Well, what did we think?
Overall I thought alot easier than MAY exam - so fingers crossed
Just trying remember the questions..
| Break even analysis |
| Learning curve & variances |
| Direct customer profitability |
| Quality costs-conformance/nonconformance |
| Budgets - budget slack |
| Pricing-penetration/skimming |
|
ROCE Transfer pricing any more?
|
Yep it was definately better than the May exam in terms of time and quantity. There was a lot on pricing this time which seemed ok. I managed to attempt nearly everything so hopefully I have just done enough this time.
Couldnt really say whether I have passed or failed, unlike May where I knew right away. But a fair exam in all. I thought the planning and operational variances/ learning curve was tricky. I havent done that right but again I HAD A GOOD GO!!
Cheers
I agree, I walked out todat thinking I've got a good chance unlike in May when I knew I'd flunked it!
I thought that the question on penetration/skimming for 25 marks seemed almost too straight forward, hope I haven’t missed anything. I was very happy with Quality Costs and Budgetry Slack q’s too.
My few concerns - Breakeven Analysis Revenue seemed very high, I hardly practised DCP but followed the ABC approach so fingers crossed and I couldn’t get the variance analysis right so maybe got the learning curve wrong.
In Q7 I did mess up by calculating the ratios for X and Y separately before realising it wanted the group analysed as a whole so had to almost redo. Also struggled to get a transfer price for X to Y too, ended up with $40 following some degree of logic!
So good bits and bad bits…hoping that I’ve just shaded it.
I came into this sitting much better prepared than the last, which makes all the difference.
I still found it extremely time pressured and didn't manage to always move on to the next question on time, so definitely missed a bunch of marks.
Key to the exams really is gaining proper in depth knowledge of all the syllabus, practice, practice and more practice with the questions in order to roll off the answer plans and techniques without pausing for breath. Then you still stand a chance allowing for not quite answering all the questions due to time running out.
The May exam, for me, appeared to mix up the syllabus areas more within questions and the scenarios seemed shorter this time, but that might not be true in actuality. However, as before it's very easy to misinterpret the requirements when under time pressure and I hope I haven't made those mistakes again..
It's Nil marks for answering a different question or not to the verb level required, no matter how 'cracking' we may have thought our scribblings were..
Fingers crossed enough of our answers today were close enough to requirements to gain the marks!
Best of luck to all
p.s. thought Q7 did want the ratios analysed for X and Y Ltd separately?
As far as I remember they wanted the ratios seperate for each Div, rather than in a group.
BE revenue at the beginning was a bit weird but wasnt too bad....
A lot of the paper was based on pricing which was good and the majority of the paper was more discursive rather than calculations so it makes it harder to judge how u have done on it.
I thought the hardest part of the paper was the question on setiing the transfer price for X and Y, 8 mark question.
The paper was again time consuming, but a better paper than the one in May.
The Customer profitability and learning curve questions were a bit tricky...
Any ideas if the answers are out before the results?
I have had a look and the paper is already on the website. I paniced as I also calculated the ratios seperatly, so checked this on the question paper.
I agree with the above post on the trasfer price question for 8 marks. I messed that question up, and will be lucky to get a mark or 2 for that question.
The only question I thought I got spot on (but now re-checking the paper) was the optimum price calc for 6 marks. I never took into account the hour constraint, but hoping to get 4/4.5 marks for the rest of the question.
I feel a little better in this sitting, but it could still go either way. Hoping to pass as I am currenly studying for my strategic level, as P2 is the last I need for managerial level.
Good Luck to all !
Well its funny the response to this exam compared to the May...
I still found that this was time pressured but the fact that the scenario in Q7.... this time was split with the question half way through the text allowed some semblence of order.
Learning curve... I found that the first batch budget should have taken 400 hrs... then it was 6 x 400 x 6^0.152 this gave a figure in hours that needed multiplying by $7.. the standard rate..
discursive self explanatory.
Break even analysis... bit weird... obviously its Fixed costs / wghted avg C/S ratio....
I got the wghted avg by expanding the individual ratios and dividing the total sales by this amount..... then dividing £300k by this ratio...
DCPA.... take the costs and split them out over the products percentage of total company costs... Factory Contribution??? assumed it was a figure to deduct new worked costs from. Something like 24/200= .12 x 50000 etc....
Quality costs... ok... but compare contrast... again straight forward but as Ive never seen these verbs before... how much info required???
All skim and Penetration as per May 2010.... amazing test with the optimal pricing incorporating limiting factor of labour.... I got the 1st 3 marks to be straight forward as even taking the labour into account is was divide by 1... but as per BOLD.... next step LIMITED.... WOW...loved and hated it cos I was in so much doubt. ..
TP question... ROCE etc... what was divisional target? how could we measure... what was age of assets... what was depreciation rates... why are we comparing different sectors... positives... all show a good margin.... ROCE is understood blah blah..
the 8 marks for TP... fixed costs are 40%... therefore V/C are 60%... contribution is $200k a lot... what about duel pricing ... keep all happy... group settle the issue...
many other bits to discuss too, but cant remember all I put....
also Breakeven....... please X was BEP??? wasn't it??? chart was poor as no costs... no individual product analysis... etc...
