SBLPaper P3 Dec 2010 exam was

I am the most desperate of all, having passed all other ACCA papers at not more than 2 attempts at most since June 2009, and today's P3 exam was my sixth (6th) attempt. Just like in today's paper, I always have a good understanding of the answers to virtually all the questions but guess what, I AM A RIDICULOUSLY SLOW WRITER, and because P3 requires the greatest amount of writing of all ACCA papers, I've had to re-write it this much :(. I really hope to nick a 50% this time around having scored 48% and 49% in the June 2010 and December 2009 diets respectively. Please pray hard for me everyone. But over all, I think this was one of the best P3 papers to be honest.

@cporteus said:
Look at part 4b on the June 08 paper to see the model that I think we should have used:
https://www.accaglobal.com/pubs/students/acca/exams/p3/past_papers/p3_2008_jun_a.pdf

I didn't BTW but hopefully should get some marks for having a go at least.

yes we should have but i couldnt think of it.....so i used scope and nature model ...there were 2 marks for justifcation.....and i think scope ( either realignment or transformation )and nature (either incremental or big bang) tells u the context
in this case scope was realignment and the nature was incremental....which means change will be based on existing paradigm....as it was mentioned the scenario that there is nothing fundamentally wrong with the company...the strategy will be adaptation . I think i justified the model I used...lets hope examiner agrees ..lol

I did 2&3 first.

Q2 harder then it looked, stuggled to get a lot points down. What did people write?

Q3 ok

1)
a) BCG. I think it had the SBU's as star (low market share), cash cow (high market share), dog/question mark (stop or invest in more pools). First I read the FS infor the wrong way round. Wasn't it back to front??? I changed the answers a few times because of it!

B)i) I could see the model in my notes but didn't pay much attention to it. The same one come up a couple years ago so didn't think it would again as it was so small in the scheme of things! I think a got a couple of the points down though I don't. I'm sure if I related it to the infor, did you need to?

B)ii) What did people put for this??? I wrote some stuff down, related it to the infor a bit but I'm not sure if it was correct.

C) Ok I think, did people mention the Ashridge model for the parent (last one?)

Tough exam. Really time pressured, I think I attempted the last 30marks in 30mins.

I think I need to score 50/85ish. Fingers crossed!

:) ii) people then???

Model or points from the infor?

@phemy said:
I am the most desperate of all, having passed all other ACCA papers at not more than 2 attempts at most since June 2009, and today's P3 exam was my sixth (6th) attempt. Just like in today's paper, I always have a good understanding of the answers to virtually all the questions but guess what, I AM A RIDICULOUSLY SLOW WRITER, and because P3 requires the greatest amount of writing of all ACCA papers, I've had to re-write it this much :(. I really hope to nick a 50% this time around having scored 48% and 49% in the June 2010 and December 2009 diets respectively. Please pray hard for me everyone. But over all, I think this was one of the best P3 papers to be honest.

It is my 5th attempt ...i got 49 in my last attempt.....so ur not alone... i am not a slow writer but since i am a full time self study student I lack the appreciation of commercial reality :)

ARGHHHHHHHH.......It wasnt a disaster and it wasnt fantastic. i wasnt sure of the models to use in part b and had to use brain workk.... fingers crossed.... crossover marks. for part 1, i used bcg and fit model...

can anyone tell what's synergy manager and portfolio manager and parent manager , i did not remember where didi they appear in my notes at all?

I was gutted by Q1, especially part b) c), not covered well in my revision and was confused what model should use for both b i) and ii)

Q1 a) I didn't use BCG.....but applied some SWOT and commented on all three's financial performance.

I chose Q2 and Q4. Q2 was ok and fair.

Q4 run out of time for part b) as wasted my time on planning Q1 b) and thinking what model should use...

I'll be around margin, just hoping for the best to get 50%!

very tricky question and not focus on the major part. lots of IT stuff as well.

