APM*** P5 June 2014 Exam was.. Instant Poll and comments ***

Q1b) fixed v variable had me stumped in the exam!

Oh I just want to kill myself realizing that I did Q1(a) completely wrong. It took me about 40 minutes on it, and I couldn't earn 1 mark. I had seen many questions about evaluating the report, not the performance but still fell in the trap :( And the rest of the paper, too many questions did not give any clues what the hell were they asking, so I just wrote whatever came to my mind. Most of them were crap, I guess. I am so so sad and disappointed, doing Q1(a) right could change the game :((( I made terrible stupid mistakes in almost every paper, wrong group structure in P2, could not find some important numbers stated in the question in P4, etc. Accepting a fail because I don't know the answers would be much easier and less miserable than because of carelessly reading the questions.

@ ashabiggs06...I do not fink june 2012 question is a reflection of question 1. june asked to critically assess, but this question as for evaluation of performance report and specifically mentioned appendix one...I fink the examiner expects general opinion abt the financial statements....on d fixed and variable...all I said was that the coy should adopt the ABC approach as against the current absorption line on labour. and cost should be apportioned to individual sub. it will be out of place to charge overhead of cafe to juicy. also for the variable element, costing should be allocated according to line of service.

In question 1 b) i have discussed the proportion of fixed cost related to property against the variable cost of staff..and talked about the business risk that associate with it.and stated its impact on performance management as increase and decrease in any of these cost could have reduced the profits . does any one else wrote the same as mine?

Hi Guys - could anyone email me Kaplan P2 mock questions and answers for June 2014 please? [email protected] Thanks

10 x 25k wh staff 8.5/5 x 32k New IT Straight line depreciation Amt / 8 The last figure of I think 225 was p. a so u don't divide that Add both sections separately and the deduct

Dear Sir Is there any hope of lenient checking this time as pass rate for P5 has been noticeably low and paper this time was difficult one Deep

Exam not fair. I noted that some model requirements were hidden in some questions and the examiner wanted us to figure out - not fair. The option questions 2 ,3 and 4 disaster And time was worst enemy as well. Can only Pray for now...as results of 50% unpredictable

The more I read some of the comments the more I realise how incomplete my answers were and how much of the information I missed or misread. I didn't write a lot for any question and was able to complete the paper this time. If it were 15 marks I made about 8 points and if it were 8 then about 5 points. Tried to explain the point and apply it to scenario. Thus it was, for me just enough time to complete the paper the way I completed it. Hope that attempting all the questions payback well. Last time I was able to complete about 80% of the paper and got 44. Previous time about 75% of the paper and 41. Will see what happens this time.

I failed too this is my first attempt and I was thinking models will come but nothing comes. I spent the whole week practising exam papers with questions on models and to my surprise no question on even corporate failure . Not happy with the examiner just want us to fail.

Hey Rushan you did well by comparing the VC WITH THE FC. But i actually did the same thing but i did 1 assumption by ignoring the depreciation..

to abdullahmv - your strategy is brilliant, i am sure you will pass :) if you dont mind I will try it for future exam, the time management is my weak point ((

correct but depends on the evaluation/comments attached to each point in scenario context

Rushan I done the same, but after lookin at that question again I think unfortunately we are both wrong. I would say they are looking for impact on performance management rather than the actual performance itself.

Anyone know about how much the syllabus will change for December if we have to resit. Will we need new study materials?

the exam was a disaster. it was my 4th attempt, and i prepared very well... but the examiner is so unfair! he wants us to fail!

hi, i read nearly all the commments above, and these remind my situation about 2 years ago. I passed this horriable P5 APM paper in 2012 after two attempts and eventually i passed it. I have got the exactly the same feeling. When the exam result is announced I cried. This is my last paper of our magic ACCA exams, so most of us, including me, wish to pass it as quickly as possible, however, P5 is a very terrible paper among ACCA exams. why? techically difficult? Not good at English language? Slow writting skills in exam? Lacking manangement experiences? Not lovely examier? I guess you yourself best.

I am just hoping for 50.

