APM*** P5 December 2011 Exam was: Post your comments and vote in Instant Poll ***

@tzxsean said:
@shenren123

i think you just need to speed up ur reading speed
and thought processing time

you will be fine you're really covered all syllabus of P5

Having read all of your previous comments(esp. about Q1 & Q5), I think you need a bit of philosophical understanding, please indulge me.....

What is easy for you, may be difficult for others.
What is hard for you, may be easy for others.

We all have our strengths and weaknesses, and they are different for different people.

David Beckham, may be a genius a physical use of his body, but I wouldnt want him to be prime minister.
Clinton may be great at politics, but I wouldnt want to marry him(if I was a girl, or that way inclined, in California)
My friend is a wonderful artist with weird funky ideas & a physicist, but I would never ask his opinions on finance
Me, im good at numbers & business strategy, but I could never kick a football right, be a politician(im too honest & direct), or create a masterpiece.

To each their own, some are great at law, some at bureaucracy, some at languages, some at tax, some at strategy, some at performance accounting, some at organisation, marketing, creativity etc. One good thing about ACCA, is its very varied.

You liked this paper, others who are stronger than you on some aspects, but weaker than you on Performance Management, did not like the paper.

C'est la vie, (or "Bahala na", in Phils, or "She'll be alrite mate" in Aus, or "Sure Its grand" back home in IRL)

@tzxsean said:
@darthvader001

for performance pyramid

i din explain the exact thing appear on the diagram

as it supposed to be different for each company

i just said that the KPI must measure the CSF and CSF support the vision

@tzxsean said:
@darthvader001

for performance pyramid

i din explain the exact thing appear on the diagram

as it supposed to be different for each company

i just said that the KPI must measure the CSF and CSF support the vision

I even draw the damn thing! I think I mentioned also these parts, however the question stated to look on performance measures in the Company and suggest new ones! Goddammit, I could do the question right now, but not in 30 min, including reading time!! It's not humain!

@darthvader001 said:
I even draw the damn thing! I think I mentioned also these parts, however the question stated to look on performance measures in the Company and suggest new ones! Goddammit, I could do the question right now, but not in 30 min, including reading time!! It's not humain!

Yea, I drew it too, but as an answer plan. Most of my answer plans were written during the reading time on the exam itself, but I figured writing this on the paper might be worth a mark, so why not as I needed to write it anyway to focus my mind.

Besides, they cant deduct marks for that, only give you none, or some.

Correct me if im wrong !

But from reading the comments......

- If you did the exam backwards, you felt it was ok, but tough in parts ?

- If you did the exam forwards, you got caught up in Q1, which made the rest of the exam more challenging ?

Do people agree that this is the general feeling ?

Well that paper was a big pair of sweaty socks, who is up for a meeting next june?

That Q1 part b had me and and my knickers so twisted Iam suprised I did not squeal in pain.

I must agree that in the end I was putting anything down in the hopes of getting a few marks, basically with the opinion if I have just spent £89 to sit this exam some examiner can sit through the same pain as me writing it and Iam getting my money worth lol........, and guys pass the beer around I need a drink

The exam was challenging.

Q1
I left Q1 at first then came back to it. I multiplied the percentages of probability for each level of demand and design type, so have 9 situations. Vareiable cost was 1214(hope i remember) x those expected values, Fixed cost was the 7.7m, 10m amd 15m, add together and 19% was the profit on top. I didnt do the maximax, min etc. I identifed few risk and suggested NPV as better project evaluation method.

Q2
I drew the performance pyramid and mentioned about how the mission objectives and operation measure relate. Said the company need to measure these as well. Suggeted customer satisfaction, Quality measure, productivity, Innovation and learning

Q4
Kaizen, described what it is and the benefits.
JIT purchasing and JIT production. described them ,mentioned it will help reduce cost, improve quality, increase productivity and profitablity. No need for invetory holding and budget variance analysis

Q5
Budget did my little bit, how it is not good that budget should go ahead despite the 12% fall in industry revenue. Did revised budget and compared with actual to show what is controllabe based on 12% fall in revenue and had favorable profit. Suggeted that reward system should include non Fkpi and budget target should be co-opt the branch managers (hope it was relevant), so that the reward can be motivating.

But finally, the "Horse is prepared for the day of battle, but safety is of the Lord". I did my best studied so hard and I trust God to crown my efforts with success. I wish everybody goodluck too.

In addition, I think ACCA should review this P5 exam and act fairly (ethically) in the passing of student on this Dec P5 exam.