@alancong said:
can anyone tell what's synergy manager and portfolio manager and parent manager , i did not remember where didi they appear in my notes at all?

portfolio managers manages strategic business units (SBUs) as invetement portfolio and cotrol it through budgets by setting financial targets.

synergy managers attempts to cordinates SBUs function to benefit from synergies (operatinal marketing etc) parent exercise strategic control over SBUs.in the case scenario this approach was adopted.

parental developer: It is like parenting SBUs....identifying fit between SBU CSF and the skills , resource and understanding parent can provide and the opportunity it gets to help it ....(Ashridge model feel and benefit)

Questions 2 and 4 were ok but did only question 1a, my mind froze i couldn't figure out what the examiner wanted from 1b onwards, contextual factors? i live in hope if not anything, where were the financials data that are so always heavily given in q1, how long was the case? i was expecting a bible of data....looking more like a fail. i'm really disappointed about question 1b and c

Q1b) Contextual Factors of change: pp cc rtsd
power
preservation
capacity
capability
readiness
timng
scope
diveristy

Turnaround of a company:

Stablise revenue get costs under control
Install proper management
Review products - divest "dogs"
Talk to major stakeholders to secure their commitment
Assess above for ability to turn around the co and use starting with the ones with better potential

Didnt understand q1b and 1c hence only work on 65, what are the chance of me getting 50%?? I live in slim hope :(

well..........i made a biggest mistake...i saw the 1st question and thinking the examiner helled again...didnt gave porter or pestel....i learned ashridge portfolio...but unfortunately i compared preformances of those 3 companies using porter forces anda bit financial help

I used hybrid differentiation in 1c as the shoal plc will make a use of backward integration to control cost by providing fish to captain haddock and since the brand is already recognized in the public it will result in hybrid differentiation i-e keeping cost low and also differentiate the product with the help of brand. Am I wrong?

haan that integration thing will be used...Moreover, saad i got one feeling that P3 is such a huge course,,,that the examiner neva tested things deeply

I am really worried about my handwriting in the paper. I hope the examiner doesnt get pissed off because it was really atrocious. You could easily guess that a toddler has written that.

while i voted the paper was ok, q1 was not very good for me. i just wrote the answers on the common sense. Q4 was a gift i think. and Q2 was rather good. but i stuck on q1 with strategic change((( yes, i know on time management and i am not glad on me for it.
however always hope :)

same as me...i donno what to do wid my writing...I ONLY ONETHING,,,THE EXAMINER HAS GIVEN ME TENSION BY GIVING SUCHA DISASTROUS PAPER....SO LEMME GIVE SOMETHING FROM MY SIDE LOL

tellme what are the elemnts of change

Q1
a) For nearly 5 minutes I struggled to think about proper model. Ultimately I used BCG.
b) No idea but managed to comment in general. But now after reading this above comments, i am feeling i would get few marks
c) didnt touch
d) that was reasonable

Q2 a) and Q4 a) were the best one. Cant they give all questions on IT.

In general paper was really very long so writing was very poor. I wonder how marker will read it but they are getting paid for that :)

it was a nightmare for me. no idea what to write in part b of section A.
contextual factors? absolutely clueless. didn't even understand the question to have a confident stab at it.
ended up writing about the cultural web, only thing I could think of.

did anyone else think the section b was quite narrow in focus? 2 questions on e-business. yet there had been recent articles on competencies, project management.

were those articles put in to throw us off?

@alpeshr

dont u know that businesscase managing benefits and realizing benefits is in project management
consider adopting e-assessment as a project
and they asked why establishing business case ? so if a company doesnot know the objective and scope of doing that project and what cost will be incurred and what benefits they will get ? in the absence of all these things ... many projects results in failure so self evidence is not good enough to adopt e-assessment

and in Q1 i used Ashridge portfolio and well explained :) got the point very much in favour of ashridge model :)

Question 1 was strange not the usual P3 question so it threw me off but I had a stab at it though not sure if I was going in the right direction! Q1b was by far the toughest on the paper. To be honest I was not sure what the examiner was asking for but did put some points which I hope will earn me some marks!

