Have your say How ACCA can

Let’s fix it, ACCA!

Regarding the recent technical problems with ACCA exams, there is certainly precedent here. Around 15 years ago, ACCA contacted my college to ask a favour. A van carrying about 150 scripts from the AA exam had been stolen and then torched. With the students unable to be given a mark, ACCA asked my college to put on a one-day revision booster in five separate locations in the UK that students were able to attend for free. They then sat a special one-off exam paper, rather than having to wait for the next sitting (it was a sixmonth wait back then, of course).

For the record, I think my college paid for all of this, not ACCA, but at least an effort was made to deal with it. If my memory is right, affected students also got some free exam sittings.

With online teaching now being available, tuition providers could easily make a recorded revision course from the June sitting available, and I imagine most of us would happily do a one-day live online revision workshop if ACCA could offer an earlier date for affected students to sit. So I am putting it out there – come on ACCA, let the affected students sit in July, and this audit tutor will happily provide a day’s online revision workshop for those who have suffered.

It can’t be that hard to fix this!

Paul Merison, London Director of ACCA, London School of Business & Finance

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50% is not enough

I sat the ACCA remote invigilated AFM exam in June, which frankly was a disaster for many India students. Many of us were held in a massive queuing system, which meant there were huge delays checking in for exams. By the time I started I wasn’t in the right frame of mind, and I am expecting to fail.

I have now received a response from ACCA, which isn’t good enough. They have admitted they had ‘some technical issues…and we are aware of the distress this caused’. ACCA has also credited myACCA account with 50% of my AFM exam fee. ACCA should have reimbursed my whole fee after providing such a poor service. The head of exam delivery, Ian Gray, says his team are investigating the software issues that caused the problem. I would like him to make that report public, too.

ACCA must do better.

Name and email address supplied

Where’s the justice?

Hello PQ. I am an ACCA student in Pakistan and we need your help. I sat ACCA exams in December 2020, and at the time ACCA was offering only home-based exams in Pakistan due to the lockdown. It has now been six months since we sat and we still have not got our results. On 18 January 2021, we were contacted by ACCA’s professional exam conduct department who explained our results had been withheld due to irregularities. What can these be? There are around 150 of us all facing the same problem. What is taking ACCA so long? Please help.

Name and email address supplied

The Editor says: Leave this with us – we will investigate this issue.

Lots of ACCA June sitters contacted us about problems with their UK exam centres, and we are on it! However, many also wanted to talk about the exams themselves and here’s a flavour of what PQs sent us via twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

The first comment we saw for PM was “it wasn’t very difficult” – let’s hope the pass rate reflects that on the 19 July. “Tough FR exam, especially section C,” was another comment. One sitter admitted they had a panic attack, saying: “Worst exam I have written in my life.”

TX sitters found June a hard test, especially section C. Others struggled with the OTs. As one student said, you sit in a hot and stuffy room with a mask on and the internet is slow. Then the examiner throws a curve ball to trick you! Another just said: “So over ACCA.” An “OK” FM exam this time around, but AA was a bit tricky and “nothing like the mocks”.

SBL was seen as a fair exam but one PQ was worried that an IT project manager could sit the exam and probably pass it.

It was a very timed pressured SBR June, with not enough time to think. Sitters were worried about the ‘bizarre’ nature of some of the questions. There was too much reading for some sitting APM, and June sitters struggled to finish ATX. AFM was an exam “between easy and hard”! Time pressure was a big complaint. Many sitters also admitted they ran out of time in the AAA exam.

You can read the full June feedback in the news section on www.pqmagazine.com

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