FAE September 2014

littlemiss123

So glad everyone else felt the same.

What absolute joke. I agree that there was nothing technically challenging about the paper, it was just down to sheer timing. Even with the narratives, some of the questions waffled on for ages with information that was of no use/benefit. I understand they are trying to get us to identify relevant and non-relevant information, but for some of the questions that we have approx 10 mins to answer, it took me 6 minutes to read the narrative.

Sometimes I feel like the institute do it for kicks to see us squirming and on the verge of a breakdown in an exam.

They'll be a strongly worded email from me anyway.

PhilipLuke

LOccitane wrote: »

Very disappointed with the exam today. No matter how much preparation was done, it was almost impossible to do well given the amount of information in the questions.

Not one question in the Toolkit on IFRS 8 and yet it presents as a full question in S2. Compared to last year, nothing was straight forward.

I wonder what percentage as such is required to get C.. Also; whether S2&3 are weighted more heavily than S1?

Hugely disappointing overall given the preparation for the exam. We can only hope with everyone finding it difficult that the marking scheme might reflect this.

Yeah hugely disappointed, I have a lot of work put into financial reporting and I know the basics of each standard very well. Every exam paper I did coming into the exam I did under the time allotted (even 2012 even though when I looked at the solutions I had made some silly mistakes), I couldnt in a million years have finished todays exam and I know my script wont do me justice. Chartered should really take a look at the examiner in the interests of fairness on students.

How can you have such a gulf in the level of exam difficulty year on year, its so amateur!!

cian twomey

very disappointed with the whole thing, no amount of preparation could have prepared you for that exam, after coming through cap 1 and cap 2 starting to wonder if its worth all the hassle

PhilipLuke

cian twomey wrote: »

very disappointed with the whole thing, no amount of preparation could have prepared you for that exam, after coming through cap 1 and cap 2 starting to wonder if its worth all the hassle

Same here, I came through Cap 1 and Cap 2. Kind of reminds me of the way I felt after the Cap 2 Financial Reporting assessment last year. That was a complete joke too, I only got two thirds of that completed in the time allotted. Thankfully I passed but it was like todays, not in any way appropriate to the time allotted!!

TheDoctor

Have to hope they are generous with the marks.

A RC wont be a disaster but will need to put extra work into PM to get the pass.

PhilipLuke

So did anyone on here feel they finished the paper? I left out the IFRS 8 question and carried on with the exam but ran out of time so didnt get to come back to it. And I had to rush through section 1 as I left it until last!

TheDoctor

I had one section 1 question half done left.

I left any of the section 1 I had in doubt as its either right or wrong so less likely to guess marks.

Put more effort into section 2 and 3 to try and pick up the marks

Dellboy2007

I felt underprepared going into the exam in terms of the amount of study I did, but having sat the exam now I know that it wouldn't have made any difference if I did another month of study. I feel bad for those who worked their arses off.

It looks like the grading will fall more in line with 2012 than 2013 which was (approx):

NC: 10%
RC: 50%
C: 30%
HC: 10%

For 2013, over 55% got Competent or above.

TheDoctor

Cant see it being a NC, got some stuff right.

Looks like a good old RC, would put money on it.

TheDoctor

Means more work in PM for the real exam so

PhilipLuke

TheDoctor wrote: »

Cant see it being a NC, got some stuff right.

Looks like a good old RC, would put money on it.

What a Joke, had I another half an hour I reckon I could have got 80% of that exam right

Dellboy2007

Didn't the board report for 2013 state that PM had been poor in that year. Looks like they are purposefully trying to bring up the standard of it. My issue is that they didn't increase the difficulty, they just increased the volume which is not a true reflection on someone's ability to produce correct journals.

cian twomey

PhilipLuke wrote: »

Same here, I came through Cap 1 and Cap 2. Kind of reminds me of the way I felt after the Cap 2 Financial Reporting assessment last year. That was a complete joke too, I only got two thirds of that completed in the time allotted. Thankfully I passed but it was like todays, not in any way appropriate to the time allotted!!

ya its the same rubbish this time around, is it really worth getting a qualification if that's the way its earned, I guess like cap 2 we will have to kick up a fuss with the institute and hope its marked a bit easier

