pcr - does anyone else think this was a horrible exam!!

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  • fpettifer
    fpettifer Registered Posts: 40 Regular contributor ⭐
    connora wrote: »
    Ok, In section 1 was the idea to use all KeepKool basic hours and possible overtime for all 4 quarters to increase closing stock? which according to my scribble of an answer meant about 16 agency staff required in quarter 1 and 2 staff needed in quarter 4, if its right i'll die of shock :ohmy:

    oh goodie i got the same, we're in the same boat if we're wrong
  • Alison
    Alison Registered Posts: 7 New contributor 🐸
    wow i did even worst than i thought!!!! havent got a clue what every one is talking about!! I think i'm so nakered i was halph asleep in the exam and didnt read halph the question!!!:crying:
  • confused!!
    confused!! Registered Posts: 130 Dedicated contributor 🦉
    Think mie was something like 1864 but my friends was 1968 however i had Adverse and she had Favourable..... but not sure if i said Adverse by mistake maybe :thumbdown:
  • ChloeGee
    ChloeGee Registered Posts: 23 New contributor 🐸
    Feel a bit miffed. Think the additional information was a bit ambiguous, for task 1.2 when it said that there were no restrictions on closing stock, I took this to mean that there was in fact no closing stock required. As opposed to rescheduling to future periods.
    Usually (and this came up once in a past exam) if they want you to reschedule they specifically ask you to!!!!

    Maybe they think we are mind readers :):)
  • immense
    immense Registered Posts: 97 Regular contributor ⭐
    Is it me - or are all the posts in the wrong order??
  • ani-ari
    ani-ari Registered Posts: 15 New contributor 🐸
    Anyone total variance in section 2 was 1276 F ?
  • lorraine
    lorraine Registered Posts: 404 Dedicated contributor 🦉
    have thought that
  • lorraine
    lorraine Registered Posts: 404 Dedicated contributor 🦉
    looks famillar defo not far from that figure and and defo favourable
  • confused!!
    confused!! Registered Posts: 130 Dedicated contributor 🦉
    This has just been the week from hell!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  • fpettifer
    fpettifer Registered Posts: 40 Regular contributor ⭐
    i did 2 tables for that question as i didn't know which they wanted, 1st one showed closing stock being negative then did a 2nd one showing the limitation on the sales as you can't have a negative closing stock value. overall, you couldn't make q1 sales without agency staff or q4.
  • lorraine
    lorraine Registered Posts: 404 Dedicated contributor 🦉
    i put you couldnt mke q1 and q4 without agency staff
  • unknown87
    unknown87 Registered Posts: 4 New contributor 🐸
    ani-ari wrote: »
    Anyone total variance in section 2 was 1276 F ?

    Yes, i got exactly that figure
  • fpettifer
    fpettifer Registered Posts: 40 Regular contributor ⭐
    ani-ari wrote: »
    Anyone total variance in section 2 was 1276 F ?

    sounds about right. i remember the turnover difference was £1350 f then the cos was a small adverse amount
  • Ozzy
    Ozzy Registered Posts: 21 New contributor 🐸
    ...

    2.1 (somewhere)

    I had 12000 Hours or Units (sorry cant remember if was either)
    Then 5000 Units or Hours (sorry)

    Leaving a shortfall of

    17000 -
    21 x x x x
    ________
    Needing an addditional Agency Staff hours to Produce the rest to fulfill teh demand

    Calculating the cost of the original Agncy Staff Contribution the minusing it from
    The cost of the cost of the original Contribution @ £144000 £20 per hour

    Sorry this may not make sense:crying:
  • LANETTE DARNBROUGH
    LANETTE DARNBROUGH Registered Posts: 5 New contributor 🐸
    Pcr

    PCR - Mmmm well were do I start to express the anger and frustration I am now feeling having just gone through the PCR examination earlier today. I just cannot stop myself from bursting into floods of tears when I think how I have had to learn everything myself from revision because the tuition I have received, in my opinion, has not been to a very high standard



    Night after night I have had to spend my time going through past examination papers from 2003 to 2007 until my head was positively splitting and I am now sat here at work wondering – WHY?? WHAT WAS THE POINT??



    To sit and have to take this examination for a gruelling ‘three and a half hours’ when the 2008 PCR paper was a total sham and was unrelated to anything that the tutors had gone through with me and was unrelated to previous years papers. Because of this I found myself unable to understand what was being asked of me in Section 1 especially. How can I be expected to successfully complete this and under these given circumstances ??



