Financial Performance CBT FNPF

WAD2001

Hi Everyone

We (our class) sat the financial performance exam last Thursday. As a group we all put 110% into all units and have passed all exams from foundation first time.


However, in this Financial Performance exam we felt that there was insufficient time to fully complete Section 1 and Section 2 to the best of our ability. This was due to the more in-depth questions in Section 1 and scrolling up/down to answer the long written questions, especially the one in Section 2. we felt that due to the demanding written tasks and in-depth questions to be completed within 2 1/2 hours on the CBT, We were not given a fair chance to complete the examination.

In Section 2 the information filled the whole page and it was time consuming scrolling up/down to read, absorb and analyse the information to the appropriate answer boxes. (Ideally, information should have been in pop-up boxes which could have been opened at the side of the answer boxes.)

Font on CBT - too small on the screen when concentrating for such a long time.

Majority of amounts in millions - need to have a comma to seperate as due to small font they are hard to read. Inconsistent figures eg. 200000 and 200000.00.

Financial & Text to read which took the whole screen - having to scroll up/down to answer questions. Would have been better with pop-up boxes as Financial Statements.

Please if any other students felt the same way about their exam please make an official complaint/concern to cba@aat.org.uk

Thank you

siva

I 100% agree with you. Every single point mentioned by you happened to me, i have passed all the other exams in one go, but this one due to lack of time i couldnt finish my exam.

I had the questions in millions as well it was so hard to figure out how many zeros were there.

It definitely is not fair that they decide to confuse us like this.

Why didnt they put the figures and mention they are in thousands on the top as they used to.

I took this exam three weeks ago, i am not looking forward for the result. if i fail this exam it would definitely be because of the million question and lack of time.

I will raise the complaint to the email address you have mentioned.

so it is not just me complaining about he million question and lack of time.

Chelle

I resat this exam yesterday and I hated it once again.

With all other exams that I have sat, I have had more than sufficient time to complete it and check over it and still have plenty of time remaining, both times for this now I have come to the end of time and not had time to go back and think of the questions properly.

I have said all through the year, why couldn't they seperate the calculations part to the written part (just like Credit Management was), yes it means sitting twice as many exams in theory but at least then there is sufficient time to do each part plus if you just fail on the written part, it's only the written part that needs to be resat??

I also had a problem with the 000's, as one part it never stated whether it was £k's or £m's and 3 times I checked to see which way I had to do them, but still don't know now if I was right in my thinking with them!

I also felt that, with all the other exams that have been sat, they have pretty much similar to the layout of the practice CBA's on the AAT website but on both of my FNPF's now, they haven't been which is extremely confusing and makes it so much harder as panic then sets in.

NicF

Sorry, but I disagree completely. I completed the exam comfortably in just over two hours, which would have given me plenty of time to check my answers if I hadn't been feeling quite so ill by the end. I don't know if I've passed or not but I do feel that if you are well prepared and know the material well then 2.5 hours is more than enough.

And the zero's should not be an issue because there are commas in the numbers so they should be able to be seen clearly. Further most calculators will also show the commas in the numbers so it is easy to compare what you have typed in with what is on the screen.

Louise89

NicF wrote: »

Sorry, but I disagree completely. I completed the exam comfortably in just over two hours, which would have given me plenty of time to check my answers if I hadn't been feeling quite so ill by the end. I don't know if I've passed or not but I do feel that if you are well prepared and know the material well then 2.5 hours is more than enough.

And the zero's should not be an issue because there are commas in the numbers so they should be able to be seen clearly. Further most calculators will also show the commas in the numbers so it is easy to compare what you have typed in with what is on the screen.

Sorry guys, I have to admit that I agree with NicF on this one. I think the key as NicF said above is to be well prepared. I had plenty of time to double check and triple check my answers and left with plenty of time to spare.

WAD2001

Thank you all for you replies NicF could I ask you when you sat this exam? was it recently

Your opinion is appreciated but as I posted in my original out of a class of 11 everyone came out of the exam with the same feelings the exams are rotated and perhaps there is a set of exams that are like the one's I sat, chelle and siva. who knows. We have some really gifted students in our class and they had the same opinion.

Hopefully you will have passed not like the rest of us

WAD2001

we all were very prepared to be honest we are a very capable class who have an excellent tutor, what you have to remember is the exams are rotated and everyone has different questions to another, who knows, but I did put this post on for those who wished to complain not for those who found it ok, views appreciated though

Louise89

I sat mine on the 9th July.

Even though you may feel as if you didn't perform well in this exam it doesn't necessarily mean that you have failed, you could have done really well, sometimes feelings can be slightly deceptive when you're really anxious.

WAD2001

Louise89 wrote: »

I sat mine on the 9th July.

Even though you may feel as if you didn't perform well in this exam it doesn't necessarily mean that you have failed, you could have done really well, sometimes feelings can be slightly deceptive when you're really anxious.

You sat it last year then?

Louise89

June sorry!

jules72

Complete agree with you. Up until Financial Performance I had not failed an exam, I ran out of time, so by the time I had to do my written on Variances, even though I was confident with what I was intending to write, I failed because I needed at least another 15 minutes. Second time round I was prepared to put in less effort in other areas, fingers crossed I've passed.