Hi just incase you are thinking abount changing your subjects after few attemps, my advice is not to. I passed P$ paper on my 5th attempt with 57 marks so there is hope!
I also found todays paper hard, infact I do not think this paper allows you to go indept with any of the scenario as simply there isn't enough time and under pressure it is so difficult to think of KPI's. I manage to do all the questions but could not add value to my answers due to lack of time.
So my question to you all is do the examiner want quality or quantity as both is not possible. I am sick of this examiner already, he is like the old P4 examiner where no body could pass as soon they sacked him.....oopps I mean changed him I passed.

I mean P4 not P$

@lakeside said:
In addition, I think ACCA should review this P5 exam and act fairly (ethically) in the passing of student on this Dec P5 exam.

What do you mean by that?
PS: I think you have a clear chance of passing.. my answers were large in content, but lacked the focus on some aspects you mentioned in Q4 and Q5.. Wish I could do it clear as you stated. I think my approach with Q1, Q2, Q4 and Q5 was not the best.. should have started with the clear kill points in the 20 marks questions

Question: when we can see on the ACCA site the questions and answers ?
Should be pretty soon, I hope

Definitely the paper was not easy.. I didn't have any idea about the performance pyramid..not to draw the diagram even.. but however definitely i wrote about the NFPI and PI and how to measure it.. wonder how many marks I'll get from the total 25 marks for that question ( No:2) fingers crossed for atleat 50 marks...

Lols.. in q1 i did the ev , and maximin, minimax thing..but after reading the above comments i know i have messed it up big time..during the paper i had a feeling that something was amiss... but wasnt sure..just rushing against time....i think the examiner should realise that due to time pressure *sometimes our heads do clog up..... all those time spent studying and at the end of the day..its do or die situation...makes you wonder!...lets see what feb holds for us...

What should have been calculated in Q1? EV or minimax, maximix? Anyone calculated minimax regret?

Message to ACCA : If you are short of money due to economic slump then let us know and we double or triple the exam fee. But stop this monopoly, hiring an examiner someone like Alex Watt won’t help you.

This examiner is SICK; he does not comprehend that he is setting paper for students not for CEO/ CFO of a PLC. We are students, some of us are on junior and some on senior accounting role and we hardly or don’t experience something that was given in exam or the way paper P5 set. So, If we don’t have exposure then it is utterly difficult for us to judge and answer the question that based on real scenarios with the help of our knowledge/theory etc.

Q1 is completely stupid, it doesn’t make sense at all; you chosen a small part of syllabus and set 35 numbers questions just to show the world that “look I am the real ALIEN, come and catch me, I will ensure to bring down the passing rate of P5”

Truly speaking, I took tuition and revision from LSBF (David Law – excellent teacher for P5) then finished full BPP revision book (approx 85 questions), then 3 mock papers, watched interactive 3 times and I was pretty much confident for today’s sitting, but when I saw Q1 I was f***ing pissed off with Alex Watt. SICK Bas,,,,d. I was only able to answer between 5 to 10 Marks, rest of the paper Q2, Q3 and Q4 not bad. But Q1 is very crucial to pass this exam and if I score only 5 marks in Q1 then clearly I attempted only 70% paper. I doubted that I will pass.

F***ing examiner came from different planet and don’t know how human lives in planet earth. The P5 talks about controllability and look what you doing; you need to apply some knowledge on yourself - Ugly MF.

Previous examiner Shane was quite reasonable.

This has been the worst exam I've ever seen.... Nonetheless, I wish you guys all the best when the results are out.

I felt like crying after this paper..i studied really really really hard...started studying early, 2 weeks off work..At first I thought it was really easy and did question 2, 5 and 3...and still had an hour for quest 1..did the part A..Got to part B and I did some calculations..cancelled it..did another one, cancelled it...then did more calculations which did not even make sense to me...so I probably lost 19 marks...I pray I pass...but only God can do it...

In all honesty I did not know what was being asked in quest 1 b...This ACCA is making me feel like a loser!

Hi guys. I had a terrible exam but more so due to inadequate studying. I cant really blame the paper. However I would still say the questions were a bit distraught, i mean in question 1. things like ”metrics and mechanism of decision making”.. these were some things i cant recall coming across during studying. Can anyone please tell me which study text i should follow? Really feeling low after the exam!

What a terrible, terrible exam paper. If this is the standard now required to pass ACCA then its time for me to quit and find a new job. Despite so much study and revision, nothing prepared me for Question 1. I don;t know if I am really stupid but I read the question through 3 times - and it was a long question - trying to make sense of it. I tried calculations but I made the variable cost more than the maximum purhcase price of $70,000 per APV so there was not even any +ve contribution towards the huge fixed costs! So how could they even make any decision to build 500 750 or even 1000 APVs? Maybe I was missing something. And the issue about steel costs. Well they signed a contract to buy all the steel that they would need at a fixed cost which would avoid market fluctuations so where was the risk associated with buying steel (unless open market price falls below their contract fixed price).