    I would like someone to explain why we are advised to practise with past papers ‘to get a feel of the exam papers’ and then to be given a paper like that which was at great variance with the previous papers. Practise may well make perfect but only if you are batting on a level playing field and not up-hill.



    I hope you can feel from the above some of the anger and frustration I now feel.



    On Section 2 I felt marginally better with the questions although towards the end there were some questions that arose not covered in tuition and I cannot see any of these covered in my revision notes or pocket note.



    I have without a doubt failed this exam and feel this is not my fault but clearly down to the tuition, or lack of it, that |I have received. The thought of having to re- sit this examination again is not only making me feel ill but suicidal.



    :confused1:
  • AdamR
    AdamR Registered Posts: 668 Epic contributor 🐘
    ani-ari wrote: »
    Anyone total variance in section 2 was 1276 F ?

    Yep I got that too. Not sure about the rest though
  • rebeccas
    rebeccas Registered Posts: 25 Regular contributor ⭐
    Sonny_L wrote: »
    In the first task it was just 1-3, as you couldn't deduce a closing stock figure. By 1.2 you had additional data saying they were willing to be more flexible with stock levels in order to minimise agency costs which were huge.

    It sounds as though you had the same idea as me...thanks to the lack of clarity in the additional data I deduced from these statements
    "There is no restriction on closing stocks" and "storage space is not an issue" (or something along those lines) that during Q2 and Q3 when there was loads of idle time that would be best used to produce more stock for the next quarter (due to there being no restriction on closing stock or lack of storage) and thus reducing the burden on Q4 - thereby reducing the amount of agency staff required in Q4 from about 30-odd to about 3(?). However using this approach lead to a whole raft of extra calculations which the AAT doesnt normally ask for! Anyhow I based my report on this so hopefully the marker should see the logic of what I am getting at?!! After all why would you have your staff sitting around for half of Q2 & 3 doing nothing when they could be preparing for times ahead?!

    However, my friend had a totally different perspective to me based on the assumptions that she had made on those two quotes and her answer seems just as valid to me - albeit completely different!!

    I also had trouble understanding EXACTLY what they wanted out of the report - and English IS my first language!

    Really disappointed with this paper as I really thought I had this one sown up :thumbdown:
  • ChloeGee
    ChloeGee Registered Posts: 23 New contributor 🐸
    Ozzy wrote: »
    2.1 (somewhere)

    I had 12000 Hours or Units (sorry cant remember if was either)
    Then 5000 Units or Hours (sorry)

    Leaving a shortfall of

    17000 -
    21 x x x x
    ________
    Needing an addditional Agency Staff hours to Produce the rest to fulfill teh demand

    Calculating the cost of the original Agncy Staff Contribution the minusing it from
    The cost of the cost of the original Contribution @ £144000 £20 per hour

    Sorry this may not make sense:crying:

    My god .. what the hell is that?
  • rebeccas
    rebeccas Registered Posts: 25 Regular contributor ⭐
    fpettifer wrote: »
    oh goodie i got the same, we're in the same boat if we're wrong

    And me!
  • laurenw
    laurenw Registered Posts: 42 Regular contributor ⭐
    I cant actually remember what i wrote lol.

    In section 2, i had a favourable variance, this was due to the increase in selling price from £5 to £5.50.

    Section 1, i have really messed up the revised production & labour budget, but knew that as soon as i left the exam.

    Did anyone else find it was alot of writting, and the second memo i blagged my way through, what on earth is a 'Rollover budget'???
  • Alison
    Alison Registered Posts: 7 New contributor 🐸
    I feel exactly the same as you if its any comfort!!:001_unsure:
  • Dee S
    Dee S Registered Posts: 3 New contributor 🐸
    PCR today

    Guttered! thought I was well prepared, did not expect this at all. Yes, section 1, harder than any other paper I've ever attempted, horri....ble....... Who prepares these papers?
  • ChloeGee
    ChloeGee Registered Posts: 23 New contributor 🐸
    rebeccas wrote: »
    It sounds as though you had the same idea as me...thanks to the lack of clarity in the additional data I deduced from these statements
    "There is no restriction on closing stocks" and "storage space is not an issue" (or something along those lines) that during Q2 and Q3 when there was loads of idle time that would be best used to produce more stock for the next quarter (due to there being no restriction on closing stock or lack of storage) and thus reducing the burden on Q4 - thereby reducing the amount of agency staff required in Q4 from about 30-odd to about 3(?). However using this approach lead to a whole raft of extra calculations which the AAT doesnt normally ask for! Anyhow I based my report on this so hopefully the marker should see the logic of what I am getting at?!! After all why would you have your staff sitting around for half of Q2 & 3 doing nothing when they could be preparing for times ahead?!

