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

@darthvader001 said:
OK, keep counting!!

In order to be taken seriously, we need to be at least 25!

Why25? Where did this figure come from. Please Include me in.

@bvp123 said:
I think ACCA should have a rule for when we are tested on lower papers or knowledge required from other P papers, that it should not carry more that 4-5 marks. Otherwise we are wasting time learning P5.
Can someone please tell me where the hell the article on Benchmarking is and when it was published as I have only seen on Performance Prism.
Also where can I find more information on Q1C, as this topic was not mentioned once in any of my P5 course or on revision.

Benchmarking article is there but that is pure theory, it was a computational question more like ABC, given the 3 cost drivers…and cost pools. It was like taking cost pools and costs of other 2 universities and dividing them by their respective cost driver (coming up with a weighted average) and multiplying the same with the drive of GU (so like Flexing the budget thing).

Q1(c) is like:

How the quote “WGMGD” could apply to Metis can be assessed using performance pyramid, involving financial and non-financial indicators under the following headings:

And then the performance pyramid headings:.

You can notice the last paragraph pf the question relates to Part c, 2nd last with Part b, etc

Please, count on me on the complaint, although I didn’t take the exam this time I was unfortunate to sit twice under Alex and marginally failed. We have time pressure on all other paper and especially option ones but when I come out of exam I think of points I could’ve put but left because of time pressure however with P5 I came out twice thinking what a hell the qns was about.

Points I want to include in the complain is: 1. Pre Alex exam style is different so is the syllabus thus most of past papers are not helpful for revising. 2. Alex doesn’t write enough articles to explain application of theories in real life situation. 3. Wording of Qn requirements are ambiguous.

Thank you, even if I won’t seat this exam again I won’t to help other people.

Guys, just catched up on other bits of this forum and wanted to mention that if you google Alex Watt you can get his profile in linkin. Do you have any ideas why he put his period as being Acca P5 examiner as 2009 -2011? I thought his first exam was in 2010. Do you think we should include a question of his integrity in the complain 🙂 ? An why it is till 2011? Do you think he could have been replaced and Acca forgot to inform us?

I’m in. Ajmals28

@darthvaderoo1

count me in too

@zmukati said:
Hello,

Can anyone please explain me question 1(a)
Critically assess the existing performance report
What i did, i assessed the performance of the Metis.

Then The question continuation was: suggest improvements to its content and presentation;
Here, I provided few improvements (not many)

Please clear me, I did anything wrong 🙁

Worried

I am also IN for the petition against Mr. Watt.

Yes mate, you were totally wrong.
Do not want to scary you: but you should have assessed the current report and not the performance of the company. You should have focused on the fact that it contans only financial aspects, over detailled, inward, enhances short termist, inappropriate for strategy, lacks of non-financial aspects such as quality, customer sadisfaction or employee motivation.

As improvements you could have come with ideas such: structe the report on a “balance scorecard” format and contan information on the 4 areas from that model and then discuss it/ or a “building blocks” model since it is a service company.

Hope we pass.

Hello guys.

Can someone please let me know about Q4, i mean were we suppose to do the calcution in part (a) where it says assess the existing benchmarking or in part (b).. I have done the calculation in part A and explaining of it in part b.

Please guys let me know about it.
Thanks

@zmukati said:
Hello,

Can anyone please explain me question 1(a)
Critically assess the existing performance report
What i did, i assessed the performance of the Metis.

Then The question continuation was: suggest improvements to its content and presentation;
Here, I provided few improvements (not many)

Please clear me, I did anything wrong 🙁

Worried

I am also IN for the petition against Mr. Watt.

I did the same thing, hahaha

I hope markers would give 2-3 marks to show sympathy

@virgilbucur said:
Yes mate, you were totally wrong.
Do not want to scary you: but you should have assessed the current report and not the performance of the company. You should have focused on the fact that it contans only financial aspects, over detailled, inward, enhances short termist, inappropriate for strategy, lacks of non-financial aspects such as quality, customer sadisfaction or employee motivation.

As improvements you could have come with ideas such: structe the report on a “balance scorecard” format and contan information on the 4 areas from that model and then discuss it/ or a “building blocks” model since it is a service company.

Hope we pass.

Virgile, astept de 3 ani sa trec examenul asta. Cu examinerul asta nu se poate!
Trebuie dat jos! Are you with me ?

What you guys did in the following question:

Q4(a) Assess the progress of the benchmarking exercise to date, explaining the actions that have been undertaken and those that are still required.

@mountain123 said:
I did the same thing again…hahaha…but I thought about it carefully after the exam, I believe the examiner intended to address balanced scorecard in (c)…it makes more sense as it’s very hard to apply building blocks to the case….but there is nothing wrong if you used building blocks, you can still get marks if you applied it to the case well…

The examiner could have just specified which model to use in (c), that would have made requirements clear… this is absolutely his problem…

For Q4, I feel it’s the easiest question in the whole paper….the company has only compared with unis of similiar size.. it may consider using other benchmarking such as industry, internal, best-in-class etc…

I did some calculations in Q4(b) and explained each, hoping to gain 3-4 marks…

I did fairly poor in Q1…T_T

How to apply balance scorecard in that scenario.. it didn’t had anything on internal processes or innovation :S
I said its a service industry, so Building block would be best for the company.

What Alex Watt wants from the students?

Hoping for a pass 🙂

Same here, I am also dis hearted with Q1

@darthvader001 said:
OK guys, I will start drafting the letter on Tuesday, as on Monday I have to travel.
Any suggestions are welcomed!

Could you please have him Clarify the situation on MIRR formula, why not provided, was that not a mistake on his part? We lost time looking for it back and front of the paper and then panicking. Further not only time but also must have lost a couple of marks on calculation plus few more marks on explanation of the outcome.
I managed to pass one of the hardest papers in my opinion P4, yet I can’t understand why I cannot pass P5. FYI, the MIRR formula was provided in P4 exam.
My message to you all is that there are no right or wrong ways of answering questions on P5, there are several models that can be used to get the same answer, but more importantly DID YOU UNDERSTAND THE QUESTION???? That is the issue here so let’s all get together and get this petition going.