TheDoctor

What happened with this Cap 2 assessment and what was the end result?

cian twomey

TheDoctor wrote: »

What happened with this Cap 2 assessment and what was the end result?

a bit like today the time allocation was terrible and the exam itself a bit of a joke, a lot of the lecturers, students and cassi complained to the institute about it and it seem to have been marked a lot easier, most people passed

PhilipLuke

Dellboy2007 wrote: »

Didn't the board report for 2013 state that PM had been poor in that year. Looks like they are purposefully trying to bring up the standard of it. My issue is that they didn't increase the difficulty, they just increased the volume which is not a true reflection on someone's ability to produce correct journals.

I agree, but by increasing the volume they increased the difficulty. They made it impossible to do well

PhilipLuke

cian twomey wrote: »

a bit like today the time allocation was terrible and the exam itself a bit of a joke, a lot of the lecturers, students and cassi complained to the institute about it and it seem to have been marked a lot easier, most people passed

We had three questions to do. Q1 was Ias 1 and the other two were basic consolidation and leases. The Q1 was an exam in itself, I think we had to produce a SPLOCI and SOFP and we had only an hour and a half for the whole exam. Most students got most of Q1 done and left it, rushed through the rest of exam to get some extra marks

I reckon a good percentage failed and they decided because there was such a high failure rate if you were in the 40 - 50% BRACKET you passed

TheDoctor

PhilipLuke wrote: »

We had three questions to do. Q1 was Ias 1 and the other two were basic consolidation and leases. The Q1 was an exam in itself, I think we had to produce a SPLOCI and SOFP and we had only an hour and a half for the whole exam. Most students got most of Q1 done and left it, rushed through the rest of exam to get some extra marks

I reckon a good percentage failed and they decided because there was such a high failure rate if you were in the 40 - 50% BRACKET you passed

Need the same again today

cian twomey

TheDoctor wrote: »

Need the same again today

write a fairly strongly worded email to the institute and cassi, they do take the cassi comments on board so it might help

sodabread

does anyone remember what answer they got section 1 question 1?

littlemiss123

Dellboy2007 wrote: »

Didn't the board report for 2013 state that PM had been poor in that year. Looks like they are purposefully trying to bring up the standard of it. My issue is that they didn't increase the difficulty, they just increased the volume which is not a true reflection on someone's ability to produce correct journals.

Completely agree. Had I had more time I would have aced that exam, it was not technically difficult. However, as I was under such pressure I'm fairly sure I made silly mistakes and I definitely didn't have time to write out all my workings. Best of luck to the examiner trying to read my script anyway!

Shorty11857

sodabread wrote: »

does anyone remember what answer they got section 1 question 1?

No adjustment, if I'm thinking of the right question

littlemiss123

sodabread wrote: »

does anyone remember what answer they got section 1 question 1?

Think I put no adjustment required. I had 3 minutes left at the end of the exam, read it fast did a quick calc and my figures were ballpark what they had so I just took a chance.

TheDoctor

I said no adjustment

Only one I said in the exam

Debs23

I adjusted for the deferred tax asset. I said that there no future profits so it cod not be recognised.

**** is that wrong

TheDoctor

I think it was that they werent expected to use the profits if they stayed seperate but not they are bought out

qwabercd

The joint operations question was tricky too. Thought I had it right, but I credited 300 from bank and debited 150 to receivables, should have just credited the 150 from bank. Messed up the cattle question too, put it as no adjustment as thought it was measured at fair value less cost to sell at point of harvest, mixed it up with produce.

So many bloody boxes in section 2. Didn't have a clue what to put in for the extra lines in related parties - most people seemed to put in prior year comparison. Was gonna do this but didn't!

Comparatively speaking section 3 wasn't too bad. There was a lot in the turbine question but think I got the guts of it right.

TheDoctor

The bloody ages in the cattle question bogged me down

Nothing to do with accounting

IR1SH RANG3R

With that joint operations one do you not completely derecognise the payable and just recognise 1100000 in Cost of sales?

TheDoctor

Couldnt get the joint operation question, guessed it in the end