    However, my friend had a totally different perspective to me based on the assumptions that she had made on those two quotes and her answer seems just as valid to me - albeit completely different!!

    I also had trouble understanding EXACTLY what they wanted out of the report - and English IS my first language!

    Really disappointed with this paper as I really thought I had this one sown up :thumbdown:


    I hope we both pass :thumbup1::001_smile::001_tongue::001_tt2:
  • welshwizard
    welshwizard Registered Posts: 465 Dedicated contributor 🦉
    Section 1 took me 2 hours

    Section 2 took me 20 minutes

    Is there something unbalanced about the paper or is it just me - am I unbalanced!

    Section 1.2 was the real big problem and it's funny how everyone says the same surely we all can't be wrong?

    Section 2 was really straightforward I was looking for extra quesitons.
  • Bens_princess
    Bens_princess Registered Posts: 11 New contributor 🐸
    What did everyone put for the different types of budgets?! I've never even heard of them before! I just wrote what i thought they sounded like!
  • connora
    connora Registered Posts: 4 New contributor 🐸
    Im amazed, glad to see i wasn't out there on my own wave~length! i didnt go on to write the report though as i ran out of time and had to attempt section 2, which in fairness wasn't too bad, apart from the "rolling budget question" which i have never heard of or seen in the book!
  • Bens_princess
    Bens_princess Registered Posts: 11 New contributor 🐸

    Section 2 was really straightforward I was looking for extra quesitons.


    I was exactly the same! I kept turning over thinking there must be another page of questions.
  • ChloeGee
    ChloeGee Registered Posts: 23 New contributor 🐸
    connora wrote: »
    Im amazed, glad to see i wasn't out there on my own wave~length! i didnt go on to write the report though as i ran out of time and had to attempt section 2, which in fairness wasn't too bad, apart from the "rolling budget question" which i have never heard of or seen in the book!


    I'd never heard of a rolling budget either, definitely nothing in my study or pocket notes. I guessed at it ..... wrongly.
  • rebeccas
    rebeccas Registered Posts: 25 Regular contributor ⭐
    PCR - Mmmm well were do I start to express the anger and frustration I am now feeling having just gone through the PCR examination earlier today. I just cannot stop myself from bursting into floods of tears when I think how I have had to learn everything myself from revision because the tuition I have received, in my opinion, has not been to a very high standard



    Night after night I have had to spend my time going through past examination papers from 2003 to 2007 until my head was positively splitting and I am now sat here at work wondering – WHY?? WHAT WAS THE POINT??



    To sit and have to take this examination for a gruelling ‘three and a half hours’ when the 2008 PCR paper was a total sham and was unrelated to anything that the tutors had gone through with me and was unrelated to previous years papers. Because of this I found myself unable to understand what was being asked of me in Section 1 especially. How can I be expected to successfully complete this and under these given circumstances ??



    I would like someone to explain why we are advised to practise with past papers ‘to get a feel of the exam papers’ and then to be given a paper like that which was at great variance with the previous papers. Practise may well make perfect but only if you are batting on a level playing field and not up-hill.



    I hope you can feel from the above some of the anger and frustration I now feel.



    On Section 2 I felt marginally better with the questions although towards the end there were some questions that arose not covered in tuition and I cannot see any of these covered in my revision notes or pocket note.



    I have without a doubt failed this exam and feel this is not my fault but clearly down to the tuition, or lack of it, that |I have received. The thought of having to re- sit this examination again is not only making me feel ill but suicidal.



    :confused1:

    DONT let it get you down! By the sounds of it many people struggled this will definitely be taken into account. Fill out the feedback form and let the AAT knw how you feel about the paper (as should everyone so the examiner gets a true account of the general perception of the paper). I felt as though I could do all of the past papers with my eyes closed, yet got completely different answers to other people. (Section 1 especially) However as long as you tried to base your report around what your calculations were you will gain credit for it.

    I feel angry and cheated as well, but DO NOT let it get you down or make you feel suicidal - for want of a better phrase - it really isnt worth it. If you fail, its not the end of the world - I know its not nice and it feels awful, but you can re-sit it again. It feels horrible initially, but thats what life is about - we pick ourselves up by our shoelaces and carry on. DONT feel bad and DONT give up!

    Hope you are ok
  • welshwizard
    welshwizard Registered Posts: 465 Dedicated contributor 🦉
    I did have the final laugh though ..... I signed my email "A. Student, Accounting Technician (I hope)"! Maybe my cheek/sense of humour will win over the examiner!
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