APM*** P5 June 2013 Exam was.. Post your comments ***

Hi I forgot to mark the questions I attempted on the front page. Please helpppppp don't know what to do

i feel that this paper’s new structure was completely wrong, i felt extremely exhausted after the first question, then it required you to do a lot of reading, analysing and calculation, this was my second attempt, i felt that new structure ( 50/25/25) , it gave us more time pressure, as you need to read and analysis more in the second 50 marks, do you know what i felt after my exam, the examiner is not challenging us, he is putting us off, what for? what he needs to do is testing us if we have learnt all the knowledge, should he give us such a time pressure paper!

Question 1 was a dream Q, hoping that pulls me through. I knew ABC inside out but didn't have a clue what the Q was asking so did the other two. Transfer pricing was really difficult and the hard thing was applying 5 forces to performance measurement. hopefully done enough

i mean if somebody could have very good time planned, how can he still finish Q4 in 45 mins with an exhausted brain, how ????

Examiner wasn't well when he set the paper specially part b ABC ques thought it will be OK started reading confusing all over it went disaster. It was so confusing and time pressure. Q1 was good ,

<cite>@busbycat said:</cite> First question was ok, I chose the AbC question but the numbers started to confuse me then I moved on to the porters 5 forces model which on reading the requirement looked easy but the whole of the text related to a PESTEL analysis. I started to question do I know what 5 forces is?! Am I confused? I checked when I got out and I was correct in my 5 forces, so why did all the text lend itself to a Pest analysis?! I'm not sure I have passed now and very upset as on first glance it looked like an ok paper until the examiner tried to mislead me :(

Porter's 5 Forces can also be used as a 1. STRATEGIC ANALYTICAL TOOL - to analyze whether if the firm operates in a highly competitive environment (or not); and 2. PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT TOOL - to assess how the firm has been successful operating in a competitive environment as described (as of the critics' point of view is that the model suffers in its weakness because it is NOT a model to suggest to a firm HOW to survive competitively) You can't find this anywhere else in the text book, but only through supplementary reading OUTSIDE the text book. I actually knew about this because I read a highly specific book on the 5 Forces itself. ps: I am not an exam candidate for June 2013, so I do not know how the case looks like.

q1. left 8 marks for problem using balance scorecard.. left half 6 of building block questions.. q4. left 9 marks on reorganizing profit.... so answered around 75.. now need 68% for me... knew almost 90-95 % of question... only problem is TIME specially with my broken little finger... dont know what ACCA wants to measure, our knowledge or writing speed!!

Q1 asking you to evaluate that performance report, what does it mean? is it asking you to evaluate that report or the performance of three divisions?

i think asked to evaluate the given report..

I wonder how many of you are native speakers of English?

A very very unbalanced paper in terms of the proportion of written questions to the almost non-existent portion of calculation required. Q1 - not a bad question but very very time pressured, I left it til last as I felt more comfortable with my chosen two section B questions. 100% written question Q2 - the ABC question was confusing at first glance as almost all calculation was already provided and it only needed little bits of calculation and then written evaluation, once this was realised I just pressed ahead as best I could, part b was largely the same, circa 95% written question. Q3 - skipped but looked mainly written. Q4 - transfer pricing stuff, again very little actual calculation done, circa 95% written question.

Agree OT's flashcards are very useful. I wish I know this site earlier as I was just studying with the BPP which is really confusing. As for ABC, I just calculated the consumer care cost per unit of satellite dish traditional method: total CC cost/ 16000 order * 5.5 dishes (given) = $ 7.x per dish corrected method: $100 per specialized dish (given) ABC method: CC cost for standardized dish/ 72000 * 6 (actual orders of standardized dish * dishes per order) = $ 5.x per std dish CC cost for specialized dish / 16000*1 = $10.x per specialized dish not sure if im correct or not. but this is what came up my mind in the last half hour of the exam.. Not easy but way better than P4 I would say...

Form me quite ok, even a horrible time preassue for part B. I moved form question ABM to Transfer Pricing (that I managed to read during 15 min time), 5Forces - hope to well presented. But what I am worry just now, is the fact that I have reailsed i have not marked the question attempted on the 1st page!!! Has anybody of you such an experience of NOT indicating the question taken? Was the exam marke anyway?

Explaining calculations is much more tougher than doing the calculations, which I can't deny, is everyone's favourite!. ;)

Am i a special kid or was this paper time pressured once again :/ examiner told me not u use gel pen but a ball point, and he had no issues with all those ppl using blue ink , thats simply not fair ( why cant we use a gel pen, why ball point its sooo freeking hard to write such lengthy paper with a damn ball point ) 1.5 years ruined due to this piece of ***** paper, hows P7 guys

In Q1a was it required to discuss the critics the on EPS capital employed and other calulation.I am confused.I discussed Non finacial KPI that havent present

<cite>@tlieu said:</cite> Q1 asking you to evaluate that performance report, what does it mean? is it asking you to evaluate that report or the performance of three divisions?

just report not performance....... this is wat i did

Question 1 is an example question on ACCA website posted online since January and originally from June or December 2010 company in the example was Armstrong ...... They just replace the benchmark part with Fitzgerald and Moon. Also the Question 2 ABC and.Question 3 are past questions too.

Sorry from 2010

<cite>@shohag said:</cite> Totally **** examiner it's not possible to finish this paper with in time limit . BTW why did i take my calculator with me ??

As for me I had two calculators so you can imagine...

I just feel like no amount of revision would have helped me today, you are trying to second guess what the examiner wants and it all seemed too vague to me. I wrote about Porters 5 Forces but found there was very little information in the scenario to relate to a traditional approach and had no idea of performance measures so just made some up. Hope there are 4 marks for creativity..

sahr3000 just report not performance……. this is wat i did so what you have discussed in that part?

Question 1 is an example question on ACCA website posted online since January and originally from June or December 2010 company in the example was Armstrong …… They just replace the benchmark part with Fitzgerald and Moon. https://www.accaglobal.com/content/dam/acca/global/pdf/p5_2010_dec_sample_q.pdf Also the Question 2 ABC and.Question 3 are past questions too.

<cite>@shohag said:</cite> Totally **** examiner it's not possible to finish this paper with in time limit . BTW why did i take my calculator with me ??

this comment made my sad face......smile a bit....WORD!

Hi guys anyone try the transfer pricing question? Any thoughts on it ??

Yeah i did tranfer dont know the calculation but write the theory mostly

i just went round and round and round and round and round and round and round and round and round and round and round and round and round and round and round and round and round and round and round and round and round and round and round and round and round and round and round and

I share most of the sentiments expressed here...Question 1 was too loaded with with key models which required a lot explanation and linkage with the scenario. I doubt if the idea of time pressure will be addressed with such kind of question. The rest of the questions were too wordy requiring you too read too much before any attempt. So if you got 20 minutes left to attempt a question and the reading and understanding takes 15 minutes, you can just imagine how you are hanging on a cliff. I believe in miracles and hope to make it this time round.

On reflection question one was not too bad. Options were shocking to choose from. Not much of choice really. To assimilate all the information in the options and have a stab within 45 minutes per option question was asking too much. Real pity it was not a fairer paper especially in regards to the quality of the options. Very disappointed that all that effort and dedication does not give me a feeling of potential success for August. Gutted.

Anyone feel comfortable with P5 in this Session? Pls Comment..................................