*** P5 December 2014 Exam was.. Instant Poll and comments ***

Paper was massively time pressured, I had to stop myself at 90mins on q1 and move on to the other questions, two and half pages of detail is way too much to try and digest!

Stakeholder treatment in Q1 i went down the mendalows matrix route, hope that was right!

Q2 and Q3 i struggled felt like i was making the same points all the time

I feel a resit coming on!

On th Z score, there was difference in the Xs. The Q model had X6 (Current ratio) in replacement of X2 (RE/total assets) in the Z score. So I commented around this and the fact that either of the models addressed the susceptability of the revenue to quicky go down due to changes in the ore prices. Not much else really. Then on the lifecycle, I commented on the decomissioning provision (significant cash to be paid) and the immediate fall in revenue once the mine was exhausted. The I was out of time but mentioned as strategy getting more mine, cost control, and diversification.

Really time pressured exam I ran out of time on final question! Felt overall not to hard a paper (apart from time pressure). Although I got really confused in question 1 part b, in regards to what the examiner was actually asking us to do

What was question 1a again, can’t remember for the life of me

How did you find Q4? There was limited information and the company was in the safe zone.

Feedback please…

Hi, I think that Q4 was ok if it comes to result but the Z-score was not suitable measure as it is only for standard (not unique) companies, business therefore the result can be misleading

This examiner needs to adopt the Fitzgerald and moon model when writing exams, clarity, achievable etc. he really like playing with words.

Anyways, I got too excited with question 1, I was so excited that I spent till noon writing. It was a good question, but left the last question out JIT. not sure about EVA calc, I just taken operating profit, added back finance charges(net) , added back development costs, then capital, taken 2013 PPE figure, added development costs and applied the 11%WACC, I said I assumed that the debt was after tax. I talked about performance prism and also about benchmarking, said ratio were good but needed some other stuff, example there was no proper ratios for staff etc. other ratios suggested number of key customers and EBITFA

Then I done Q2, this was about local council and NFPIs. I talked about the importance because of economic edfixienxy and effectiveness. I always completed some ratios for vfm, inducing number of complaints, staff costs, amount of waste etc compared to national. This was bit rushed.

Then I done q4, and that confused me a bit, I basically said that the Z score and Q score (which Inhave no idea why would he add another model!) is not the best meaure as it relates to past performance , it’s based on financial statements subject to manipulation. The company takes 2 years to see ore after mining and by the time you complete a z score . The company would have already gone bust. The. I said that the company should ensure that all lifecycle costs are captured , there is a proper board with technical expertise, contingent costs are included to prevent failure.

Also, I had no idea how to measure quality in Q2, my bad, my brain was thinking NFPI, so I talked about balanced score card, TQM and league tables !! ??

Oh well, I don’t wanna be pessimistic, but I’m gonna see this paper the 4th time. hopefully this examiner will win the lottery and bugger off. ! 🙂

And you also have more time!

If there was an obvious error in numbering, as long as the examiner can figure out which question you attempted, you’ll be fine. The answer will still be marked if (s)he is able to match it. The correct numbering eases the marking process, but the marking is based on the content.

Well my first sitting at P5
I think I was kinda excited at first, I thought oh I know these questions. Then after I started writing I felt that – damn time pressure!!!! So many ideas and couldn’t put everything on pages.
Q1 – drew a prism tried to relate facets to incentives. – I think this was tricky, coz they wouldn’t link directly. Also when discussing stakeholders – applied mendelows matrix. But couldn’t decide what to do with suppliers, I said minimal effort since there was a good competition among them.
For benchmarking – calculated KPI’s and compared to general machines. The trick was to get capital employed figure. Lol in previous exams capital employed was always given, so I stick at this. First I took total assets and calculated ROCE and EVA, but got negative numbers. Then after recalling what was capital employed I took Equity+long term liabilities. Bingo, I was right!
Wrote some difficulties in implementing JIT system.
Q2) I forgot to apply 3E’s here :(((( my bad. Said that nfpo are hard to measure performance due to many stakeholders. Also sources of information. Per my calculation of KPI’s BLA performed better than national average. It’s goal at the moment was cutting costs so instead of laying off people it could decrease salaries, as they were higher than national. Also it was meeting target to recycle waste at 43%, whereas target is 40%.
I even didn’t read Q3, as it was so long. Lol
Q4) gosh I kinda revised corporate failure but forgot many things. And at this point I was running out of time. I said that two models were different as one included x2 (forgot wat it was, guess pbit/total assets) and second had x6 (current liquidity ratio)
I said both ratios were important on its own. Q model was closer to 3, which means company should revise its performance and make sure there were no risks of failure.
Also wrote smth about decommissioning costs provision so that at the end it wouldn’t make it insolvent.
Mine life cycle = 23 years, right?
Last point on suggestion measures to avoid failure, was so short in answers like increase revenue, increase fixed price contracts number to avoid risks on spot market (dunno if it is right measure),

I feel relieved but think I will need to re-sit in June :(((

Question 1 was as expected – a report with measures and lots of discussion. I too think the second half of the paper was a bit daunting. To the person above who thought that info was missing on question 4 – my opinion is that the question was more evaluation and suitability, not commenting on results and workings of the model so I think your question was not missing information.
I can honestly say this is the first exam I have come out of not knowing if I have done enough to pass or not, so all I can do is keep all fingers crossed for 50 marks!

Anyway, my study notes are already packed away not to be touched again until Feb if necessary!!

Best of luck everyone, and Merry Christmas

Marky

I stupidly chose question 3 (at first glance this looked better than Q4 I had exam brain clearly!) by the time I had read through the scenario and tried to work out part a to no avail I did contemplate switching to Q4 but with 25 mins left this was a no go!!

Q1 & Q2 were ok I also got carried away on Q1 two and a half sides for 9 marks!! Exam brain again!

Will be a hit or miss on passing due to Q3 I left part a outcompetely! I agree the examiner needs to just say what he wants instead of talking in riddles that wouldn’t happen in the real world!