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

Dimeji
Yes agreed. Just trying to tie back our answers to the story as much as possible.
But sometimes it takes time to figure out the correlation between the different topics (e.g what is the correlation between VBM and mission statement?).
In most instance we just throw out whatever comes soundly to our mind.
No time to figure whether this answers the question.

Q3. Maximax maximin and minimax regret. Risk appetite and attitude then do a pay off table to offer your advice

Castillian that is why the examiners confess that there are no straight forward answers hence the term technical and professional.
The mission statement mentions maximisation of shareholders value and you use vbm as a strategy of achievement for that objective.
Remember that vbm is a mgt approach where strategies and processes are aligned to ensuring that non value adding activities are eliminated. That is creating value for shareholders.

Was q1 i doesnt ask you to focus on cost measure and report on that instead of commenting about the report struction coz in the middle of scanerio it was written ceo want that board didnt want financial as pect but more on cost structure and also the objective of the company was cost leader ship… May be am completely wrong feeling disgusted right now

Ive never sat any ACCA paper where i was happy with my performance, This was not particularly difficult but the wording of the questions made ne panic at first as i did not want to answer the wrong question. Its not like we Are sitting a shakespearan question. I have a Good command and mastery of the English language but still struggled with interpretation of requirements.

What the hell was that paper! .. The examiner should be sacked! Very badly written, requirements were absolutely not clear at all. Too much stress, trying to learn models when nothing really came up! …

I did not know what to write on VBM – I used Fitzergerald and Moon! have no idea why building blocks came to mind!

The first question asked about the fixed and variable, consideration for appendix 1 and then it asks for it again in the second question on staff (Direct and Indirect) and Fixed Variable. How many things can I write on fixed and variable. Staff was not clearly defined whether they were Direct or Indirect etc.

EVA – There were some technical bits, had to be worked out! I messed up putting depreciation in Capital swell. I also have no idea what the 2 levels of tax were.. at least the examiner could have said something on tax!

Suggest a way of performance, I used flaming performance prism because mission statement wanted to focus on employee satisfaction (stakeholders). At that point my hands where already numb and it was noon!!

I swift along question 3 – It asked about minimin, maximin and minimax. Again bad written requirements, but managed to put calculations. i don’t understand the second company. I thought the first one was a risk seeker and the second one was risk adverse, so first one used MV8 or whatever it is and second one used MV 3.

Question 3 asked about joint venture and challenges of performance management. In my book, joint venture only has half a page!.. Again, I was just throwing what come out of my mind… Culture differences, Different systems, Different Reporting Standards etc.

Then I started writing question 4 and thought, hell no chance. So I went to question 2 and talked loads of poo. It was about Business process engineering. I really have no idea what I’ve put on this. I just multiplied the salary by 10 staff and halved it. So it was £25,000 x 10 staff. Half of them where wasting time. So halved it £125,000 is cost that can be saved and replaced by purchasing department with a salary of £35,000 (Again, did not say how many people worked in purchasing department). So I deducted £125k less £35k and said here is the saving. Also mentioned that paper will be saved…

Last question was about appraisal, and just talked about linkage with company objectives and opportunity for staff to say what went bad, how to improve and set objectives.

Mind I remember all the above because i had 5 ginseng, 2 guaranas and 7 cups of coffee this morning so I am still very hyper… yet couldn’t understand what the examiner was on about!! ..

Another £100 for ACCA.

And the fee keeps adding £2 every exam

I just checked my study text and realised i answered a question incorrectly..i feel sick:.

The requirements were so confusing .he asked for something critically assess the financial perf in the questions section and the ceo wants something else
Which is which. He is doing all to make us fail. An exam should be fair. I think he needs to write a textbook and exams kit so that we can get used with his style. The worst paper in acca. Acca should review that and must take into account our opinions. U are supplier and we are clients.

Hi guys,

Did anyone sit the exam in Watford? They had some sort of dance class above the exam room which had loud music that went on for a lot of the 15 mins reading time. Was so distracting.

I am going to complain to the ACCA about this and if anyone else was there as well support me on this please. The invigilators were not proactive enough in anticipating there would be a dance class above which was not considerate. A student should not have to point out the obvious in such a situation.

Cheers,

Adam

Adam complain away. I know far weaker reasons for which people have been given dispensation for ‘noise’. Did you or anyone else mention to the invigilator.if so refer to this in your communication to acca.