ATX*** P6 June 2011 Exam was … Post your comments here and vote in Instant Poll ***

I think that it was quite fair in comparison with some previous exams. From the options I have done questions 4 and 5. 4 was straightforward and the first part of 5 was related to an article from the examiner that I read yesterday concerning trading losses when the purchaser only acquires the trade and the assets.
I expected much worse.

tooo lenghtyy

Considering the time, too long and some of the questions are very open and vague, students are not mind readers, at least not good ones!

Yes, absolutely unfair. I was pretty confident in all the questions in the Kit, I almost loved P6, and what came? Where was everything that we have studied so hard?, Instead of this - some vague requirement - both questions 1,2. This paper wasnt desinged to be passed from somebody who has studied hard and who has expected to apply the knowledge..Make me think - what's the point in studying at all.. P6 is enough volume paper, so should be made to be fair ..

I didnt enjoy the paper but as always i live in hope and i live everything in the hands of the Lord

i think P6 is about what you know and not how much you know...... it a lottery basically which i hope to win , lol

Question 2 was completely vague and it was very unfair and i cant guess what the hell was asked in the question and i was supposed to do
It is not fair to make such a lengthy and unfair paper whose requirement was not understandable under 3 hours.
i Studied hard but paper was disheartening and disappointing

The first part of Q2 was very similar to Q1a Dec'08

It is too lengthy and needs all rounded view of all tax issue....how could I suppose to do such far apart of real tax issue cope up with three hours...optional part of questions are relatively fair...

i think it was unfair paper... because in just three hours how can a normal student can attempt such paper... the ACCA should review its exam procedures... I even know people who had in depth knowledge of UK tax... but such a lengthy paper make them uncomfortable and they are expecting failure just because of the type of paper... you should make paper hard... but it should be at least expected to be completed within three hours... you should consider normal student as well... not just consider genius students... i think bonus marks should be given to all students.... exams should be comfortable not pressure taking...

I think we should email regarding their Exams strategy... in fact i am sending one....

I would have never believed that I would be defending the ACCA after all what I have suffered but this is a Professional Qualification and apart from the knowledge you must be able to think/work under pressure. Basically, have a good knowledge, know what you are doing and do it quick.
On the other hand I think that the exams should not have all those tricky things put in the middle of sentences or ideas that could only go out from the examiner's mind and that when you look at the answer you say "oh...yes... maybe that's a way to see it". But if we take some of the questions in details some answers are not logical at all or even completely wrong.
Sometimes I have the feeling that not even the examiner knows what he/she is asking.

You can normally give feedback on the ACCA website about length, how hard and whether it covered the syllabus. I'll be giving feedback cos I thought the exam was too hard,and didn't have enough time

I think it was unfair and very complicated paper. Being employed by an international company, I deal with tax issues at work and enjoy doing it and never get borred. I also enjoyed studying it. Some of the challenges I face at work were answered during my studies.

However, the exam was a different story...really hard to understand the question. if you dont know what it is asking you, you can't start reading the body and thus takes your time. I came out of the centre feeling stressed...and hardly slept thinking about it. After all that hard work that is how I get repaid!

The paper was really lengthy and tough, I did question 3 and 5.
Question 1 I found I overrun as had so much to write.
Question 2 i struggled with, mind just went blank on calulation of VAT partial excemption but did the Penaltys, CT issues etc.
Question 3 I found easy however loads of waffle came out and was struggling to stay in time.
Question 5 looked better than question 4 but struggled as i did it so maybe I should of done 4 but fingers crossed for a pass.
Good luck everyone.

Was it me or was there very little actual tax calculations? In question 1 most of my time was working out how many shares to give rather than the CGT part of it.

Q2 had no idea how they got their CT liability and was weary I was running over time so just ignored that bit.

Q4 can't really remember it

Q5 was a bit funny in terms of how vague the requirement about transfer pricing was. Wasn't really sure what he exactly wanted from me.

