FAE APM Elective 2014

passwo

exactly. i found it a strange request.

Also thought a lot of what he/she wrote was very difficult to read.. bit ironic

Accountant81

myshirt wrote: »

Not weird to do it, but totally unwarranted that they ask for them. What purpose can it serve for them?

They want us to actually write beside each indicator the amount of time we have allocated to it? That is mental. And I don't understand how it will help them. Very strange. What does it matter to them?

myshirt

Accountant81 wrote: »

They want us to actually write beside each indicator the amount of time we have allocated to it? That is mental. And I don't understand how it will help them. Very strange. What does it matter to them?

Exactly.

I paused for a moment and thought is he just making a sensible suggestion. No. He's not. He wants the timings wrote down.

I'll let everyone to their own view, but I have a very strong view on why they're doing it.

In any event, what I will say is they definitely read and engaged with my solution in giving feedback and I appreciate it. Compares quite favourably to the level of feedback in Core.

Accountant81

myshirt wrote: »

Exactly.

I paused for a moment and thought is he just making a sensible suggestion. No. He's not. He wants the timings wrote down.

I'll let everyone to their own view, but I have a very strong view on why they're doing it.

In any event, what I will say is they definitely read and engaged with my solution in giving feedback and I appreciate it. Compares quite favourably to the level of feedback in Core.

I must be totally naive as I can't think why they would want us to do that.

Yes, I found the level of feedback to be very very detailed. I read the elective script first so thought that would be standard. When I saw the core I thought a page must've fallen out or something, there was that little feedback! It must be Joe Healy that corrected them.

laser08

I couldn't read any of the comments. The handwriting of the corrector was awful.

laser08

Nermal wrote: »

Anyone done the Steps case MINERAL yet and care to weigh in on this: I think the solution is assuming tax charged on sales, rather than profit, which seems odd to me but might be standard in oil & gas.

Yeah I was thinking the same. It says tax will be charged on profits but they include it In the break even calculation. Surely there is no tax when you are just breaking even and not making a profit

Nermal

laser08 wrote: »

Yeah I was thinking the same. It says tax will be charged on profits but they include it In the break even calculation. Surely there is no tax when you are just breaking even and not making a profit

It's not uncommon in oil & gas as far as I know for gov to charge % on revenue but it would definitely be called a royalty, not tax. And as you say, refers to profit elsewhere...

Philip1988

Hi all,

Still have not started studying apm and can't see where I will find time as I am caught up with the Core.

Anybody any advice on what's best to do?

zathan

Best plan at this stage is to just do cases, cases and more cases & some questions in the book maybe.

I have a work in progress (FOR BACK UP & LAST RESORT!!) index to the cases and questions that I will post when I've got it substantially done - plan is to have it in alphabetical order A-Z so if an indicator in "Market Entry" comes up, just go to "M" and all the relevant past cases will be there etc. I had something very similar for CAP 2 and worked a treat - but case technique and timing needs to be practiced in advance - still LOADS of time and I guarantee the afternoon after the Sims paper and the morning before the Elective exam will probably be when you will learn loads by just skimming past solutions etc.

You learn a lot just by doing the cases and if you're conscious that you need to focus on core instead, bear in mind that APM covers performance measurement - which you need "Competent" in the core so it's a win win to study the elective!

Timing wise, I would say take the first 30 mins to try and read the cases quickly. Then take 10 mins per case to read again and 10 mins per case to plan well (you will find you won't even use that amount of time), but something I have been finding is if you take the time recommended for each case, subtract 10 mins for reading, 10 for planning and divide by 20 mins (i.e. 20 mins per indicator) you get a fairly accurate answer for how many indicators there are! So if the case is 80mins, take off 10 for reading, 10 for planning, leaves 70, divide by 20 and you get 3 - generally means 3 indicators! Has work 95% of the time for me!

Gunners100

Nermal wrote: »

Anyone done the Steps case MINERAL yet and care to weigh in on this: I think the solution is assuming tax charged on sales, rather than profit, which seems odd to me but might be standard in oil & gas.

The solution is working out how much profit has to be earned after tax to break even on the set up costs of $262m - not break even on sales.
Set up costs at $262m and a tax rate of 50% mean that $524m profit needs to be earned over 5 years or $105 p.a.
Variable costs of $450m p.a and profit of $105m p.a mean $555m revenue has to be earned each year.
$555m/6.375m units give a selling price of $87 per barrel.

Excessively difficult question in my opinion.

FAE_APM

Hi guys - repeat offender back for another bashing with this exam.

As if I was not already aggrieved enough, with only 3 weeks to go, I decided to check the "Rules of Engagement". Seems to be some significant changes in the 13/14 Competency Statement compared to my 12/13 one...not good.

