SBR*** P2 December 2013 Exam was.. Post your comments ***

Much too much mechanics at this level, supposed to be a professional level paper! I think this paper should be fully based on theoretical areas, and discursive questions entirely,; why are we being tested on cashflows anyway, this is not the making of an accountant of the modern age, number crunching bits are now undertaken by accounting systems so why do exams keep trying to flog us to do mathematical contorsions when any old pc with a consol program will do that 35 minute question in less than one minute.

Can someone say horrible in another language? I really tried for the cash flow. Attempted q2 n4. What on earth was question 3 asking? So help me God

This exam is just pure evil. I left exam with a big headache. It seem the examiner set out to ensure that people fail the exam It is just too bad. It was not relevant to most of the core areas we were asked to focus on, I am just very tired now and felt like i have wasted a lot of money, time preparing for an exam that was not possible to pass. I feel sorry for tens of thousands non-native English speakers, they don't stand a chance of passing as the language was used to just confuse people.

Disaster........so well prepared but could not done proper....need to sit again......

Not so terrible provided that you were ready for CF. Only very annoying thing is the language.... It is always a problem to understand what exactly you are asked about, but this time it was like a mad tea party - I've spent plenty of time rereading and rereading the questions. As always - no problem with the exam, problems with being not prepared enough to pass it...

I guess question 1b meant to discuss held 2 maturity fixed deposit loan...if d loan is held within 12 months, then the principal and interest should be shown on cash and cash equivalent balance @ year end. But if the coy. Decides 2 terminate d loan a penalty will be charge, which implies that the cash and cash equivalent @ year end may not be up to 3m or 7m. Also, the company can decide 2 reinvest d fixed deposit, if the do reinvest it, the value @ the year end can not be cash and caash equivalent....well DAT was my answer ..don't know if it's what the examiner wanted.

I agree with most people here (and those frustrated outside the exam hall) that the paper was unexpected and MESSY! 1- Cash Flows are pretty typical in their own, but I felt some of the adjustment details were even incomplete. - government grant in regards to land: very unclear accounting entries(which were already done in draft statements) -- Pension obligations mentioned that:acquired subsidiary's pension obligation ($1m) was entered in current cost center, ALTHOUGH the expense to PnL were correct. I took the hint from *although* and decided that acquired 1m obligation shouldnt be expenses. Therefore, current service cost charge would have been (8-1 = 7m) in the statements. b) Deposits are cash equivalents. So I recommended that both can be *called* from the bank in less than a month, so the company can consider it as a cash equivalent (highly liquid). I used some experience as bank customer, where usually such deposits are (Flexi-deposits). Although penalties were applicable, the item in itself is at least liquid and can be converted quickly into cash. Mentioned terms as premature withdrawal etc. Hoping examiner would appreciate connecting from real life. c)Importance of Code of Ethics. The only straight-forward question in the paper. Could have written more but I was hell tired from the other questions. 2- a) was about rendering of services. Quoted IAS 18, conditions for rendering (couldn't remember 4th! but vaguely tried to sound know-it-all). Mentioned matching concept. Criticized lack of information whether contracts specify different prices for different services. Are the service "only in package" or can be bought separately? b) On provisions. - restructuring. plus IFRS 5 Held-for-sale. - other provisions: future operating costs c) Sales and Operating Leaseback. Was ok. Q3. a) Put-options. NCI treatment. Question was, since NCI had put-options and there were some terms written, what should have been the NCI? To be hoenst, out of the entire syllabus, where are put options mentioned properly? After minutes wasted thinking about it, I just moved on. Marks lost in this question. b) Financial Instruments - hedging questions. Cash Flow hedge was accounted for wrongly through profit or loss (should be other comprehensive income)/ Suggested setting up hedge for associate. c)Did not go into details but identified the relationship between Bental and Lental as reserve-acquisition set up. Doubt I wrote enough to score ful l10 marks.

Agreed, it was a strange paper. Those who attempted Q4; how did you address the issue on the operating lease with varying selling prices? Apart from the obvious lease rentals (assuming operating lease), removal of depreciation and added cash in the bank, what else could have been discussed? Or maybe I'm not seeing the bigger picture?:(

Meester, the main thing they were asking was: whether gain/loss should be amortized or recognized immediately in profit or loss. There is this flow chart in texts. If FV = Sale price, then recognize immediately. And so on. That is why examiner provided multiple selling price options, so we could form examples.

This is what to be expected from now on..... as u guys may or may not know acca just changed status and went to a post graduate status!!!!!! Anyway the exam was horrible xD question 1 B wasn't it about ifrs9 financial instrument? recognising the loan deposit as a financial asset since angel was entitled to contractual cash flows.