All in all, not many calculations and some vague requirements!

I found the paper was ok although I do agree that some requirements were a bit vague. The tricky thing with ACCA exams is that you are under time pressure. I guess if we were to do this paper at home we will spot a lot more knowledge point than in the exam.

I listened to all p6 lectures on OT so massive thank you for OT and the tutor. She stressed in her lectures that when unsure, state your assumptions, spell out what you think it is related to pick up extra marks. She also said that this examiner liked conditions. So I learned conditions of key areas and stated what I assumed in the exam when I thought it was vague.

Q1 I did a brief calculation in the daughter’s income, after tax etc. Then move on from that to additional income. I am sure I have made mistakes in that calculation, but many marks are in methods and approaches, so fingers crossed that I have picked up more than 50%. I used Furnished Holiday Home, and ‘rent a room’ in calculation.

The dividends and capital gain bit, I assumed that 4% was to calculate how many shares to generate the income she needed, and capital of a quarter bit was for if she sells to share in exchange for money??? I might be completely wrong here :-s

Partial exempt VAT was ok. The difference between an overseas branch and subsidiary was okish.

One thing to mention was that I stuck strictly to my time allocation. 1.8 minute for each mark. And when I got to nearly time, I scanned it through to pick up hopefully easier marks and moved on, i.e. transfer pricing, and tax shield for lease payments etc.
And I very quickly did most of the cap gain calculations in Q4?? The transfer of property, and the disposal of loans and shares. As I did this in the last 20 minutes in the exams, I probably have missed some relief which under normal circumstances I would have been able to.

I didn’t find the paper easy at all so fingers crossed for a pass!!!

And all the best with other papers guys!

I donot understand why they have to make the paper too difficult and time pressured as well, they have to understand that this are professional exams, majority of student are working, having study the whole study text and rev. kit student should be able to pass the exam, however they examine topics not in the 'Approved'study text or set question that are too time pressured. Majority of the time if student have another extra minute they will actually think properly and answer the questions correctly

It can be very fraustrating knowing that you can still do more but there is no enough time.
And its definately not thesame thing as managing your time in the real world, this is just a deliberate act to purposely catch student out, and that is why people are switching to other accounting bodies this days as they are more realistic and understanding

this paper was horribly lengthy, i thought during the exam that the examiner didnt want us to complete the paper. How come he ask countless requirements in just one question? almost impossible to answer even if you have studied and hve a gud idea of the subject matter! have to ignore some requirements if u dun want to miss the entire portion of the paper....

I must confess that the requirements were tooo vague.......!

@somewherelse said:
I found the paper was ok although I do agree that some requirements were a bit vague. The tricky thing with ACCA exams is that you are under time pressure. I guess if we were to do this paper at home we will spot a lot more knowledge point than in the exam.

I listened to all p6 lectures on OT so massive thank you for OT and the tutor. She stressed in her lectures that when unsure, state your assumptions, spell out what you think it is related to pick up extra marks. She also said that this examiner liked conditions. So I learned conditions of key areas and stated what I assumed in the exam when I thought it was vague.

Q1 I did a brief calculation in the daughter’s income, after tax etc. Then move on from that to additional income. I am sure I have made mistakes in that calculation, but many marks are in methods and approaches, so fingers crossed that I have picked up more than 50%. I used Furnished Holiday Home, and ‘rent a room’ in calculation.

The dividends and capital gain bit, I assumed that 4% was to calculate how many shares to generate the income she needed, and capital of a quarter bit was for if she sells to share in exchange for money??? I might be completely wrong here :-s

Partial exempt VAT was ok. The difference between an overseas branch and subsidiary was okish.

One thing to mention was that I stuck strictly to my time allocation. 1.8 minute for each mark. And when I got to nearly time, I scanned it through to pick up hopefully easier marks and moved on, i.e. transfer pricing, and tax shield for lease payments etc.
And I very quickly did most of the cap gain calculations in Q4?? The transfer of property, and the disposal of loans and shares. As I did this in the last 20 minutes in the exams, I probably have missed some relief which under normal circumstances I would have been able to.

