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P5 is a total disaster there is so much info in the question it takes ages to read the u have a question that can be so vague what is going on with it. Sick of this paper now after failing a few times
its extremely time pressured and the questions have to be re- read!u also keep going back to read the question while writing your answer! how crazy can that get?
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Comparing to Dec this exam is much much easier. However with this paper truth is always “out there”. I do not even care how much marks did I collect. There is no any connection between what you think you think you know and what you get as a result, so let’s continue this lottery till I hit these lucky 50 marks 🙂
Very time pressured. Big problem for me was to relate answers to the scenario since scenarios seemed so standard, that whatever sentence from study text you write is ok… In Q 1 calculated only missing rations due yo lack of time. Omitted calculations in Q 4 for same reason. Q 3 was crossed out after reading part b of requirements. Q 2 seemed very easy, but again I hardly used scenario information… I guess that this was a trap this time – this linkage to scenario 🙁
But anyway, this exam is much much much easier than Dec one. So let’s get ready to next one being in “disaster” category…- Topics: 0
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It was so easy so hard actually do not know what to think of it questions are so easy at first glance but yet so cryptic I guess the examiner writes riddles for a living. I spent my exam reading the questions time and time again. In the end I handed up junk. Two things will come out of this 1. Marker will be easier on us. 2. Next exam will be easier. I’ll give it to them though this is an exam of logic and 3d thinking. It is the only exam in acca that tests re as l logic and reasoned thinking so well
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After all these sittings of wired exams that has little to do with real life situations I ask myself if certification itself makes sense…
I think this exam is beyond logic!
I get it, the examiner does not like students regurgitating textbook answers, however, I do not expect examiners to through in so much confusion, students are not expert like him/her who have spent years absorbing them self in such knowledge.
Its almost like, we have to think like the examiner in order to pass but that’s going beyond the need for testing in this situation. We are students who require basic knowledge which will be developed through experience as well text books!!!
Extremely time pressured each question, had same amount of data to read, none of the other exams I sat in were this frustrating. I am sure this examiner would not do well in his own exam if he was in our shoes!!!!
ACCA should send out a “helpful” survey so that students can provide feedback….I do not feel I need basic knowledge to pass with 50% in business analysis, I feel like I need to have mastered the knowledge of deception within a novel to perform well.
Anyone up for petition to show ACCA that there is serious concern with how the exams portraited out……I guess ACCA defense would be “some pass”. I don’t know…its starting to feel like a money making exercise with more sittings and more failures lol.
Also that $5 for wastage….we are not even told how much waste would occur…I don’t think its $5 per unit. We were not even told his full capacity, only how much units his planning to produce…then as usual….confused…am I suppose to calculated expected profit…if so why am I given the profit?
How do I calculate the maximin, mum, regret when the values are already confirmed lol ive lost the plot…..I need to revisit. I think Q4 was the easiest by far in this paper. Q1 was good standard but time management was a let down.
I think the teachers need to be more savy with the teach methods and approach with P5..the examiner is obviously trying to make us think outside the box a little…..not happening in an exam!!!
Can you believe that in my country, South Africa, ACCA is considered too easy and has no recognition, The local body undermines ACCA big time!!
Wait everyone seemed to have done not so well..what learning providers did you use? I found LSBF to be quite good for exam technique.
Q3 matrix should look like this:
Profit = contribution (25usd) x no of produced units – (fixed cost) – scrapped units cost (accrd to demand)
fixed cost: 475K for 20K prod. 525K for above.
scrapped units cost (variable cost + utilization cost 5/unit): e.g. in case of 30K production but 20K demand = (30K x 25usd) – 525K – (10K x 20usd) = 25KDemand Production 20K 25K 30K
20K *******************25K 0K 25K
25K *******************25K 100K 125K
30K *******************25K 100K 225K
Max *******************25 100 225
Min *******************25 0 25For minimax regret payoff table should be constructed.
This paper required 6 hours to solve if examiner wants “quality” answers!
Examiner acts dumb every time in the examiner report saying “he is surprised by the quality of answers in last few attempts”. Well, if you give us 3 huge scenarios, then we have to analyse them properly and evaluate, and then write all of it takes a long time. This exam was impossible. I felt like i was extremely well prepared.. knew everything almost and had practiced a ton of questions.. but so very time pressured. I left 26 marks untouched.. hope i did well enough in the 74 i attempted, but probably gonna make 40 something like i always do. Ugh.
If i study more, or if i study less, i always get 40 something.today exam was awful, I felt more confident about the Dec one and failed with 47!
Q1 I had no clue what I was really doing and I felt the requirements didn’t flow like they usually do. Couldn’t think of enough points to warrant 8 marks on the performance pyramid without actually describing what it was.
part b) I just went through each one and said if it was a good PI or not and how it linked to snorts aims.
