*** P5 June 2012 Exam was … Comments and Instant Poll ***

i prefer crazy essay than crazy calculation 🙂

I got confident only on Q2…Q1a I think I misunderstood the question~ I din wrote about the “REPORT”, what report r they refer to actually?

i honestly have no idea if anything i wrote was correct now.some things seemed to make sense at the time but fluffed it on Eva and mirr and on other calculations. at first glance the questions seemed okay but they were not straightforward. my main problem i think was writing my discussionsas they seemed tofly all over the shop.i hope i did just enough but it will be touch and go… roll on p6!…. not…!

i did not study six sigma and i had no idea what it was. i was familiar with benchmarking, and so i chose q4 over q3. but it was a disaster. i did not know what to do with it… and how to use the cost drivers and the other given information.

q1 was easily understandable. but i messed up in its second requirement. the 1st and 3rd were ok.

Alex Watt should be hanged! Not to die, but just to evaluate the question: “should he be hang or should be not”? Please add improvements to this 🙂

He is ridiculous! 25 people after the exam, were still wondering: what was the question?

I want to officially start collecting names, in order to officially complain (as a Group) to ACCA. THIS EXAMINER HAS TO GO !! And never to be heard again!!!

HE HAS NO REAL LIFE EXPERIENCE (not one ! day worked, only as frrelance lecturer and other bla bla). He has no idea how a Company works. And his scenarios are just plain stupid ! Plus, the requirements, only him and his mother know what they are!! What was Q1 c) talking about? Performance Pyramid? Building Blocks? How they should be applied, given the HUGE amount of non-sense info from the question?

HE HAS TO GO !!!! NOT EVEN ONE MORE EXAM WITH ALEX WATT !!

1) What was the answer to question 1 a? DId have anything to do with non financial issues?
2) They ask to do MIRR in question 1 b, but the formula wasn’t provided? I looked twice on my question paper and it wasn’t there? In Bpp notes it says that formula will be given in exam.

3) What on earth was question 1 c about?

Finally, what was the answer to question 4, a and b, benchmarking?

Really time pressured exams.I have been on question 1 for 1 h 30 mins!!! Tried to manage. I hope i pass through God’s grace

lost it on question 1 couldnt recover down hill from then definate fail, wish we could repeat sooner than xmas 🙂

It was as predictable as the technical articles published. Q2 and Q4 on benchmark. Performance prism in Q2.
In deed Q1 required to criticise the chief accountant and his opinion on using such measures on past performance. There is actually no point in doing such a thing. Did anyone noticed that the forecast was wrongly prepared by charging the full amount of the investment to upgrade the building in the next year income statement. I have to admint it was tricky. Overall the question was to debate a verry detailed income statement which was in deed poorly prepared. I to admit it that i was not able to associate the saying “what gets measured gets done” with a specific performance model but i tried something. Overall the Q1 tricky and easy to get lost from the requirements. It asked to compute relevant income statement KPIs from the most recent period available. This is because the income statement provided was for the previous three years and forecasted for the next year and past two quarters, This was scarry, one page of meaningless data.

Q2 was on airline company. It required to compute some indicators and to benchmark with two other competitors. And the application of a performance prism model to develop performance drivers and measurements.

The optional questions were on benchmarking, the steps taken in banchmarking process and evalution of the current details. The last question on a performance management issues in a new click to click business model,
More tricky than difficult.

Alex Watt’s approach was you consider the big picture of the measurement system. What is it that is wrong? What measures are missing and do not add strategic value to the business? Question 1 states that the founders are overloaded with data, and ask you to simplify it. Question 3 was the benefits and problems of the benchmarking (as it compared to three universities with almost similar size and nature, and in which their benchmarking wasn’t easily understandable and did not identify best practices for GU. It should be made clearer if data were segregated to economy, efficiency and effectiveness given that the govt is cutting expenditure to the public universities due to tough recession).

So Alex Watt’s approach was ‘Do you understand the model thoroughly?’ and how you can use models to give more effective measures. Q1 was made tough beause there was no models indicated, so would have give room for thinking: Can I apply performance pyramid? Three founders are focusing on three distinct areas. Can I apply benchmarking? I see a product portfolio, isn’t BCG relevant? I see a large area in costs buildup, should I use ABC to understand my cost drivers? The data were dominantly financial and quantitative, what if I use balanced scorecard? How am I doing good against my budget, since my gross profit has been constant 66%? Isn’t it unfair to evaluate the performance appraisal of the founders based on responsibility areas that they have no control?

Question 1(c) was how employees can be guided to do work through measures – hence implementing the KPI system with rewards backing can help them achieve the measures to achieve the org’s goals. The balanced scorecard can help structure this KPI system. However, there is the danger of measure fixation, and could lead to a dysfunctional behaviour of meeting measures to meet the bonus.

I agree, the question was dreadfully not specific. But it gives room for analytical creativity! And I hope it’d be translated to good marks, fingers crossed… :S

1a. Critical assessment of a (an awkward) performance report prepared by some guys running a chain of restaurant. We r to criticize the content and structure of the report.
1b. The guy (boss) required that we (mgt accountant) calculate NPV (3yrs to date), EVA and MIRR (modified IRR) using those “awkward” data. And other profit-based measures of our choice using 2012 data only
1c. We r also to comment on “what gets measured gets done” mentioned by one of the guys in the scenario. I think those r the words of Peter Drucker.

2a.Performance appraisal of some 3 airlines. Listed, private and govt funded.
2b. Apply performance prism. Honestly there r loads of info about stakeholders in the scenario.

3a. Implementation of six sigma to address errors/mistakes in a telecom company. They have been accused of mis-allocating call costs to wrong numbers.
3b. Apply DMAIC approach in the implementation of six sigma

4a. Bench-marking of three universities (AU, BU and GU) that submitted information on their administrative costs to the govt. It was functional bench-marking, we r to assess the progress of the bench-marking process; what has been done to date and what actions to take next.
4b. Evaluate the bench-marked position of GU.

still laughing at the alex watt must go lol tough exam flicked through it and thought this is gona be a breeze with the topics but when i actually started to think about it it was tough.. hoping for the magic 50%