pcr - does anyone else think this was a horrible exam!!
Comments
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I'm sorry if I come across as arrogant. I just get tired of people moaning about exams/examiners. They don't write papers to make people fail. They write papers that are designed to test you. OK, the situation in task 1.2 of today's PCR and the question's you had to answer were a lot different to what normally comes up, but I don't think it was completely unclear as to what you were being asked to do. Maybe I just found it that way because most of what I cover in AAT I find I pick up quite quickly, which is of course very fortunate for myself. I'll try and reserve my comments in the future.
Could you let me know how you interpretated 1.2?
i interpretated that as there was no restriction on closing stock or storage space that labour hours should be used in Q2 and Q3 to produce the units that were required for that quarter and then with the idle hours that were left over they should produce units for the next quarter. On this basis the amount of agency staff that was required for Q4 was greatly reduced as there was already a large opening stock from Q3 (made using the idle time).
Is that how you interpretated it?
Hope all that makes sense!0 -
I thought this paper was a lot harder than any we've seen in the past.
For a start the faulty production was 1 in 200. We've always been given this as a percentage. Threw me for a bit. did anyone else work it out as .5% ?
Question 1.2 was a real mind boggler. I left it and went back later.
I decided that with hrs available 10,000 units could be made by production staff with 50 being faulty. 3000 hrs were available for overtime.
I took the possible production off the forecast sales to decide the shortfall/surplus. Decided we needed 7 extra agency staff in qt1 and 1 in Qt4.
What a nightmare. Ran out of time and didn't do 1.3. Got some huge figure for the cost of labour but can't remember what it was.
Feel a bit cheated as I've worked like a trojan for these exams.0 -
Hi all - Horrible horrible paper. Think AAT will have to lower pass mark. Just thought I would share a couple of answers I got that I can remember. Task 1, I got 7 agency workers for q1 and 1 agency worker for q4. Alot of q4's 20,400 sales were made up of q2 and q3's buffer stock right ?
Who got around 14 million for the cost of production when first worked out in 1.1 ??
Section 2 I got the variance of operating profit at around 163 favourable I believe. £550,000 fixed costs using lower method for power, and £0.63 per unit variable for power.
Just thought I would share
Still think I have failed though.
Hi Don
All those numbers from the 2nd section look familar so thats good!! apart from the operating figure i got something like £1863 variance.....must have gone wrong somewhere!0 -
Could you let me know how you interpretated 1.2?
i interpretated that as there was no restriction on closing stock or storage space that labour hours should be used in Q2 and Q3 to produce the units that were required for that quarter and then with the idle hours that were left over they should produce units for the next quarter. On this basis the amount of agency staff that was required for Q4 was greatly reduced as there was already a large opening stock from Q3 (made using the idle time).
Is that how you interpretated it?
Hope all that makes sense!
That is exactly what I did.0 -
I've spent the last 1/2 hour trawling through this forum!!! I agree with everyone RE 1.2.
Nobody has mentioned the 1 in 200 are faulty so i'm wandering if it's only me that was unsure on this! I inititially calculated it as 0.5% faulty production but then doubted it and went back and recalculated 10,000 / 200 = 50 faulty units therfore prodcution would be 10,050? (might be wrong figures but this was my idea)!:blushing:
What did others do?
Also - I'm frustrated about the 16 agency staff (which is what i got for Q1). I read it that only 15 agency staff were available so it meant production could not meet sales demand (also as a a result of staff overtime being reduced to 120 hrs per employee). I then calculated labour based on maximum production with 15 agency! Still i made a point in the report of saying we could meet production had we been allowed 16 agency staff!! Oh Well, think i will only get marked down once and hopefully not on the labour cost.
Thought Section 2 was fine. Apart from the obvious 'rolling budget'!! I thought the stepped costs were cheeky but worked it out in the end!
I feel very similar as when i came out of PEV and I passed that so can only keep fingers crossed and hope the examiners take all this into consideration.0 -
Also - I'm frustrated about the 16 agency staff (which is what i got for Q1). I read it that only 15 agency staff were available so it meant production could not meet sales demand (also as a a result of staff overtime being reduced to 120 hrs per employee). I then calculated labour based on maximum production with 15 agency! .
I did the same again my friend, changed it from 16 and 3 to 15 and 2! i thought 15 must be the max so rounded down my answer ( or both answers). Why?? I do not know........
oh well.0 -
I've spent the last 1/2 hour trawling through this forum!!! I agree with everyone RE 1.2.
Nobody has mentioned the 1 in 200 are faulty so i'm wandering if it's only me that was unsure on this! I inititially calculated it as 0.5% faulty production but then doubted it and went back and recalculated 10,000 / 200 = 50 faulty units therfore prodcution would be 10,050? (might be wrong figures but this was my idea)!:blushing:
What did others do?