And Q2 nearly all on the performance pyramid whatever that is! I read about it briefly in the study text but my revision kit did not have any questions on PP so it was a subject that I did not revise. What utter, utter hell of a paper.

If future ACCA exam papers are like this, it will damage the ACCA's credibility in the long term. If papers are seen as being this difficult they will lose potential new members. They need to have high standards but not to this ridiculous level.

12 out of 14 papers passed but now seriously contemplating quitting ACCA after this one.

@raheellondon said:
Message to ACCA : If you are short of money due to economic slump then let us know and we double or triple the exam fee. But stop this monopoly, hiring an examiner someone like Alex Watt won’t help you.

This examiner is SICK; he does not comprehend that he is setting paper for students not for CEO/ CFO of a PLC. We are students, some of us are on junior and some on senior accounting role and we hardly or don’t experience something that was given in exam or the way paper P5 set. So, If we don’t have exposure then it is utterly difficult for us to judge and answer the question that based on real scenarios with the help of our knowledge/theory etc.

Q1 is completely stupid, it doesn’t make sense at all; you chosen a small part of syllabus and set 35 numbers questions just to show the world that “look I am the real ALIEN, come and catch me, I will ensure to bring down the passing rate of P5”

Truly speaking, I took tuition and revision from LSBF (David Law – excellent teacher for P5) then finished full BPP revision book (approx 85 questions), then 3 mock papers, watched interactive 3 times and I was pretty much confident for today’s sitting, but when I saw Q1 I was f***ing pissed off with Alex Watt. SICK Bas,,,,d. I was only able to answer between 5 to 10 Marks, rest of the paper Q2, Q3 and Q4 not bad. But Q1 is very crucial to pass this exam and if I score only 5 marks in Q1 then clearly I attempted only 70% paper. I doubted that I will pass.

F***ing examiner came from different planet and don’t know how human lives in planet earth. The P5 talks about controllability and look what you doing; you need to apply some knowledge on yourself - Ugly MF.

Previous examiner Shane was quite reasonable.

I feel your anger and frustration, am still in shock myself. P5 was supposed to be for me one of those papers you know you were gonna pass, because I was super-duper prepared for it, but~~~~~~~~ alas! that was not to be immediately I opened the question paper!

With P5 being my final paper I felt confident this morning having attended a taught and revision course, learnt the course notes and having attempted the majority of the questions from BPP's practice and revision kit.

I know the examiner has indicated his intention for P5 to be more discursive and less numerical based but today's exam seemed very different to the vast majority of the previous exam questions, particularly Q1 part (b) worth almost a fifth of the total mark allocation.

I feel a bit better having read the comments on here but i was hoping for a comfortable 2 month wait having put so much effort in, just hope i've done enough to achieve 50!

Good luck to everyone else who sat today's paper.

P5 was one of my final 2 papers and I was hoping to just have 1 left to sit in June 2012. But after today's terrible exam i'm sure I will have this to sit too. I've already sat P5 under the old examiner in December 2010 and that was easier than today;s paper.

Its so soul destroying facing a paper that's so confusing especially when you know you are 100% prepared for the paper. Having read other comments today I am more hopeful that i'm not alone. I've already failed P4 three times, so I'm running out of options! The thought of having to go through all this again for P6 and P7 is too depressing.

Q1 was confusing. The language used meant I had to read the scenario time and time again. I guessed it was EV but didnt get the right numbers.
Q2 was my fav as I read that the performance pyramid could be on the exam so I did revise the area on performance measurement well.
Had a few glasses of red so cant really remember the other two questions, they seemed ok but I felt that I didnt write enough.

I feel like i'm running out of time and options fast. What does ACCA expect us to do, keep on resiting the exams forever!! I'm so tired of exams and the ACCA. I think it's time they understand how annoyed we really are!!

We should ask the examiner to print THE BEST SCORE paper that a REAL student has made! I want to see hoe "excellence" look like! I also want to know who managed to do that and WHY this paper has pass rates below the others!

The subjects were all in the syllabus, I admit. But to WRITE about them in full sentences in the time allocated is IMPOSSIBLE. SO WHAT IS THE POINT?
Why I am studying like a moron, jeopardizing my career as a result of non-passing the exam, my life, etc? For a STUPID examiner to feel comfortable and to say " we had a well balanced diet?!?" He can take his diet and... do stuff with it!!
This is STEALING: Stealing my life, my hours, my money.

I will drop this ACCA, exam if I have just one left.. today's p5, if I don't pass.

