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Experts give verdict on ACCA December exams

23 January 2012

While it was all quite on the ACCA exam front some of the December papers still stood out for all the wrong reasons!
ACCA F5 sitters really didn’t like December’s paper. One top tutor said PQs were “very unsure what Q3 and the budgetary systems was all about”. And, despite the examiner’s articles neither CVP analysis or environmental management appeared.
Other PQs think Q4(c) was ‘out of syllabus’ (see our letter’s page). Our experts agreed that F5 was perhaps the hardest exam to date, with several new topics examined for the first time.
F6 was also seen by one board member as ‘challenging’. Q2 on a company ceasing trade would have sorted out a lot of marginal sitters. Time pressure would have also played its part, said Kaplan experts.
P1 surprised even seasoned tutors, in a nice way. Ex-examiner Kim Smith claimed students will have been delighted with Q1 and the “Deepwater Horizon’ rig disaster.
P2 also looked frightening on initial reading, but on closer scrutiny was fairly reasonable.
Students would, however, have struggled to get their 25 marks on reorganisations (Q2). They also were a little surprised to see the corridor method given that the method has been outlawed by the new IAS19 and only remains on the syllabus because of syllabus cut off rules.
LSBF’s David Laws felt there were many straightforward marks available on P£ this time around. One concern was the amount of slang in the paper, which could impact on overseas students’ performance. In Q2 the culture of the company is described as ‘work hard, play hard’ which could be interpreted by many as the company forcing workers to socialise after work. There is also mention of a ‘job for life’ in Q1.
*For more student feedback see go to the study zone.

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