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Arghhh I don’t know whether I passed or not, I imagine not. Section A was actually ok hopefully picked up a few marks even if my calculations may have been wrong.
Section b was a nightmare! I did q2 and q4. I personally feel like I know the syllabus well and practiced a lot of exam papers. Just doesn’t seem to help there’s no consistency in the paper.
We all feel the same way. And to the team, I feel I am being civilised and professional, but I also want to convey the students frustration. I have heard a lot of fellow students with more uncivilised comments in regards to this exam!!!!
@yogzcro said:
And to the team, I feel I am being civilised and professionalI did not say you were not.
I was rather pre-empting other potential comments from other angrier students
because of some verbal abuse few years ago on our forums.. ACCA stopped publishing examiners names..i am frustrated. my english is not that great and i regreted picking p5 now im stucked. this is my 2nd attempt. some of the wordings i need some time to decipher what he actually wants and i attempt with much uncertainty. if anyone will post a petition i will sign.
i also hope acca can change its half yearly exams to quarterly exams. it reduce our sufferings in some ways.
i dread taking p5 in jun15… but i doubt i will pass this time.
I totally agree. I pray I pass this sitting…its my third attempt and my final paper.
This was my first time taking P5 – my last paper.
I have looked at a lot of past papers and it is clear that the exam style has changed with this examiner.
Previously, it seemed 65% of an exam was number crunching, similar to F5 with the balance asking you to explain the numbers. Maybe with one of the option questions being a wordy one discussing a model.
In general number crunching is easier and that was why it was a popular paper with a high pass mark.
The current Examiner turned that around and now its around 75% explanation and 25% numbers. To be honest I do not have a problem with that, as we have already done the number crunching in F5+F9 and considering it is Advance level we should be able to explain what these numbers mean and their affect on the company.
However, things are made harder because of the way the examiner set out his questions. He has three areas that lead to confusion:
1) He is not clear in his requirements exactly what he is asking. You can make an attempt but if you guess wrong you will be getting 0 marks for that section.
2) He has large amounts of scenario that is hard to find the connecting facts. Under normal circumstances it is fine under exam conditions it is not.
For example, with most examiners you would find the requirements for part a in the 2nd to 3rd paragraphs (the first giving a little bit of background) the part b requirement in the 4th paragraph etc.
With this guy the requirement for part a will be in paragraph 2/3/6/8 for example. When reading in exam conditions it is too hard to follow.
3) Like the P2 examiner (never noticed it with any of the others) he likes to put in little tricks to try and trip you up. It’s like he is showing he is superior to you. However, at least with the P2 examiner he is rather generous with his marking and will give you a mark for trying even if you fall for his trick. I gather the P5 guy is not.
Yes no marking is generous here. He will complain students are not reading his requirements clear enough and will be very patronising that it was clear what was required when he writes examiner reports on the papers.
He induces students to panic and second guess what they have written with the layout of his exam. He purposely gives low mark allocation to topics which you could write pages on and high mark allocation to subjects which you think how can I generate more than a few marks from this?
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Good responses. We need to let ACCA and their team know that some things are wrong. I work in a bank where there is no time to do other thing including professional development. I have no employer’s involvement in my ACCA studying. I left home for all the weekend in 3 months to read for P5 and score 43. I wept because I have never in my life read that way. ACCA must find something to do to the pass rate in P5. Six of us started ACCA 5 years ago. Others had abandoned it. ACCA should please come out and tell us where things are wrong. All students globally can’t be dullard. Please, include me in the petition.
Kind regards.
48 after working so hard for this exam.
I will be starting a petition to the ACCA in regards to this exam and examiner. I think the ACCA have become a shameless money making business. They swell their membership for exam fees at the earlier stages, then at professional level the papers become unreasonable.
Please reply/private message me if you would like to join this petition.
Hi All
I must admit that I am in the same boat with you guys, when I saw my P5 results this time I cried myself to sleep could not believe it. I really work hard at this paper and it is a paper I love and did try hard. My first time I study with Kaplan then BPP and Open Tuition, read every article on the subject, attempted as many questions under time pressure and tried to follow every examiner’s advice and comments for this paper and still having problems in passing.