I have read all the comments here and I completely agree that P5 for this December Exam did not make sense Especially question 1. I already have my ACA from back home where the standard is you pass 3 or 4 exams for a stage or you resit ALL. Despite this hard constraint, I did pass without having to resit many times. I also passed my CISA exams where you have to score 75% or resit the paper. However the P5 paper of today appears demotivational. ACCA teaches the importance of motivation and why demotivational measures should be avoided, yet this is like doing the exact opposite of what they teach. We Students are a major stakeholder to ACCA and if they use what they teach, they should understand the importance of stakeholder matrix. Though I was able to do my best and attempted all the questions yet this is not the type of questions for exam, many are not happy even from conversation in my centre as well.

Big Question – How do we get these issues across to ACCA, because I am confident they should also listen to students. I am not sure if the exam survey is sufficient to do this? When a student prepares very well, then the performance metrics used by ACCA should not be demotivating. Most of us have just 2 or 3 papers to get done, so delay tactics by ACCA?.

i was hoping for more calculations, had EVA, RI and ROI down to a T.

as for Q1 b), most on here have said this was the nightmare, i felt quite the opposite. this could be my saving grace if i scraped 25 from Q1.

my method was to work out selling price (fixed on all three types) at 19% mark up on variable costs. this would then give you contribution.

then there was the 7.5m grant from the government, which i used to reduce the fixed costs for each design, immediately i could calculate break even point on each design.

then added the contribution multiplied by each quantity ordered to (FC less grant) to give me an absolute 'profit' from each outcome.

with this you can calculate maximin, maximax, in both cases design 1 as VC were fixed.

finally i applied probability to my 'profit' numbers to work out EV of each design, this suggested design 2, from 1, and finally 3.

I recommended Maximin as the most acceptable as Mackerel seemed to be risk averse (they fixed price of steel in question) meaning my suggested design was type 1.

drifted through the rest of the paper with theory dump and a bit of KPI/CSF/Visions blag in Q2. hopefully 25 in Q1 and 8/9 from each of the others, but could/should have been so much better.

@lindencourt said:
What a terrible, terrible exam paper. If this is the standard now required to pass ACCA then its time for me to quit and find a new job. Despite so much study and revision, nothing prepared me for Question 1. I don;t know if I am really stupid but I read the question through 3 times - and it was a long question - trying to make sense of it. I tried calculations but I made the variable cost more than the maximum purhcase price of $70,000 per APV so there was not even any +ve contribution towards the huge fixed costs! So how could they even make any decision to build 500 750 or even 1000 APVs? Maybe I was missing something. And the issue about steel costs. Well they signed a contract to buy all the steel that they would need at a fixed cost which would avoid market fluctuations so where was the risk associated with buying steel (unless open market price falls below their contract fixed price).

And Q2 nearly all on the performance pyramid whatever that is! I read about it briefly in the study text but my revision kit did not have any questions on PP so it was a subject that I did not revise. What utter, utter hell of a paper.

If future ACCA exam papers are like this, it will damage the ACCA's credibility in the long term. If papers are seen as being this difficult they will lose potential new members. They need to have high standards but not to this ridiculous level.

12 out of 14 papers passed but now seriously contemplating quitting ACCA after this one.

Fully agree with you!

Dear all

I read all the comments above and agree with you.

Do you know Alex Watt?

From the strategy point of view, we need to analysis the background of Alex Watt.

From the internet research, Alex Watt studied physics at Endingburgh for nearly ten years and trained to a accountant.

Alex watt is abnormal person and he is a strange person.

He just want to make us ugly.

I totally agree that Q1 is ugly and unfair. There are over 20 marks about risk and uncertanty. Is it fair? it is only small area of the whole p5 sylabus!!

Q1 is really unpleasant and nasty, messy.

Very odd, the rest of the paper is stupid and easy and meaningless!

ONE THING I NEED TO ADD

there is exam feedback survey from ACCA. we NEED to report all our feeling in a formal way to ACCA.

ALEX WATT'S style will be reported officially from P5 sufferers!

@kano said:
my method was to work out selling price (fixed on all three types) at 19% mark up on variable costs. this would then give you contribution.

then there was the 7.5m grant from the government, which i used to reduce the fixed costs for each design, immediately i could calculate break even point on each design.

then added the contribution multiplied by each quantity ordered to (FC less grant) to give me an absolute 'profit' from each outcome.

When I threw down my scraps of numbers, I did exactly the same thing, but ran out of time before I did the last big bit, so it sounds like I may have picked up a few marks for that(even just 5, I would be happy with). Yay, feeling a little better now, that someone else took the direction I took.

@ Admin, every time I check back on this, I get the option to vote again. I dont, but im sure some do, and it messes with the result.

Anyway to fix this ?