I can’t remember the rest of the question, I felt like we were doing a lot for very little marks.
I done Q2, part a was quite nice, couldn’t think of enough points to cover part b that warranted all the marks.
I looked at Q3 and saw stakeholder analysis and thought yes! I can do that but then read part b of the requirement and was like no way, plus the scenario was so long, I would’ve never had time to read it!
Q4 wasn’t too bad, but I felt like I was repeating myself too much, so probably scored very low.
Roll on June!
This examiner is impossible, all he keeps on about is preparing us for the real world, but this exam is like me showing up for work on my first day and my boss saying you have to write a report for the CEO and you have an hour an half! Yeah right, never gonna happen!
Its so good to see all of your comments and know that we are all on the same boat here. This was my second attempt at P5 and I don’t think I have passed.
Just to reiterate what some of you have already said, I took found this paper by far the most time pressured of all papers I’ve sat. There is too much information to take in, so much that I skimmed through a lot of it just so I could start writing.
I have read examiners reports, previous exam papers, attended the 2 hour webinar by ACCA/PWC on how to pass this paper and though the tips I’d picked up seemed good at the time, I don’t feel I was really able to use them because they were not relevant and I was just so time pressured to think about them.
One more thing… the exam desks in Farnborough are TOO SMALL!!!! grrr….
Did anyone else find it weird that the requirements were in the middle of the scenario, I opened the script and saw one page of scenario and though huh? where’s the rest, then found the appendix 1 & 2 on the following page, weird!
@Rst I got the same figures as you for Q3 but I didn’t even get to begin drawing a regret table let alone conclude!
Faye – we had a leaking roof in Southampton, the dripping on the floor was driving me nuts! Fortunately it stopped when the rain stopped!
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i did not walk out of the exam hall
confidently. was able to attempt 88% of the paper. praying that i score 56% of that then i will barely scrap through.Perhaps a serious petition should be started to highlight how impossible the exam is.
How on earth are you supposed to have time to write full sentences, let alone provide quality answers!?I felt that in order to get anywhere near to completing it, i had to bullet point answers and write in almost note form. Even then i only answered about 70% as the rest of the time was spent reading through the text
Somethings got to give here- clearly the ACCA are making a lot of money out of this so perhaps we all just sit other options instead which will mean nobody sits the P5 exam and then they may make the exam realistic – hit the ACCA where it hurts most
I am going to be writing a letter of complaint
just a question for the payoff matrix table…
why would you take out variable cost + $5 for the scrapped units ?
the variable costs have already been taken out in the first part of the equation when the contribution per unit has been used, then the fixed cost subtracted then only $5 per unit scrapped subtracted from that, right ?if you include variable costs with the $5 scrap cost, i think that for the scrapped units the variable costs are effectively being double-charged.
anyway, i got the regret matrix done as well, but it might have given me the same answer as the maximax and maximin, so i thought that i must have done something wrong…
did seem tough, but i have seen in some of these exams that some info is given later on, which you had to right up in previous sections, and yes part A was strangely written… it said advise how the analysis would help, but in the scenario it states to do the analysis, so best to do the analysis and state why its good to be done… i stated P3 stuff, about stakeholder negotations to get everyone ok with the required strategy etc…
the ABBudgetting made me freeze, then just started with the total of 520k and listed the 4 activities and split the total 520 figure by the % given for these activities… eg, 60% of 520k is 312k for that activity, and so on…
then under that, i worked out an activity based absorption rate for each activity, cos you could then have like $5.04/reworked reject, or $2,500 per week of quality seminars… that in itself was not a budget, but i added this stuff in cos the above stuff seemed to simple and i thought there must be a catch to it, and the absorption rates seemed like the only info one could get further out of the question…
the unified database stuff in 2b did state i relation to improving performance, so it seemed like a general common sense and not analysing performance management techniques but the business detail itself… like if it was unified you could have Division A holiday info on internet and push those customers to book online and receive their bookings via the innovative smartphone tech that Divi B used…
likewise, the richer people buying the DiviC city breaks could receive some offers for the DiviA exotic holidays near the time like last minute cos the Divi A had the time for it and the money to pay for the DiviA holidays which were like 5times the price of DivB or Div C etc..
also could use the smartphone tech to give customers headsup on DivB non-peak times or vacancies during peak times, so they could then get booking etc…i thought the question in 2 partB, was asking for that sort of thing…
on top of centralised management being able to see what was going on in real time and not wait for year end to get all the info…Hi TGee – The scrapped units incurred a further cost, the $5 scrappage fee per unit. So if the demand was 20,000 and the supply was 25,000, 5,000 would have to be scrapped which would incur a further (variable) cost of 5,000*$5 = £25,000 on top of the variable costs for making the units to begin with – does that help??
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