Also - I'm frustrated about the 16 agency staff (which is what i got for Q1). I read it that only 15 agency staff were available so it meant production could not meet sales demand (also as a a result of staff overtime being reduced to 120 hrs per employee). I then calculated labour based on maximum production with 15 agency! Still i made a point in the report of saying we could meet production had we been allowed 16 agency staff!! Oh Well, think i will only get marked down once and hopefully not on the labour cost.
Thought Section 2 was fine. Apart from the obvious 'rolling budget'!! I thought the stepped costs were cheeky but worked it out in the end!
I feel very similar as when i came out of PEV and I passed that so can only keep fingers crossed and hope the examiners take all this into consideration.
Hi there
10,050 sounds familiar - but you could have absorbed that with the initial opening stock - I think I got the actual production in the revised budget as 15,000; 10,000; 10,000; 10,000.
I thought the wording was bad on the Agency Staff bit but I worked out something like 15.625 rounded to 16 and I got that figure by working it against the production and labour so I decided that worked for me.0 -
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:
I think that's what I did. Well I gave them options - hire 2 more employees which would completely take care of Q4 but would still need 13 agency people in Q1, or 16 agency people in Q1 and I can't remember Q4 now... aghh.
This was the worst exam I have ever taken. I thought it would be when I was preparing for it yesterday thought. there is only a couple of things in it but if you don't get what they want, then you will not get the same answer as they want. And I think today's paper was one of the worst ones of PCR I've seen (comparing to past papers).
I'm scared I've failed too but I really don't want to. I have answered every question they had I think but no idea if correctly :001_unsure:0 -
...and another thing...
...that really annoyed me was that there was just so much data!
I know it shouldnt matter whether you are working something out for 2 periods or 102 periods (just means doing more of the same!) BUT in this task we had...
Four quarters
Three types of material
Three types of labour (standard, overtime and agency)
Three labour rates (£12, £18 and £20)
It just annoyed me that there was so much to deal with...that on its own wasnt a problem...just took three/four times as long due to having to do three/four times the amount of calculations lol...THEN they decide to really spice things up a bit...introducing ... Task 1.2!! = Brain overload!!!!!!!
Rant over
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Compared to Monday's PEV exam I felt today's PCR was a better exam. I still had problems deciphering what was wanted by the examiner but took on board what both my tutor's had said - which is - to break it down into little bits and deal with it that way.
I seem to have arrived at various answers posted by different posters - and did get my flexed report to balance even if my answers were not the same as everyone else's. Hopefully my understanding(!!) of what would be expected of me will be interpreted as such by the examiner.
But that said - I have to say that my tutors did try and prepare my class for all eventualities - but I bet they never even saw today's paper coming!! :confused1:
Swampy0 -
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:
yep I agree with you. I had the company employees work full time and full overtime in Q2 and Q3 to make up stock and because it said no restrictions to stock I completely ignored it when re-calculating the figures. I think I would have gone into meltdown if I would have started to figure out how many people are needed to get appropriate closing stock as well. But I did try to go through it all in report as you did.0 -
I 110% agree with all coocoocadgoo's, Confused's and Loulou143's comments. I thought it was just me being sensitive on Monday but glad to see i wasn't!!! xx0
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I've spent the last 1/2 hour trawling through this forum!!! I agree with everyone RE 1.2.
Nobody has mentioned the 1 in 200 are faulty so i'm wandering if it's only me that was unsure on this! I inititially calculated it as 0.5% faulty production but then doubted it and went back and recalculated 10,000 / 200 = 50 faulty units therfore prodcution would be 10,050? (might be wrong figures but this was my idea)!:blushing:
What did others do?
No I think you were supposed to include the faulty in the production. So the max you could produce was 10,000 incl faulty. So therefore your clean production was 9050. And go from there...0 -
I've spent the last 1/2 hour trawling through this forum!!! I agree with everyone RE 1.2.
Nobody has mentioned the 1 in 200 are faulty so i'm wandering if it's only me that was unsure on this! I inititially calculated it as 0.5% faulty production but then doubted it and went back and recalculated 10,000 / 200 = 50 faulty units therfore prodcution would be 10,050? (might be wrong figures but this was my idea)!:blushing:
What did others do?
No I think you were supposed to include the faulty in the production. So the max you could produce was 10,000 incl faulty. So therefore your clean production was 9050. And go from there...
Cant remember the numbers now (!) but I workd it out as follows
(Hypotherical numbers)
Q1 Forecast: 10,000 units
Add 2% increase in sales forecast: 200 units
GOOD PRODUCTION: 10,200 units
Add faulty production: 51.26 (rounded up to 52)
TOTAL PRODUCTION REQ'D: 10,252 units
Faulty production calculated as: 1 in 200 = 0.5% so 10,200/99.5 x 0.5
Not sure that is right though!0 -
it said the company pay the staff £20 through the agency.