I didn’t find the paper easy at all so fingers crossed for a pass!!!

And all the best with other papers guys!

I took the 4% to calculate dividends paid on the total shareholding, then to find out how much the daughter needed I did the dividend income required/dividend on total shareholding x total shareholding. Used the 25% to calculate the cost when working out CGT payable by the mum.

NO idea if that's right but I was getting round numbers which I thought was reassuring(!) completely forgot about rent a room relief and I have no idea what a tax shield for leases are..!

oh dear

i used the dividend percentage that way too :D. i didn't think it was wise to seel share that way, but considering C didnt say in the question she didnt want the daughter not to seel them, i thought it was possible albeit not sustainable...

by tax shield, i only meant the tax saving in the lease payment, if it is treated as debt, interest payments on debt are tax deductable???

@saira3007 said:
I took the 4% to calculate dividends paid on the total shareholding, then to find out how much the daughter needed I did the dividend income required/dividend on total shareholding x total shareholding. Used the 25% to calculate the cost when working out CGT payable by the mum.

NO idea if that's right but I was getting round numbers which I thought was reassuring(!) completely forgot about rent a room relief and I have no idea what a tax shield for leases are..!

oh dear

i think the paper was mainly the game of handling time pressure!! too much was asked in too less time, esp in q1, which caused panic and evry1 messd it up!

i 2 spent 1hour 15 minx on q1 and felt panic, forgot all conditions of releifs!

bt atemptd all 100 marx, so i think therz a fair chance of passing!

but apart frm few parts, i dnt think the whole paper was VERY difficult. it was somewhat similar to the past papers. and if people will solve this paper in home, thy will find it very easy! the main issue was to complete it in 3 hourz!!

and btw, this is the most FINAL professional paper of acca!! u cant expect it to be a piece of cake like f3, which u can do it with perfection!! it has to be difficult!!

i attempted 82 marks paper
forget to include NIC in Q1
but i took dividend after tax ( 4% x 0.90 ) for getting how much value of shares required . net dividend income will be 3.6% . i know 10% relief is given for reducing IT liability . what i know is the payment she will receive will be 3.6% with 10% tax deducted at source. and in Q3 discussed very few thing about opening year loss relief NIC class 1 sec 1A and for partnership class 2 and 4 thats it

P6 wasnt as difficult as some of the past papers and questions weren't that complicated but it was expecting far too much in the time. It took me 2 hours to finish Q1 (bad time managment) leaving an hour to do the remaining 3. Just hope i got straight to the point enough on the others!

I found that there was far too much to do in the time frame given, I too nearly went over time on question 1 but had to leave it and move on. I didn't like the layout of the questions and found the requirements very misleading and at times really didn't know what he was asking. Its as if the examiner wants you to trip up, if I were at work, one I would have a lot more time to prepare and also have my manager at hand to ask questions if i didn't understand what he wanted. I worked my a** off for this paper and was very disspointed at the end of the exam

i think p6 iz all about knowledge apply and evaluate even if u donot understand sumthing but able to demonstrate the marker about your knowledge and ur application u will b in a better position to pass the paper doesnt matter ur application iz wrong

https://www.accaglobal.com/en/student/exam-feedback.html

tahirayub said 12 hours, 12 minutes ago:
i think p6 iz all about knowledge apply and evaluate even if u donot understand sumthing but able to demonstrate the marker about your knowledge and ur application u will b in a better position to pass the paper doesnt matter ur application iz wrong



I just cant agree, read the examiner's comments.! You just cant pass if you have misunderstood the requirement. The marks are only available for answering the requirement. Off-course you will make mistakes in the exam but you will be awarded marks for consistency and not for the exact answer.


One cannot pass if the requirement is not fulfilled or misunderstood.!

I could not understand what was the requirements so i will drop P6.too much effort but no result