ACCA exam feedback So

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? 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.”

Good exam technique is vital and one sitter said: “I spent too much time on Q1 –this might fail me.” What annoyed another was the fact that “the whole paper tested a tiny percentage of the syllabus and some questions were pretty repetitive. I wasted a lot of time learning the whole syllabus and not much of a range came up, which is all pretty disappointing”.

Strategic Business Leader (SBL) One sitter said the June test was “nothing like past papers”, so they didn’t think it was a fair test. Another agreed: “Tricky paper indeed, nowhere near past ones.” ‘Horrible exams’ was yet another description we received!

A sitter explained: “Not a great paper. Not many models that you could have used to format answers, which made it harder to structure answers.” They felt “the markers will have a great laugh correcting the dribble I wrote”.

Some sitters struggled using the exhibits to create enough discussion points too. As one said: “Don’t think I used a lot of the exhibit either, my answers were just pulling from general knowledge and trying to apply them to the scenario.”

Advanced Taxation (ATX) Although there was too little information provided for the requirements, the exam was deemed ‘okay’ and ‘fair’.

If you hadn’t revised for EIS relief you could have lost out, and the split year basis threw some too.

In the Open Tuition Instant Poll 40% agreed the exam was OK with 37% finding it hard and 18% a disaster.

One PQ even admitted there were some tricky bits and so much of the syllabus not tested, but overall they were very pleased. In fact, it went so well they were celebrating with a G&T!

Advanced Audit & Assurance (AAA) Described by sitters as ‘not bad’ and ‘that went OK’.

Time pressures still play a major role here, and many sitters admitted they couldn’t complete the exam. As one PQ said: “It’s so time pressured there’s no time to think about how to word anything clearly or quickly read back your answer to check if you are making sense. I just about finished my last sentence with 2 seconds to go.”

Some sitters were also thrown by the fraud question, which one PQ felt belonged in an AA exam.

Some students suffered from frozen screens. And, while some were able to rebook for the following Monday there were also stories of people who couldn’t! PQ magazine heard of at least one AAA (UK) sitter who couldn’t. That aside one said: “I’m still shaken after the experience.”

The Open Tuition Instant Poll had 30% saying this was a hard exam and another 16% found it a disaster.

Advanced Performance Management (APM) A third of those taking part in the Open Tuition Instant Poll found the June sitting hard, with another 18% calling it a disaster.

Overall, a nice paper, ventured one sitter, but they went on to admit they struggled with the balance scorecard question.

Time was again the real enemy for many. “I ran out of time and struggled to link the answer to the scenario.” One PQ felt “the exam had too much info to digest.” Another revealed they had spent two hours on the ABM question, and yet another did not even attempt Q2, sadly.

There were also complaints that the ACCA spreadsheet just isn’t as easy to use as excel. Advanced Financial Management (AFM) How was AFM? – well, lots of people found their 50-marker hard and time pressured. One sitter said: “I found it horrible, a couple of things came up that I’ve never seen before and I wasted so much time worrying about them that I could not finish the bits I did know.”

The Open Tuition Instant Poll confirms this one was OK to hard, rather than a disaster though. Let’s hope that’s reflected in the pass rates.