I thought agencies charged a figure to the company and it was none of the companies business what the agencies paid there staff?
Just a minor issue... im not sure if looking at all these different answrs helps if you have different to them.
i just ignored closing stock when calculating the revised productin budget and i didnt reallocate the over stock figure from 1 into 2 and 3. i got a total off 12 staff in qtr 1 and 11 in qtr 4. 33 in total...0 -
were fixed overheads supposed to be charged to the total production cost?? wasn't clear whether they were fixed PRODUCTION overheads or other fixed overheads! did the production o/hs x labour hours then added the fixed as well but not at all sure!
never heard of rolling budgets!
x
I did as you Phoebe - put down the overheads o/hs + fixed. Only way it made sense to me.
To help you out though... ROLLING BUDGET = a budget that is consantly updated to cover the next month period
For example if the budget is set on a quarterly basis for the next year then the January to March budget would be set in detail whilst the budget for the period from April to December would be in less detail. At the end of March the detailed budget would be created for April to June and an additional outline budget for January to March of the following year would be added in.0 -
What a week from hell.
Even if the AAT allowed me to come home and re-read the textbook from start to finish, I still couldn't go in and answer the exam any differently in 3 hours 15 minutes! I went well over the advised 100 minutes for section 1 and started to panic thinking, "I need to get on to section 2 and at least pass half of the paper!" :crying:
I am so glad that we are all in the same boat, but to be honest I think I'm praying for a miracle to pass. I struggled with PEV and PCR so I am bracing myself to fall at the last hurdle on both of them :crying:
Not good ppl, not good xx0 -
Yes I agree. There was far too much in section 1 to deal with in the time allowed....that really annoyed me was that there was just so much data!
I know it shouldnt matter whether you are working something out for 2 periods or 102 periods (just means doing more of the same!) BUT in this task we had...
Four quarters
Three types of material
Three types of labour (standard, overtime and agency)
Three labour rates (£12, £18 and £20)
It just annoyed me that there was so much to deal with...that on its own wasnt a problem...just took three/four times as long due to having to do three/four times the amount of calculations lol...THEN they decide to really spice things up a bit...introducing ... Task 1.2!! = Brain overload!!!!!!!
Rant over
At least section 2 was not too bad, but unfortunately we have to pass both sections.
Feel sorry for the markers. I bet not many of us have got the 'model'answers. The marker will have to calulate each question individaully. Make 'em work for their money !!!0 -
I'm sorry if I come across as arrogant. I just get tired of people moaning about exams/examiners. They don't write papers to make people fail. They write papers that are designed to test you. OK, the situation in task 1.2 of today's PCR and the question's you had to answer were a lot different to what normally comes up, but I don't think it was completely unclear as to what you were being asked to do. Maybe I just found it that way because most of what I cover in AAT I find I pick up quite quickly, which is of course very fortunate for myself. I'll try and reserve my comments in the future.
Hi Mehmet, I am sorry or being so hard on you. I too have found most of the AAT relatively easy, except for MAC in Dec 07, but that is just because I am a bit of a swot. You are right though, the examiners are just trying to test our knowledge and understanding. I do think though, that sometimes they enjoy torturing us. But in my heart of hearts I do hope you do well in your exams.
:thumbup:
Speegs (I feel really bad now. Poor old Mehmet really bore my brunt):blushing:0 -
I bet mine is not a 'model answer' I got bits of 1.2b all over the bloody paper as I thought of them!0
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Mehmet
As far as I can see Mehmet is an arrogant self proclaimed ignorant idiot :mad2:obviously he thinks he's to good for the AAT and I think maybe he may have a little shock in a few weeks time!!!
I think we all feel the same guys section one was horrible and didnt comply with the past paper we have all been studying.
Im sure AAT will make allowances for this and good luck to everyone!
Im sure we will all be fine! :thumbup1::thumbup: 0 -
How can anyone defend the examiners!!! We've been given a paper that is difficult to read never mind complete!!! I wouldn't have an argument if the questions themselves were relatively complex, thats what were being tested on - however if we've all had difficulty in actually understanding what were being asked to do there obviously a problem. Same with PEV on Monday, those two papers bore NO resemblence to any previous paper.
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As far as I can see Mehmet is an arrogant self proclaimed ignorant idiot obviously he thinks he's to good for the AAT and I think maybe he may have a little shock in a few weeks time!!!
Well said, do one Mehmet go and get your AAT tie and coat of arms0 -
Hi guys.
