There appears to have been a’ hang-over’ of the technical issues from day one for many sitters on day two of the September sitting.
In Manchester there was a delay of at least an hour for SBL students. One PQ told us: “Some people left before it started, presumably because they had trains to catch.”
At Southampton issues in the morning had a real knock-on effect for afternoon sitters. “We were told the exams were running 1.5 hours late. It finally started just after 4pm, so it was nearly 7pm once we had finished. I got home at 8.30pm. That was a long day!” Another Southampton sitter explained: “The computer equipment was awful, tiny screens and my mouse didn’t work properly. There was even a girl behind me who left the room crying because her software crashed.” After a wait of an hour and twenty minutes there was no explanation from the invigilators and no apology. Yet another student said: “It was chaos from the minute we arrived.”
Students also found it difficult having so many windows open at once. For many the chopping and changing became too confusing. It meant quite a few students are now asking for the questions to be provided in paper form. One student suggested: “ACCA need to restore the paper option for Professional level exams for the sake of everyone.”
Feedback about the actually TX exam were good, and one sitter described it as a ‘piece of cake’. The long questions were deemed ‘easy’, but the MCQs were seen as bit more challenging. A PQ said: “A fair exam, I got a corporate question and income question, with an IHT for 10 marks.” Another agreed: “Nothing really unexpected, maybe a few tricky things.”
ATX sitters found the actual exam tough. As one PQ put it: “Exam was harsh but fair in my opinion.” Another said: “I found exam very difficult and extremely time pressured as expected. Wearing a mask in a stuffy room for 3.25 hours while concentrating was torture.”
SBL was also deemed ‘hard’. Many seemed surprised by a charity coming up. Many sitters were worried they were writing the same answers to the questions! One sitter said: “So typical of ACCA to set a paper on a not for profit organisation when they know 90% of us focused on private companies in our studies.”
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