconstruction and operating segments??? God!!!

And provisions! Came up in Q2

@muju said:
Question: How many balls are there in an over?
Answer: 6(SIX)

If this were a ACCA exam question the answer would be WRONG and the examiner’s comment in the suggested answers would be

“Most of the students answered the question. However, students have not understood the question correctly. Answer points to a lack of in-depth understanding and conceptual clarity on the subject. Correct answer is 1 ball which is delivered 6 times, if the umpire did not declare any no ball in all those deliveries. In case the umpire declares a No Ball as defined in the Byelaws 24 Rule 3 of the Laws of Cricket (Lords), then there will be an additional ball delivered for every no ball declared by the umpire. Similarly for wide under Byelaw 25 Rule 3 of the Laws of Cricket (Lords) an additional ball will be delivered for every wide ball declared by the umpire. Note that such additional balls will not be counted towards the number of balls...:D

LOL, well said, touché !

I have successfully passed 11 papers in ACCA by the grace of God; P2 is not an exception, I will survive...

This is finally it with the ACCA for me. I have decided to quit.

Wow! I'm impressed

The text books and preparation material for these exams are far, far too inadequate for what is now thrown at us in these exams.

Agree to some extent. Some materials are better than the other. OT's materials are the best! Have you used them?

I have no confidence in passing any future ACCA exams as it is now become a bit of a lottery. You might be lucky to win with a question on a subject that you know enough about to answer, but the broad range of accountancy knowledge that we have all gained from our studies is simply not tested. I have more confidence in winning in a casino than passing another ACCA exam. The ACCA examiners seem to test just a small part of the syllabus, sometimes even an obscure element without contentrating on the broader aspects that we are all prepared for. I feel they do not test us for being future accountants. Surely that what the exams should be about?

How can they ensure that the students covered the whole syllabus? Only two options available:
- test small parts of the whole syllabus;
- select specific parts of the syllabus and examine in greater details.
The former is definitely for lower level of expertise. The latter is for an expert who can demonstrate deep knowledge of the whole syllabus.

Perhaps the ACCA is getting short of cash so they screw the students by making the exams ridiculously hard for the vast majority of students so we have to retake, and then retake again …which mean more cash for the hard-up ACCA coffers.

Conspiracy theory in action :)
Do you expect "pass" only becouse you've paid the fees and scanned a couple of chapters?

What has really got me about today’s P2 exam was that the examiner is a football fan and asked us a 9 mark question about football players transfer and agents fees and other issues relating to football. I HATE FOOTBALL and I do not even know what the question was taking about. What is a transfer fee? There was simply not enough information there for people like me to understand the question. 9 marks about transfer fees!!! That was 9 potential marks gone. Its a joke.

I consider the question as one of the "diamond"! Even if you hate football, you could make assumptions on what all that fees mean. Then you could apply pure theory knowledge to the situation. This question is a diamond because it puts all of us to equal situation. I do not think that many (if anybody) have ever seen footbal team FS. Therefore you could not just state that the treatment is right or wrong based on the FS you've seen in your professional life, whithout applying pure theory to the case.

Q4 . Revenue – I do not remember reading about these conceptual issues of time value and risk in any study material of mine and I simply could not come up with anything like 25 marks of written response. This exam was yet another clear fail for me.

Why to select this option then? :)
https://www2.accaglobal.com/pubs/students/publications/student_accountant/archive/SA_July2010_p2_revenue.pdf
- model answer for the question

To make the ACCA exam more credible in the future I feel they need to offer the student a broader range of say 6 questions to answer over 3 hours out of say 9 options presented, not just like the present 3Qs from a vast syllabus.

Completely disagree. If ACCA will make its exams easier than nobody will recognise the qualification as credible one. I do not want the qualification is granted to "all who paid the fees".

It appears ACCA examines some concepts that are not relevant at all.

For example, 10 % corridor is not allowed by revised IAS 19 anymore. I know it is in syllabus, but ACCA knows it will not be used anymore. It would make sense to examine areas that can be used by us in future. That would be actually very practical approach.

Other thing, regarding credit risk in revenue recognition. Original Exposure Draft dealt with credit risk, however the ED was revised recently and credit risk is not taken into account. The same principle as above, we are examined for aspects that will not apply in the future so can not use the knowledge gained in practise since it not relevant.

Today´s paper looked easy at first sight, but I must admit it was difficult. After putting cca 150-200 net hours into revision for 2nd attempt, I am really sceptical about the way we are examined. Important areas are overlooked when preparing exam questions, and minor areas receive 10 mark questions.

The most annoying thing is that I was studying really hard, I understand 80 % of the topics, can use knowledge in everyday work, but probably failed the exam 2nd time. I am asking, am I stupid, or the exam questions are prepared in way that the paper is undoable.

Alfyzoz - comment earlier re "fees" related to the ticket sales (in latter part of the question). This, I believe, was additional arrangement. To be honest, we could all drive ourselves nuts going back over in our minds. What's done is done now! I pulled up at a traffic light earlier and thought, crikey ...I actually recognised a contingent liability for the roof repair!! It's the exam stress and we are all still shell-shocked, lol :) 2 days time or so, please God, we can forget all about it. Hoping we all get passes at least.

The exam was such a disaster for me... When i saw Q1 i smiled until i see Q1 b and the when i turned to section be, i realise this is a disaster!!! i was in tears, i panic when i realise i couldnt do the paper after i invested so much time studying. i failed the exam for the second time!! i felt real awful. What the hell was that! i really dont know how to prepare for this exam because obviously my current strategy isnt working.
it appears i have to know every single thing in the syllabus in GREAT detail, its craxy!! This is the WORST ACCA paper i have ever done!

Examiner should study the syllebus sincerely and should not target lower pass rate. He should target covering sufficient aspects of core financial reporting areas. This session it was baselessly designed question structure.

By the way,

Regarding Q3. does anyone know if it is acceptable to use WACC for discounting ?

I didnt know, but went along the lines that it was accetable if no other means available, but critised their method, and several ways they did it, and said they were picking and choosing, and manipulating that method to their advantage(like using the low secure rate to get an average, which had nothing to do with them)

Anyone ?

Just feel this exam system doesn't make sense. It is not practical. Why not allow us "open-book" exam.

In our real life, at our work, all what we need is only to have overall concepts (not remember the standards tightly) , and then check through the standards. Finally, do what we should do....