Can any kind soul put up the 13/14 Planning & Delivery Schedule for me? I think here will be some over lap on some class notes but if anyone is able to post the notes from the student centre that would be great. Alternatively if anyone can post wee Joes email (assuming he took the class the year).

Any assistance is much appreciated. I will try reward the helper

iwishihadaname

FAE_APM wrote: »

Hi guys - repeat offender back for another bashing with this exam.

As if I was not already aggrieved enough, with only 3 weeks to go, I decided to check the "Rules of Engagement". Seems to be some significant changes in the 13/14 Competency Statement compared to my 12/13 one...not good.

Can any kind soul put up the 13/14 Planning & Delivery Schedule for me? I think here will be some over lap on some class notes but if anyone is able to post the notes from the student centre that would be great. Alternatively if anyone can post wee Joes email (assuming he took the class the year).

Any assistance is much appreciated. I will try reward the helper

I remember the lecturer saying there's not much change in what is examinable, only now there's more emphasis on Ireland as a business location?

FAE_APM

iwishihadaname wrote: »

I remember the lecturer saying there's not much change in what is examinable, only now there's more emphasis on Ireland as a business location?

I hope so. I did see there was basically a whole new topic on Ireland as a biz location. There is few other additions also. Can't believe they did not dish out new books this year for the new syllabus. Institute is a joke sometimes. The green book is basically written specifically for the old syllabus.

swoggle

Are people finding the APM book useful? I've only done a few past papers and haven't looked at the book..

passwo

Hi All,

Can someone let me know how you attach a document to this thread?

Also, not sure if people have tried this question, but if you have - the Mock 2013 Sim 2 paper Dungaree PLC. I may be overthinking it, but cannot seem to figure out how the following figures in the solution were calculated

- Appendix 1
Projected asset per Share ii) The ordinary shares of 50p £5,700,00?

- Indicator 1
(i) Using internal cash resources option - the quick ratio of 0.90?
(ii) London bank loan - how could it result in a decrease in EPS of 00.13p?

DaUmpire

Guys looking a bit of help with the Douglas Glass limited case.

In the NPV calculation they have net cash inflows of 800BRL in years 1-5 but per the text I thought the pre tax net cash inflows were 108BRL?? also when calculating the tax for years 2-6 they have deducted the depreciation from the net cash flows as per the case depreciation is an allowable tax deduction however if it wasn't an allowable tax deduction is it just a cash of taxing the net cash flows? i.e the is no need to add the depreciation back on top of the net cash flows.

thanks

myshirt

How did people get on with Global?

Struggled to get it done in 80 minutes... please tell me someone else also did.. good case though..

Reddzer2002

myshirt wrote: »

How did people get on with Global?

Struggled to get it done in 80 minutes... please tell me someone else also did.. good case though..

Where is this case?

myshirt

On my phone now, but I got it from the student portal.

passwo

DaUmpire wrote: »

Guys looking a bit of help with the Douglas Glass limited case.

In the NPV calculation they have net cash inflows of 800BRL in years 1-5 but per the text I thought the pre tax net cash inflows were 108BRL?? also when calculating the tax for years 2-6 they have deducted the depreciation from the net cash flows as per the case depreciation is an allowable tax deduction however if it wasn't an allowable tax deduction is it just a cash of taxing the net cash flows? i.e the is no need to add the depreciation back on top of the net cash flows.

thanks

Just doing this question now, presume the 108 in the question should read 800BRL.
And ya, I think if depreciation wasn't an allowable deduction, u would just tax the 800

myshirt

Lads, did anyone get Mineral Plc done in 100 minutes?

Seriously, I worked at lightening pace and not a hope. 140 minutes.

Reddzer2002

Very worried about APM. Does anyone have any notes for it apart from the word document posted from last years thread?

Really desperate

myshirt

Reddzer2002 wrote: »

Very worried about APM. Does anyone have any notes for it apart from the word document posted from last years thread?

Really desperate

Me also. Wish I done the CGS course.

On the issue of notes, your answer is in the case study, not in your notes. That's my view on this one.

And with timing such a killer, may aswell bring no notes (unless you want to prop up a wobbly desk)

Mark1916

Guys see notes that helped me last year!

Mark1916

And some more

Mark1916

Lastly...

Mark1916

Finally...

NoChance14

Anyone have the cgs notes?

DaUmpire

Could someone explain how the funding costs of £133 and £72 are calculated in last years paper sims 3. I can see the net cash flows but cant get from them using the 6% to the £133 and £72.

heretothere

Anyone doing APM this year? I haven't gone near it yet. It's so hard to take time away from core when there is soooo much to it.