I also remember dysfunctional behaviour through slack... demotivated staff...poor decisions...spend to set limits .... no goal congruence...
Anyone else have anything similar??? I found the BOLDING of verbs unusual... obviously the examiner has had enough saying... ANSWER THE QUESTION.... I pray I have....
I felt the same as everybody - fairer paper but then i felt better prepared than i did in May! It could go either way for me so hoping i managed a pass!
Q1 - seemed ok, really hoping that was x=BEP?!? got a little confused on the C/S ratio calculation?
Q2 - again ok, totally forgot what Kaizen was though!
Q3 - DCP, i followed the ABC approach too
Q4 - budgetary slack, ok question
Q5 - I did 6 x 325^-01520 then multiplied this by 7, is this incorrect to use 325 and not 400?
Q6 - what selling price did everyone get for K....think i put $75 but worried this is incorrect now. Found it difficult to calculate selling price of L due to the limiting factor
Q7 - i calculated the ratios separately as it just said discuss the performance of each division of X and of Y. I didnt manage to get time to calculate a transfer price but hopefully that wont effect me too much!
All in all it was a fair paper but i was still very pressured for time
@Alexis...
Hi,
I guess you've used 1950 actual hours divided by 6 batches to arrive at what the first batch did take...
I went down the route of what the budget would have said.... 2400 hours / 6 batches and then calculated the expected time given the 90% learning rate and compared this to what actually occurred... ie 1950 hours...
I'm not sure now but hope whoever is correct method marks will be awarded.
As far as the contribution Q'n went I used Fixed Costs / Wghted Avg C/S ratio, which meant filling in what we were given and reworking the equation of Contribution/sales = ratio to sales x ratio = conribution. With all ABCDE contributions and sales figures an average could be calculated. (I did however in the heat of the moment divide sales by contribution.. not the other way round to form the ratio to divide fixed costs by)
The ABC approach is what I went with... but again in the heat of it didn't factor the Packs sold split... what did anyone else do with this?
I too got $75 as the best contributor... followed P=a-bx
100=150-0.05(1000),
but then realised that if you took product from part (i) at $75 the hours 1400 had been used and max available were 2000, we were consequently left with only 600 hours and L took 1.25 per unit = 480 units...per week..(didn't do anything about the stage lasting 20 weeks)
subbing this into the equation as x I think I did...
P = 150 - 0.05(480) = $126...
With Kaizen... I went with all about TQM... reduce costs etc...erradicate waste...
Goodluck anyhow... I've over analysed my paper now and have come crashing back down... but wait and see I guess!!!
I think this paper, although challenging, was the kind of test you would expect to see for this sylabus. It was sililar to the may paper in content but was a lot fairer in regards to time allocation and the scenario's were a lot more life like rather than ridiculous like may10.
This was more in line with previous papers and the only way it was harder than the old syllabus was the mark weight. ie moving from 20/30/50 to 50/50.
So well done CIMA for getting this sorted out and dont let it happen again please. At least I came out this exam thinking if Ive scored heavily in the easier areas it doesnt matter if ive not scored as well in the more difficult. I have a reasonable chance. If ive failed then fair enough Ill try again. I came out the exam in may10 in tears, lost all confidence and knew id be lucky to get 40 marks.
Ps did anyone notice how similar the papers were comapred to may? P1 and P2 were both 80% the same as may but with different watered down scenarios. You can safely say if you covered the may exam in detail in your revision then theres a very high chance of a pass here.
The ABC approach is what I went with... but again in the heat of it didn't factor the Packs sold split... what did anyone else do with this?
@Alexis...
Hi,
I guess you've used 1950 actual hours divided by 6 batches to arrive at what the first batch did take...
I went down the route of what the budget would have said.... 2400 hours / 6 batches and then calculated the expected time given the 90% learning rate and compared this to what actually occurred... ie 1950 hours...
I'm not sure now but hope whoever is correct method marks will be awarded.
As far as the contribution Q'n went I used Fixed Costs / Wghted Avg C/S ratio, which meant filling in what we were given and reworking the equation of Contribution/sales = ratio to sales x ratio = conribution. With all ABCDE contributions and sales figures an average could be calculated. (I did however in the heat of the moment divide sales by contribution.. not the other way round to form the ratio to divide fixed costs by)
The ABC approach is what I went with... but again in the heat of it didn't factor the Packs sold split... what did anyone else do with this?
I too got $75 as the best contributor... followed P=a-bx
100=150-0.05(1000),
but then realised that if you took product from part (i) at $75 the hours 1400 had been used and max available were 2000, we were consequently left with only 600 hours and L took 1.25 per unit = 480 units...per week..(didn't do anything about the stage lasting 20 weeks)
subbing this into the equation as x I think I did...
P = 150 - 0.05(480) = $126...
With Kaizen... I went with all about TQM... reduce costs etc...erradicate waste...
Goodluck anyhow... I've over analysed my paper now and have come crashing back down... but wait and see I guess!!!
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