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

On several occasions during the exam I found myself checking the front page of the question paper to make sure I was actually sitting the P5 exam. I can understand the new examiner’s desire of having their own style of questions but this needs to be introduced in a more incremental way.

I self study for all my exams and for the past 2 months I focussed purely on past exam papers and exam technique for the P5 exam, time management and understanding the question requirements became manageable for me the more past questions I practiced so I cannot say these were an issue in this exam.

ACCA are just having a laugh. I wounder how much profit they are making at our expense. My 4th attempt of this bloody papers P5 and P7, it is just like it is impossible to pass no matter how well you prepare. Its like a game of hide and seek with the examiners. They seem to have a fail rate to maintain, and probably getting a fat bonus for meeting their failure percentage targets. What a joke, and they are preaching about ethics etc. Would I advise anyone to take ACCA? HELL NO! In my opinion, it is a money making scam, period.

@abdullahmv I have very similar answers to you. However I didn’t do a regret table as I classified Turing as risk seeking so maximax and riemann as risk averse so maximin. Since the question asked to use a method for each one I assumed regret table wasn’t needed.

There was also something about 8mw starting in 2 years so I said that the projrcted cashflow would need to be discounted but it would be still more profitable in long term.

For part c) I had similar points but also talked about culture differences, and problems with who will do the measurement (neutral) and the differing nature of busines means that both will have specific performance measurements which may be manipulated to show a better picture

Which other section b question did you do? I did variance question. Talked about tunnel vision approach of only using variance analysis. The results showed favourable variance overall, but the profit was down compared to budget. The managers have uncontrollable economic factors affecting variances but still being asked to explain. Budget being set at the start of the year with no movement or flexibility to respond to environment.

this is deadly agenda.one can not get the trend of this exam paper , no use for pass question revision

i did the same as after i finished write like two pages then i realised it didnt asked for financial performance evaluation. i think the ceo was asking to evaluate individual subsidiaries and not the company as a whole. that was the trick. Anyways i write generic answers.

How does he say that the CEO doesnt want company performance evaluation and in the question its Evaluate the performance of the company? Who can explain this?

And we were thought, evaluate = numbers etc. So as soon as you see the “evaluation” with exam stress you just start analysing ratios etc. He could have at least put it in an “email format” for example like in Audit, or as part of the question he says (note that evaluation of numbers is not required).. something along these lines.

I think again, and I know I’m repeating. The examiner was very unfair and ACCA should be aware of this. We cannot wait till December to re-sit and then February to receive results etc… There is also a concern that I am worried in sitting this paper again… It was harder then P2 (Corporate reporting)….

For anyone who would like to review the p5 exam questions/wording etc the exam paper has now been posted on the past papers section of acca global.

https://www.accaglobal.com/hk/en/student/acca-qual-student-journey/qual-resource/acca-qualification/p5/past-exam-papers.html

I did q2 and q4. Is it only me or has anyone noticed how similar the scenarios were: both have a cost-leadership strategy, both have long-serving employees, both CEO’s are looking for introducing changes (one BPR, another Beyond Budgeting)?
At times I had to make an effort to make sure I am not writing the same thing in both answers.

If I remember correctly, the question was to Evaluate the current performance report I.e. more historical info, competitor info, market info, numbers could have been rounded down, balance sheet and cash flow info would be useful, more non financial indicators etc…

for EVA: question is saying mk build in years so I did 3 years for some reason… anyway it does not say how many years and it does not mean it is since the start..
bloody examiners tricks. that is why it is saying : state assumptions made. it is correct either way.

Dear Sir

I have been asking is there any plan of ACCA to conduct resits after 3 months this Year. So that we can shrug off our depressed thoughts and brace again to face ACCA resit in September 2014. But is there any plan from ACCA for such resits. Kindly throw light if anyone has any idea about resits !

Deep

Question 1 is really shocking bcoz VBM and to calculate EVA. Rest was good ..may cross this time