Please anyone tell me the answer for this one??? which value to take from 100% subsidiary for the purpose of inventory, payable and receivable? is it fair vale or cost???

it's a nightmare to me when i saw both q3 and q4, select either one i die anyway, i though q4 will always be harder but q3 is almost there too. anyway i wrote 3a, which might be wrong that any amount that shareholder invested not exceeding can be classified as equity, those that exceeded shall be classified as liability. part b wrote a few lines says hedge should not be used as it is a translation currency risk, or sth... dunno part c din read at all. all in all lost about 30 marks. terrible. spent too much time figuring out q1. stuck with ppe and tax. 135.5 for tax payment? impairment of GW 31.5 anyone? impairment other intangible asset is 90 i think inv in assoc 71 goodwill 11.5, the dtl inclusive 1.5 taken to dtl t account is it?

Fair value

really hard exam and looking back, made many mistakes on the cash flow- probably too many as need to score well here to pass. I agree with some comments above - far too much of the syllabus is ignored and having spent a great deal of time preparing for the exam, and feeling as if I know enough to pass, the randomness of the questions just make you feel that you know nothing. So much of your revision is wasted as such a small part of the syllabus is tested. Hoping for a very generous marker who does not get bored of my waffle. Failed this exam twice already. really is a tough one :(

Does any of the loss get allocated initially agains the revaluation reserve that had been built up previously?

Thank you Shadedrose. That was clearly not a section in the text that I thought necessary to revise on.

Didnt think of them as Financial Assets, I'm dead!

oh yes, did the asset held for sale fulfil the criteria? i mention it did not meet the criteria but i know they are mainly asking for provisions.

i talked about ias 18 and ifrs 8 segemental reporting in question 2a ..... im sure its totally irrelevant xD

Hard exam- no easy marks in any of the questions

the cash flow could qualify as easy marks.... was pretty straightforward

No idea what Q1a) was asking. 2 balance sheets, a p&l, socie and a load of other figures. How do you extract a cash flow?! Instead spent the whole exam on Q1b) & c), Q2 and Q4. Well the wordy bits anyway. Will obviously fail not answering 35% of the paper. Must be missing something because I passed F7 easily enough after reading a book on the subject for a couple of days.

I believe that it wasn't asked whether IFRS 5 was met. I mentioned whether the treatment was correct: the entity first amortized the amount of the asset, and then classified as held-for-sale which is right under the standards. Not 100% sure now. LOL

This was such a difficult paper, the language used by examiner was too difficult to understand. I knew hedging and i knew other standards too but i just failed to write or relate anything because i just could not determine what was being asked or even what is examiner trying to do.. i was so stressed that i even failed to write ethics at all

This P2 paper was horrible. I had expected the worst and studied hard covering many topics. Disappointed now! I dont think it tested enough of the syllabus in fairness.. Do you get any marks for workings if the final figures are not put into the proforma cashflow layout? I didnt have time to put all figures into the statement

Tough paper indeed, was pleased to see the CSCF but some tricky adjustments in there that I know I overlooked. One in particular which I'm sure will attract a bunch of marks is the tax base aspect of the Sub Acqn... didn't get it and didn't want to waste time trying to figure it out. Qs 1b and 1c fairly reasonable, again quite subjective so hoping there were a few headliners in my answer to keep me in the pass zone. Qs 2 I though was reasonable but for the sale and lease back I read this a bit to quickly and suggested that any profit should be deferred and released back in against the lease expense... don't think this was really the right approach. Qs 3 Understood the standards being examined but the wording was complex and as a native english speaker even I struggled to understand how to position the answer. Left it out. Qs 4 Judgement and materiality, for some reason I felt there were elements in this question that loosely tied back to the technical article issued on IAS 39 but just for the background info. Might be because it was the last thing I read at 1 am this morning. Changes in accounting policy fairly ok but I left out the last part of the question and also the C part so I've effectively left myself needing 50 out of 87.5!!! Looks like I'll be back again in June for 3rd time lucky but maybe Q1 will get me over. Good luck to everyone and hopefully the results are in your favour!

faizahabib@ renovation as charged to revenue, it must b deducted from pbt, grant was added to ppe additions, there is no need of revaluation , n dep was given

I normally don't look on here- Scared might see some answers and fret. It appears though today we are all of the same opinion. Q3&4 WFT.. Nice to know.. CFS is an easy one to get marks in though, you get 4 just for PBT/ Cash and Cash equiv's B/F&C/F and 1 for taking them away from each other.. That's 8% of your pass rate and you have not even turned the calculator on!! Best of luck everyone!!

yeah, Cc u can get marks even if u didnt plot the figures in the sections, no need to worry about it.... i thnk there will b a percentile advantage...... so dont worry guys... bcos ths paper wasnt enough to b dne in just 3 hrs...

my reaction after reading was : "Are u f... kidding me?" Spent so many time on preparations and now I think it was very unfair and included a few parts of the whole sylabus... Failed. And unfortunately even if I have spent 3 more days on learning my feelings would have been the same:( Were they going to raise additional exam fees? :( It's a pity that the repetition is in 6 months - I would forget a lot...:( :(