PQ ACCA exams
Your ACCA June exam feedback Here’s the feedback from the people who sat the exams – your fellow PQs! How did they go? Audit & Assurance (AA) Sitters seemed to like the June sitting, so it was all quiet on the AA front. As one said: “The exam was easy to me, the MCQs were regular brain tasking, elimination kinda questions, and the theory was picked across the exam kit.” Another felt all the ‘typical question types’ were there – risk and response, control deficiencies and recommendations, and substantive procedures. “I feel like I have passed already, but let’s wait and see.” There was a word of caution from one PQ: “Strangely everyone always found the exam easy, but the AA pass rate is always one of the lowest… wonder how!” These thoughts were picked up in the Open Tuition Instant Poll where some 60% said the exam was OK (60%), and just 6% called it a disaster. Taxation (TX) On the Open Tuition Instant Poll some one in five sitters said the June exam was a disaster for them. As one PQ said: “I felt confident going into the exam, but the examiner made it so hard. Really unfair and evil.” Another said they had gone over the BPP practice kit, but not a single June question looked like them! “So unfair.” Students found the wording confusing, particularly for the last 15-marker question. As one sitter said: “The 15-marker on corporation tax was rough, I have never seen a question like it and I found the capital allowances difficult. It felt really ambiguous, but hoping I gained some marks on the pro formas!” A sitter asked: “Who writes these questions?
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It’s either a super smart person or someone with a twisted sick mind. I am so angry!” Performance Management (PM) The June sitting was deemed ‘incredibly hard’ and even ‘vile’. As one sitter said: “The exam was awful, I just stared at some questions and thought WTF!” Another said: “PM today was so hard – hardest exam I’ve ever had.” A common theme of complaint is the fact that the actual exams are nothing remotely like the specimen or mocks. Some students have started to question the need to do mocks at all if they don’t relate to what they see in the exam room. We also heard of more IT system problems too: “My system broke down and I cried my eyes out.” While PQs still seemed surprised that there is more than one exam paper, the ones who got the linear programming question admitted they found it a challenge. Financial Reporting (FR) ‘Quite hard’ and ‘time pressured’ was the general consensus. There were some that also found it ‘relatively fine’ and ‘surprisingly OK’. That said, more time was wanted! “I wish I had 20 minutes more to go over every section A and B question,” explained one sitter. Another PQ said: “I felt that time just sucked away near the end, but maybe that was my own fault as I took too long with the presentation of answers on section C Q1.” Financial Management (FM) It seems section C was ‘nicer’ than what was
set before! Many admitted to struggling with sections A & B. As one PQ said: “Section C was decent and A & B were a bit wordy”. Others said the exam gods were kind. Another sitter wanted to know why Islamic finance hadn’t come up – they knew it so well! Overall, sitters thought this test was OK. Someone even ventured the June exam was ‘good’. Strategic Business Reporting (SBR) For students jumping on to the Open Tuition Instant Poll the SBR exam was a disaster for 31% and hard for another 40%. Just 26% felt the exam was OK. A PQ posted: “Brutal exam, I reckon I got 40 marks at best.”
PQ Magazine July 2022
