ACCA March Exam Feedback

ACCA March exam feedback

Were FR and SBL that easy, and APM and the tax papers that much harder? Only the results will tell on 15 April, then it’s cake all round!

PM

March sitters said the exam ranged from ‘OK’ to ‘tricky’ to a ‘disaster’.

One sitter did wondered why there was nothing on divisional performance or transfer pricing. However, a student who did get the transfer pricing question (remember there are different papers) said they “screwed it up”. Another PQ agreed that section C with transfer pricing and the optional production plan was just “too hard”.

Time pressures were also ever-present, and the longish calculations made it all a bit tight.

There was also criticism of the length of section B questions – for some they felt like section C questions.

In the Open Tuition Instant Poll some 17% of sitters said the exam was a disaster and another 29% found it hard.

TX

“It was tough,” according to one sitter, and another agreed it was all “pretty tough”.

Some sitters questioned whether it was even possible to complete the exam in the allotted three hours: “It was a race against time,” explained one.

In the Open Tuition Instant Poll 41% ticked the hard box after sitting the March exam, and another 15% felt it was a disaster.

FR

Well, here’s an exam that students didn’t hate! In the Open Tuition Instant Poll some 53% of sitters said the exam was OK, 6% said it was easy and just 12% felt it was a disaster. This is a bit of a result, when compared to the polls for the other exams.

That meant one sitter called it ‘normal’ and another said: “I’m not gonna lie, don’t know how this is possible but I found the actual exam itself a bit easier than the two practice versions and easier than the specimen?”

Others left their exam desks thinking it was all suspiciously easy. People were so chilled some said they actually ‘loved’ the interpretation question!

AA

Students found section A harder than expected, and many also struggled with the audit risk question in the AA exam, this March.

Sitters admit they find it so difficult to even guess how they did: “I wrote loads but no idea if what I wrote way right,” explained one PQ.

Many felt it was a paper of two halves! Section A was the more difficult half and section B was much more what students were expecting.

But generally, students got the exam they were ‘expecting’. The Open Tuition Instant Poll backs this up, with 54% of sitters saying the March sitting was OK. A further 33% said it was hard, but just 6% felt it was a disaster.

FM

“Such a hard exam, even section A and B were tricky,” said one March sitter. Another thought is was such a hard exam – “difficult ratios with different investments, sharia law financing theory, the divisible project, part B had some tricky questions as well!” One more just called it ‘painful’. For some the problem was the lack of WACC and NPV calculations and no working capital – especially as their tutors had spent so much time on these topics.

In the Open Tuition Instant Poll just one in three sitters (33.92%) said the exam was OK. For 43% the March exam was hard and for another 19% it was a disaster.

SBR

One sitter felt the only normal question was Q1, the rest were a disaster: “How can they give literally three sentences about financial asset and financial liability and require an answer for 10 marks?” The crowd funding and disclosure questions were also given a thumbs down! One sitter agreed: “I didn’t really understand the disclosure question.”

There were a lot of votes in the Open Tuition Instant Poll. Some 37% of sitters felt the March paper was hard, and another 17% felt the exam was a disaster for them.

SBL

PQ magazine can’t remember when over 60% of sitters thought an ACCA exam was OK, but that is what SBL sitters told the Open Tuition Instant Poll this time around! Just 9% said the exam was a disaster and 24% said it was hard.

As one sitter explained the questions themselves were not too challenging. For them the problem was time management.

Another sitter said it was a fair paper, and probably the best P-level paper. Yet another predicted they would get 56 marks (seems very precise) and said the exam was ‘alright’.

Check out Sean Purcell’s feedback of the March exam: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn

APM

It was hard to find anyone who liked the variance question this time around. It was described as ‘horrible’ and ‘really hard’.

One sitter had the questions on e-commerce, benchmarking and cloud computing for Q1, performance pyramid and reward schemes for Q2 and big data and ethics for Q3 and thought it was all pretty easy. Those who got this set of questions though it was more like an SBL exam –no calculations required in any of the questions.

In the Open Tuition Instant Poll 36% of sitters said the March exam was hard and for 19% it was a disaster

ATX

Sitters wondered why such a small amount of the syllabus was tested this time around. It meant many felt that all the bits they had revised just weren’t tested.

Some sitters got the question of calculating salary after expenses, found the car element threw them off. “It was a hard question,” said one sitter.

In The Open Tuition Instant Poll 19% called this exam a disaster, and another 34% just found it hard.

AAA

The March AAA sitting was described as “meaty and hard” by one sitter. Many PQs found this a very challenging paper. One called it ‘horrendous’.

Students panicked when they saw how much they had to read in Q1. Some PQs said that is why they answered Q3 and Q4 first. As one sitter explained: “Not a nice paper, ended up talking absolute rubbish in Q1 and Q2. ”

The Open Tuition Instant Poll shows this paper was a disaster for 29% of sitters, with another 44% finding it hard. Making it by far the most hated exam to date! Just one percent of sitters said they found the exam easy.

AFM

Not many sitters like the AFM exam this time around, and it was a ‘disastrous’ and

‘horrendous’ sitting for quite a few out there. Several PQs said they were seriously thinking of giving up on ACCA!

Some sitters admitted they simply ran out of time, so didn’t get to attempt the calculations in part C. Others resitting the exam felt it was

nothing they hadn’t seen before, but that didn’t make it any easier!

The Open Tuition Instant Poll saw 28% saying the exam was a disaster and a further 42% thought it was hard. Only 28% said it was OK.