How did day two and three go for ACCA December sitters. Here’s what they said:
TX: It was all quite on the TX front. The Open Tuition instant poll shows the December test was OK for 65% of sitters, and just 8% said it was a disaster.
ATX: Sitters did not like this one! The Open Tuition instant poll reveals the exam was a disaster for 19%, with another 38% finding it a hard one this time around. As one sitter explained: “Time management was a must for today’s exam.” A fellow sitter agreed: “The time management was so hard and the questions very tricky with small bits everywhere to confuse us.” Another sitter found it tough and was thrown by the losses question. They also found the overseas question which asked you to decide between a subsidiary or PE difficult. However, they thought the capital allowance question over rentals was ‘OK’!
SBL: Some 66% of SBL sitters found this either hard or a disaster, according to the Open Tuition instant poll. One SBL sitter felt the scenario was so short it was hard to extract answers. Another sitter said the paper was just ‘weird’: “Managed to complete all the tasks but not happy with the quality of my answer.” With many grasping at straws the markers can expect a lot of superficial answers! Yet another sitter summed it up: “It sure wasn’t a friendly exam.” And, what concerned many is that it didn’t look or feel like other past papers: “Very poorly made, very niche questions, barely anything on strategy and the key syllabus areas.”
PM: A hard one, according to 35% of respondents to the Open Tuition instant poll. However, 45% found it OK. So, opinion was split with one sitter admitting “I found it tough,” yet another said “exam was not bad at all.” There were questions on the learning curve, the pricing demand equation, and operational and planning variances.
APM: “Overall, quite a good exam and not heavily model reliant exam,” said one sitter. Another sitter admitted they got stuck in the time trap of Q1. “I should have moved on,” they said. Yet another said: “I ran out of time too, it was so time pressured that I don’t have time to process what they are actually looking for.” A fellow suffer admitted they ran out of time and missed task 3.”I felt exhausted after 2 hours and my brain couldn’t focus on any points to actually formulate.” There were 50 marks on budgets, a discussion on ABB, preparation of a rolling budget, 25 marks on results and determinants and appropriate reward systems, and 25 marks on Porters 5 forces and appropriate KPIs. Other had 50 marks of EVA, the building blocks model, and benchmarking and BPR.