I understand how you feel, having sat MAC in December 2007 which had an error in the questions. I would seriously suggest that you all tell the AAT exactly what you think by email. If you don;t tell them that I paper was poorly written they won't correct their mistakes in future. I know this doesn't help you right now, but we you need to keep on at them.
On the bright side, if everyone does poorly in the exam, the AAT will usually lower the pass mark. This is because the AAT don't want people to think that they (the AAT) are crap. The AAT will never reveal their pass marks but they do reveal pass levels and they will want them to look good.
Also remember that at technician level, the student's own figure rule rocks! THis means that if you get the first number wrong but them treat it correctly going forward you are unlikely to fail (according to my tutor).
Good luck to you all anyway, but I think you will all be plesantly surprised come results time. I did MAC in Dec 07 and was 100% sure I had failed and even cried like a baby in and after the exam because I was so upset by it. Well, I felt like a right fool when the email dropped in my tray saying I had passed. I couldn't believe. I even told my mum I failed just to wind her up for bit, but I couldn't keep up the pretence and when I got home holding a bottle Moet she knew I was kidding her and nearly decked me.
Speegs0 -
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AshSimcock wrote: »it said the company pay the staff £20 through the agency.
I thought agencies charged a figure to the company and it was none of the companies business what the agencies paid there staff?
Just a minor issue... im not sure if looking at all these different answrs helps if you have different to them.
i just ignored closing stock when calculating the revised productin budget and i didnt reallocate the over stock figure from 1 into 2 and 3. i got a total off 12 staff in qtr 1 and 11 in qtr 4. 33 in total...
Yey finally someone who did the same as me! I think I misinterpreted the "no restriction on closing stock" and just presumed that this meant there was no need to keep buffer stock within the company. Therefore my revised budget had 0 closing stock units.
Ended up with 16 staff in Q1 and 33 in Q4 I think!0 -
Speegs makes a good point. In theory you could introduce totally new figures at the beginning of your calculations (instead of their data) and then process eveything correctly and you should pass because of the 'Own Figure' Rule!
I wouldn't like to test the theory though (although maybe I should have today).0 -
It might seem that I am going to go against the grain on this but this exam didn't as some have suggested contain a completely new question. It is a Limited Factor question which has in fact been tested twice before (can't quote the exact paper years as I threw away the papers I had printed 1/2 an hour before entering the exam room - figured if I didn't know it then I never would). Please dont think I am a know it all as I really am not - have a fail to my name in the form of Personal Tax but I do think that we need to be honest about this! The only reason we think we haven't seen it before is because of the way AAT word things, basically the underlying formulas remain. God I know I will probably get a mini attack for saying this, but like I say I am not brain box of Britian.0
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vickybrown31 wrote: »It might seem that I am going to go against the grain on this but this exam didn't as some have suggested contain a completely new question. It is a Limited Factor question which has in fact been tested twice before (can't quote the exact paper years as I threw away the papers I had printed 1/2 an hour before entering the exam room - figured if I didn't know it then I never would). Please dont think I am a know it all as I really am not - have a fail to my name in the form of Personal Tax but I do think that we need to be honest about this! The only reason we think we haven't seen it before is because of the way AAT word things, basically the underlying formulas remain. God I know I will probably get a mini attack for saying this, but like I say I am not brain box of Britian.
Hey Vicky, don't think anyone is denying that this wasn't in our syllabus (well perhaps not the rolling budget terminology) but unlike past PCR papers, there were several ambiguous statements and it depended on everyone's individual interpretation as to how to go about calculating the scarce resource.
I think that was the main problem, coupled with the fact that we got handed a shed load more quantitative information than past papers.
As someone mentioned earlier PCR and PEV are not meant to be time pressured but considering nearly everyone used the whole time available (and needed more), I don't think the guidance notes were reflective of the standard of the paper...
I'm just MIFFED!!! :001_unsure:
PCR was meant to be in the bag lol. Oh well let's hope PTC tomorrow isn't a cracker either!0 -
Hi Chloe, good luck with the Personal Tax tomorrow! Fingers crossed that it is a nice straight forward paper for you all - god knows you deserve a break after PEV & PCR! I decided to resit in Dec, I really struggled with ECR last year and what with PEV & PCR being a follow on from that figured it was probably best not to add to the pressure with a resit. Once again good luck0
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vickybrown31 wrote: »Hi Chloe, good luck with the Personal Tax tomorrow! Fingers crossed that it is a nice straight forward paper for you all - god knows you deserve a break after PEV & PCR! I decided to resit in Dec, I really struggled with ECR last year and what with PEV & PCR being a follow on from that figured it was probably best not to add to the pressure with a resit. Once again good luck
Aw thanks very much :001_smile:
Figured it can't be much worse than PCR, although BTC was easier than past papers earlier this week so hope they don't decide to make perso harder!! :confused1:0
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