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Hi John,
This may be a daft question but it’s been bugging me for a while… How much of a problem is a small difference due to rounding in our answer versus the examiner’s answer?
Example: Heat Co (June 2011)
The question asked for marginal cost to be based on time taken to make the 100th Unit. My calculation came up with $7.92 but the exam answer was $7.90 as they calculated total cost for 100, total cost for 99 and therefore cost for 100th. I calculated time for 100, time for 99 and therefore time for 100th x $8 per hour (seems sensible to me…).
It also therefore made the next part of the question (optimum selling price), adrift by 1c. I know that I would get the follow on marks for the second part but would I lose a mark for the first part?
I may be being paranoid but it’s bugging me!
Thanks,
Jenny
The marks are for your workings – not for the final answer. So do not worry about roundings (but do worry about setting out your working neatly so that the marker can see whether or not you are trying to do it the right way 🙂 )
Thanks John, that’s put my mind at rest.
Although, (sorry), in terms of the workings then – one of the ACCA marking schemes gave marks for the total cost for 100 units etc where I did total time and then calculated time for the 100th unit at the end. In that case, would I lose those marks for total cost or would they translate them to the total time (if that makes sense!).
If they ask for cost and you only show time – then yes, you would lose marks. However if all your workings were otherwise correct, it would probably only lose half a mark.
That was the problem. They wanted the cost card to be based on time taken for 100th unit so I calculated time for (100 units total less 99 units total) to give time for 100th unit then multiplied by labour rate.
But the marking scheme gave 1 mark each for the total cost of 100 units and total cost of 99 units. So, my overall answer was the same but I had calculated all the workings based on time and left working out the cost til the end. I don’t really understand why you would need to work out total time then total cost for each one.
Not sure if I’m making sense but I don’t know if I would have lost two marks there?
Thanks John!
By the way, another general question – I know I’m a nightmare!
How much can we get away with abbreviations in the exam? I’ve just been doing some last minute practice on advanced variances and realised I’m writing AQAM, AQSM out of habit. Should we write ‘actual quantity, actual mix’ in the exam or would the abbreviations be sufficient? I’m just thinking it might look a bit squashed otherwise (I always use the table format).
Thanks again.
You can use abbreviations. More important it to make sure your workings are clear.
Thanks again John.
Doing this on your own can be a bit daunting without anyone to ask my daft questions to.
Really, really appreciate everything you do for all of us!
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