ACCA exam feedback

ACCA exam feedback

How were the September exams? Here is some of the feedback from those who sat them

AA

Students were in general agreement that Monday’s AA exam was ‘OK’. Some 69% pressed the OK button on the Open Tuition Instant Poll this time around. Just 7.6% felt the September exam was a disaster for them – that’s low! One sitter said: “It wasn’t an easy paper and I did not manage to finish the whole paper.” Another felt that while section A was a disaster, section B was much better.

AAA

One in five (19%) sitters told the Open Tuition Instant Poll that this sitting was a ‘disaster’ of an exam for them. Another 33% found it ‘hard’. As one sitter said: “It was a bloody horrible exam.” Time was an enemy too, and a student admitted they just wrote bullet points for some of their answers at the end. We also heard there were some technical issues for those sitting in Manchester in the morning. One sitter admitted they struggled to identify the ethical threats when writing about sustainability reporting. Many fellow PQs agreed. The problem with AAA is that even when people think they have done well, they look at the pass rates and become worried anyway!

TX

Most votes on the Open Tuition Instant Poll opted for the ‘OK’ button, some 53% in all. Just over one in four (27%) found the exam ‘hard’ and 12% had a ‘disaster’. As one sitter said: “I thought the exam was OK, but I feel that there were many areas that did not come up.” Time was also a pressure for some sitters. One wondered why it was necessary to put students under so much time pressure, when you get more time in the ‘real world’.

SBL

On the Open Tuition Instant Poll, just under a third (30%) of the votes went to ‘hard’ and 10.5% to ‘disaster’. This left just over half (53%) of sitters feeling the exam was OK, 6% even thought it was easy. One sitter was shocked they finished the paper. It was the first time they had ever done that, and with three whole minutes to spare. Other sitters struggled with the press release element in task 3 (about ethical issues on drivers, customer safety, compliance and data security). How do you show scepticism in a press release?

FR

Many sitters found this a hard exam, with too many calculations in section A. Another just called it a weird exam. This was a hard exam for 41% of those voting in the Open Tuition Instant Poll. Just under one in 10 said it was a ‘disaster’.

SBR

One of the tougher exams at this sitting, according to the Open Tuition Instant Poll. Some 20% said their exam was a ‘disaster’ and another 39% found it ‘hard’. Just 37% said the exam was OK. One sitter thought having a full 25-mark question on sustainability reporting wasn’t fair. A fellow sitter said: “A quarter of an exam question on a niche topic! I checked BPP, Kaplan Acowtancy, Open Tuition, and everywhere and this section is described very briefly.” Another student said they were fully prepared for a sustainability question, but that one wasn’t in their paper.

PM

Although the paper wasn’t hard it had a lot of obscure topics being tested, suggested one sitter. That said, in the Open Tuition Instant Poll some 55% of sitters said the exam was ‘OK’. Just 5% felt it had been a ‘disaster’.

ATX

An OK exam, although one sitter wasn’t sure if they had written enough. Time was also an enemy for some, and many sitters admitted their time management let them down. Some 14% of sitters clicked on the ‘disaster’ button in the Open Tuition Instant Poll. Another 38% said it was a ‘hard’ exam.

APM

The September sitting was a ‘disaster’ for one in 10 sitters, according to the Open Tuition Instant Poll. Another 29% felt it was a hard test. Quite a few students admitted they ran over time at the end. As one student said: “Interesting exam, vfm at the university, rewards plus calculations of controllable and not controllable variations, transfer pricing in overseas country, and the final one bsc compared with performance pyramid plus evaluation.”

FM

Quite a few sitters were shocked at this one! It was described as “too hard for me” and “part B was crazy”.

Another sitter just said: “WTF was that?” In the Open Tuition Instant Poll, some 36% called this a ‘hard’ exam, and another 13% voted it a ‘disaster’.

AFM

“Terribly difficult” and “tricky” is how the September AFM exam was variously described by sitters. Post-exam, many sitters said they felt deflated, “like crap” even! The stats bear this out. One in five (22%) of people voting in the Open Tuition Instant Poll said it was a ‘disaster’, with a further 41% saying the exam was ‘hard’. Just a third (33%) of sitters felt the exam was ‘OK’.