In examination hall there were 2 girls , one on left and one on right and seemed like they both started doing calculations for Q1 (i) and they both moved on to Section B in less than an hour which means they possibly didn’t attempt VBM. Which is a sign of nervousness, not reading scenario thoroughly, poor preparation! I think examiner tries to design the paper to catch this weaknesses rather than just trying to test your knowledge of syllabus. He probably doesn’t even think for a minute what area or model he will test us on, but he probably spend 99.9% time on designing how can he catch / trick those students who didn’t read scenario properly, didn’t balance his studies between numbers, theory and application, don’t have commercial knowledge (its imp to have commercial knowledge such as how management reports looks, how shareholders react, stock markets etc). 40% of this paper was tailored to be for those who work in good organisations with enough knowledge on reports, business change , organisational structure and reward system. This is what I did for my exam Qus 1(i) was about evaluating the report and not any calculations. There were many flaws with the report..such as no comparison to previous year , no variance(actual minus budget), information overload, no narratives, 2nd subsidiary numbers were presented to management of first company which is not relavant - again info overload, staff costs were presented before/above operating costs. no detailed comparison on non-qualitative issue, no price or volume variance . However it had good elements to it such as comparison to industry averages. Conclusion should be to revise the standard of report file to accommodate flaws I mentioned and design it to be more relevant to right subsidiary. Also, had to explain some details with elaboration of few examples here and there. For 1(ii) I discussed the main issue around controllability of staff costs and property costs. ( which is variable and fixed cost). The hint of staff cost and property cost was given in case study on first page. The manager of division (subsidiary) should have had negotiation, controlling and ownership of this 2 costs , or else it would be unfair to allocate costs by head office( parent) to either subsidiary. I concluded with some calculation of linearity of average staff costs calculation against the number of staff per subsidiary from Apendix 3( again in case study CEO asked to use Appendix 3 for this part) (iii) I did EVA calculation of Parent company and provided a brief 2 paragraph comment .however after exam I was double minded about whether EVA had to be done for both subsidiary as well because 9 marks seemed a lot for such an easy calculation just for parent co. (iv) Asked about VBM usefulness as a tool and then its impact on implementation to the company. I spoke about VBM which is setting performance management around EVA, Market value analysis and shareholder value analysis. I then spoke about its relevance to this group – its relevant because the group was a listed company and in order to get future funding ( right issue) and investors’ confidence( EPS , PE and share price) its important to align performance management that achieves highest value to shareholders. Therefore performance should revolve mainly around achieving shareholder value to satisfy investors under VBM. I then discussed the impact on business – which is consideration of change on Systems, Costs, Management (targets and reward system) , Strategy alignment. Q3 - I then completed Q3 – Maximax, Minimax , maximin regret , payoff table, their relevant to each company , the possible risk approaches each partnering company would like to take due to their current internal and external circumstances ( related to info given in case study) as well as the interest of owners( institutional investors vs family owners). I then evaluated ( +/-) Joint Ventures on more general basis with explanation of each +/- and with some possible examples of company from scenario here and there. Q4- I then attempted b and c in last 30 minutes , which were pretty straightforward ( as many points were mentioned in scenario). I left out (a) because it was numerical and therefore time consuming! I think I attempted it fairly well , I completed 90% and I hope to pass. However I did all calculations and payoff table in very beginning of question three and labelled it Workings but also labelled it 3a. Which I think was a mistake but I hope I get some marks for calculations as no one seems to have found it easy, but I found it straightforward.

I did the same questions and wrote similar stuff. I did them in the order 1, 4 and 3. In question 1 I did talk about report not reflecting the two elements of the mission and about accuracy being to the nearest dollar and being too detailed in some sense yet lacking non-financial ones as customer satisfaction scores or even liquidity or efficiency ratios or gearing. In Q3, I got Turing wanting 8MW (maximal)and Riemann wanting 4MW(maximin).

Very true!

Ive just completed a survey sent to me by acca. Perhaps they are listening after all. I was asked to pick the exams i sat and comment on the following - how clear the questions were - whether the syllabus was evenly examined - what feedback do i have on the exam itself - what issues did i have with my exam hall. Plenty of boxes to type proper commumication in. If you feel strongly about the p5 exam (or others) then please check your inboxes for an email called 'ACCA qualification exams feedback' R

Roro, I thought of calculating EVA for subsidiaries too, however realized there is no capital employed figure for each subsidiary. So I think it was not required. However, I mentioned in comments and in conclusion of the report that calculating EVA for subs. would be a very good idea.

Paul. GoD knows what was correct and what was wrong.It was the best we could have done there. :P

Well I made sure and rate this exam via the email I got earlier today. People please go and answer the survey. Days later I'm still upset about how ridiculous this exam was!!!!!! Such a disaster!!

I have just answered that survey. Its good to see that ACCA is trying to take students feedback. Please every one kindly answer that survey and let them know about your thoughts .

Wish I never chose this paper. Attempt 5 for me, what is wrong with this examiner?? Over the last few years his papers are hardly examining course content!!! He spends his time creating obscure questions with requirements that, sometimes, do not make any sense at all. Passing this paper is more about decoding his Morse code way of asking the question. Fed up of Alex Watt and this paper. Think I will switch to tax if I failed this time. Going through the forums, it looks like I am not alone in feeling like this. ACCA need to fire this guy and hire someone who creates a more balanced paper which actually tests course content. All of you who are feeling hopeless, you're not alone. To all those looking to choose this paper, DON'T. This paper is a f**king nightmare.

Could any body give advice on whether i should pick P5 or P4 when sitting for the optional.. Which is easier or more passable ..

I agree with you anna .English is not our first language we are learning two things @ the same time

@tina666 both of these exams are challenging and difficult to pass in their own ways. It depends what interests you more, finance and capital markets; or performance management? A good indicator of what to choose would be your F5 and F9 marks, and if you felt comfortable with the syllabus content.