I am not blaming anyone here but if the pass rate has decline so drastically then ACCA should look into this. I will still give it a final attempt in June 2015, but if I don’t get it again I have no choice but to switch with all the changes made by ACCA I need to qualify this year.
Please don’t give up guys keep trying one day you will achieve your goal, remember every successful person have a story of pitfalls in their way.
i dont understand why so many people are complaining…afterall this is what to be expected from a p level paper since acca has a certain standard to maintain. If they start lowering the difficulty of papers on the request of students, then the acca qualification is truly losing its value and may not be worth more than any other degrees in accoutancy. I am not saying that the exam paper is easy( however the contents of p5 is rather an easy walk as opposed to p4 or even p2) but it is really a true test to our analytical skills and critical thinking ability since anyone can just read and learn the p5 book by heart then spit it out on the exam day which i would say is not the real aim of the p5 exams.
I do not quite understand all the complaining either. I have only taken P5 once, but I thought it was a fair paper and fair marking. The difficult thing in P5 is to answer in correct way, but we have some very good advice threads in OT forum. I am sure I answered a bit off topic in some questions in the exam, but for me the markings seems quite ok, and credit must have been given for sensible answers even if they were not exactly like the model answer.
Icedawn I agree they should not lower the difficulty. However, you have to concede that since this new examiner has been put in place the pass rate has plummeted. Why is this?
Firstly, it is a change in style from being 70% calculations and 30% comment on those calculations to being provided with most of the calculations and expecting to comment. This makes it a words rather than numbers paper and most of the ACCA students are international with English as a second language.
Secondly and more important (I actually agree with the change in style) it is the presentation of the exam in particular the examiner’s requirements.
For such complex questions he is not clear and mixes part of the requirements within the scenario (see q1 Dec 2014). In addition he awards marks for things that were not even asked Q4 Dec 2014 so it is very hard to judge how to plan answers particularly under exam conditions.
You should be marked on your knowledge and skills in the subjects involved in this Paper and not how best to understand what the examiner is wanting from you.
Just in case you think my reply is sour grapes for failing. I passed Dec 2014 at my first attempt.
Hi guys I think based on the majority of responses its time to write a letter against the ACCA. The papers at option level are written unrealistically across the board I feel. P5 however is the worst I feel, in terms of the way the questions are asked and material is examined. Please send your membership number and name to my inbox so i can print and attach to a letter to the ACCA.
Wat to do. June 15 would be my 6th attempt with P5. 45+ ALL the time.. twice at 49. Passed 13 papers by 2012.
Hasbi Allah…
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CRO14, I feel your pain. However it is possible for you to pass this exam. Fight your technic and approach and you will force yourself into the minority that pass all the time
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Student who are sitting for p5 exam surely passed most of ACCA paper’s. Either other 15 Examiner’s are idiot who allows all ACCA students to pass their paper or P5 Examiner is an idiot who is trying to proof that he is very smart by making it unrealistic for professional paper students.
Either way, students are the victim. I am a victim myself and sympathise with other who is failing the exam only because of in wrong timing.
Article from PQ magazine – a word from Examiner
https://www.pqaccountant.com/pmag-FFFF0050018001D002171957.html
It’s just Hard exam, all Option P papers are at masters level, and have 40% or lower pass rates! I’m glad they’re hard, makes the qualification worth it. Btw I passed with 57% last sitting.
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you are right i totally agree with you
The examiner is purposely leaving traps and sly wordings for students to trip up on. In Q1 of June 2014 paper he refers to “estimated that half of the marketing spend of $7.638m is building the Cantor brand long term”
He has said estimate so firstly why would we use this as part of capital in the EVA calculation when the requirement doesn’t make a reference to “estimated EVA” but just EVA. Students are thinking of exact and actual figures here.
Secondly in the heat of exam pressure “long term brand” isn’t going to trigger anything in their minds about capitalisation.
His wording is terrible and leaves the majority of students baffled.
He is a horrible sadistic man
I think ACCA is happy with his performance because the more he fails us the more we register and ACCA gets money.now they have introduced the seven year rule which will help them to keep us on their register and milk us dry.
The p5 examiner must go
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