1a seems ok - I analysed performance and contribution of each of the SBU's and also discussed their position on the BCG matrix - i.e which was star, dog cashcow and very briefly what we may do to some of them

Ib Diaster
1c covered few areas including funding required, value chain, labour/management moral and continuing training, quality basically all Captain Haddock Critical success factors which needed to be addressed
1d definations plus discussed how Captain Haddock could be a heartland business on ashridge model as Shaol Plc can provide help to it and theire businesses do fit AND Captain Haddock may be treated as a unlrelated differsification and all they wanted it to turn it around and sell it at a profit

Q4 was a fair one IAA was actually ACCA so it was easy to relate to and a very interesting question so hopefully scored some good points on this.

Q2 loked far at first and when reading the scenario, again very interesting but when it came to writing I could not develp my point and started getting confused (probably because I was feeling the pressure as the end of the exam was approaching and I had to put down some points + I was getting tired!! so to be honest after all I dont think I did well on this question but I pray to god I passed it

Overall this paper was very triky compared to the past 3 P3 sittings. There were no sight of some of the core areas

I appears that most students found this paper challenging so I hope despite the poor performances by many they maintain the pass rate and many of us end up passing

hahaha.. i used jamini's 4 r's in managing change part . .

Well done acca.very conceptual and reasonable paper really the paper that should be set at this professional level and for future professional accountants

@alpeshr82 said:
it was a nightmare for me. no idea what to write in part b of section A.
contextual factors? absolutely clueless. didn't even understand the question to have a confident stab at it.
ended up writing about the cultural web, only thing I could think of.

did anyone else think the section b was quite narrow in focus? 2 questions on e-business. yet there had been recent articles on competencies, project management.

were those articles put in to throw us off?

same for me, clueless about contextual factor, which didnt appear at all in Bpp's text book...finally just write about cultural web..and B(ii), write about lewin change management... While Q3(b), dunno what the question wants...wasted 35 marks..hopefully still get 50 out of 65 marks -.-

Overall exam was fair but definitely a time pressured one.

Q1a. asked about str. position so we are allowed to use any model which will give some ideas, thus SWOT in my opinion is best with a mixture of Ash bridge that what sort of business they holding.

b. contextual feature: need to talk about balogun and hope
c. elements: which includes general aspects like changing management, bringing shareholder opinion, educating the staff, involving them in the process etc.
d. this part is about general talk on how parent develop strategy, ashbridge have given some clues.

Q2: a. general points, easily picked from questions
b. need to talk about marketing mix and how it will help in the e-business,
eg: product can viewed online, thus cost down, will reach more people and hence the cash flows

Q4: a. general points about benefits and costs:
these includes cost of overall operation down and cost includes bespoke software, proving laptops to students etc.
d. its about project management that why is it necessary
general points required: eg will be helpful achieve cost, time and quality constraints.

thats all I did and hoping for good results

@yuvraj108 said:
Overall exam was fair but definitely a time pressured one.

Q1a. asked about str. position so we are allowed to use any model which will give some ideas, thus SWOT in my opinion is best with a mixture of Ash bridge that what sort of business they holding.

b. contextual feature: need to talk about balogun and hope
c. elements: which includes general aspects like changing management, bringing shareholder opinion, educating the staff, involving them in the process etc.
d. this part is about general talk on how parent develop strategy, ashbridge have given some clues.

Q2: a. general points, easily picked from questions
b. need to talk about marketing mix and how it will help in the e-business,
eg: product can viewed online, thus cost down, will reach more people and hence the cash flows

Q4: a. general points about benefits and costs:
these includes cost of overall operation down and cost includes bespoke software, proving laptops to students etc.
d. its about project management that why is it necessary
general points required: eg will be helpful achieve cost, time and quality constraints.

thats all I did and hoping for good results

I hope you are right about Part 1 (b) ii, to educating the staff, participating all that, at least I still could save few marks out of 25 marks that down to the drain, because I used Lewin change management in this question, including the suggestion ti educate the staff..

aite folks now am extremely scared...outta the 60+ posts, it appears that no one has even closely thought / spoken of Lewin's strategic change model i.e. unfreeze, refreeze etc & Lewin's resistance to change forces :)...I wrote that for Answer 1b...after reading all the feedback at ot...I think I just lost all the 15 marks :(