WAD2001

Yes completely my point I personally feel that by the over complicating the written areas the actual sylabus that you have been studying goes out the window. I was concentrating so much on absorbing all the information in scrolling up and down that by the time I had read it and figured out what to do I had run out of time to do any writing. Shouldn't the AAT be testing us on wether we can successfully understand and comment on the financial performance of a business rather than testing our ability in other areas.

I think that if you have proved in the rest of the exam you can calulate ratios and performace indicators, you should then be given a set of straightforward figures to then concentrate on actually writing about them

SashaDella

One thing that I would say - If you have failed and have to resit, at least now you know what to expect and hopefully that knowledge will make you even more prepared to work faster through the exam. Don't go into it second time and blame the test because it will make you anxious just relax and work through it.

Good Luck!

NicF

WAD2001 wrote: »

Thank you all for you replies NicF could I ask you when you sat this exam? was it recently

Your opinion is appreciated but as I posted in my original out of a class of 11 everyone came out of the exam with the same feelings the exams are rotated and perhaps there is a set of exams that are like the one's I sat, chelle and siva. who knows. We have some really gifted students in our class and they had the same opinion.

Hopefully you will have passed not like the rest of us

I sat the exam on 21st June, so very recently. The questions all come from a question bank and are randomly selected so everyone in your class will probably have had different questions to each other, and some of you may have had the same questions as I had. I think the key to this exam is to really know your stuff, be very sharp on exam texhnique and use your time effectively. I nearly got caught out with this as I had one question where my answers to the capacity and efficiency variances didn't add up to the volume variance and I nearly spent too long trying to work out why but I stopped myslef, flagged the question and came back after another question when I realised what I had done wrong.

Nmariew

I completely feel the same way.

I sat this exam yesterday and I have never known a whole class to not have enough time, bearing in mind there is a class of 20.

I feel very disheartened as I put in more than enough revision and effort into this exam.

I wouldn't say I struggled with this exam but just didn't have enough time which made be panic, in the end I had 3 minutes left and I ended the exam as I knew I would never have done enough to complete the writing section which was a joke to say the least, scrolling up and down trying to read everything etc

Now I know where to complain to I will!

Thanks

Jo Clark

Louise89 wrote: »

Sorry guys, I have to admit that I agree with NicF on this one. I think the key as NicF said above is to be well prepared. I had plenty of time to double check and triple check my answers and left with plenty of time to spare.

Hello All

I also agree with NicF and Louise.

I completed the exam in about 2 hours 15 minutes if I recall correctly. I'm sorry I also don't think you can complain about the numbers being in thousands/millions as when you are working in practice/industry you could potentially end up with clients with small account balance and transactioan values to the complete opposite multi million international companies etc.

I sincerely hope you have all passed your Financial Performance exam, however, if any of you should need to resit perhaps you need to consider your exam technique which is discussed on this forum frequently e.g. one student prefers to answer the written questions first.

When I sat my level 4 exams I would start at the beginning and work through each question and answer them as I progressed through the exam making a note of any I oculd not answer. The CBA system has an option to 'flag' a question if you are unsure how to answer so you can return to it later. I would read the 'written' questions and make some notes on my scrap paper and continue with the 'short' questions and then return to the written questions at the end.

I hope this helps, even if it just helps one student I'll be happy

Good luck with the results when they come through.


JC

Chelle

SashaDella wrote: »

One thing that I would say - If you have failed and have to resit, at least now you know what to expect and hopefully that knowledge will make you even more prepared to work faster through the exam. Don't go into it second time and blame the test because it will make you anxious just relax and work through it.

Good Luck!

My exam yesterday was a resit as I had failed it the first time, so I knew what to kind of expect this time round and I was a lot calmer about it all as I sat at the computer.

I knew alot more this time when revising and passed the practice CBA's but when I came to sit it, yet again I just found it all so confusing with not having the same kind of layout as the practice CBA's and the way the questions were worded.

The reports seemed so much different than first time round too and took more of my time up with trying to understand what they were stating to what I could understand about it all to try and apply it to the questions!

Maybe I am just thick!!

StuartW

Hi there,

I'm afraid I can't really comment on the assessment itself, but I would encourage any of you with feedback to complete the student questionnaire we've recently published (in addition to emailing cba@aat.org.uk). It's open until Friday 13 July.

I've also stuck the thread containing the questionnaire to the top of this section so that others can provide their views as well.

Complete the AAT student questionnaire

Thanks.

hunyb

Hi, I sat this exam a few weeks ago and I just think that although I was happy with all the questions and I knew what the answers should be, I simply ran out of time to go back to part one and finish my written last task. I gave myself an hr on the first part and 1.5 hrs on the second part.

I think the AAT should at least give us 15mins of reading time if not an extension on the exam itself, and as far as the scrolling up and down goes I thought they were going to reduce this, why can't they let us have a copy of the long questions on paper?

Louise89

Jo Clark wrote: »

Hello All

I also agree with NicF and Louise.

I completed the exam in about 2 hours 15 minutes if I recall correctly. I'm sorry I also don't think you can complain about the numbers being in thousands/millions as when you are working in practice/industry you could potentially end up with clients with small account balance and transactioan values to the complete opposite multi million international companies etc.

I sincerely hope you have all passed your Financial Performance exam, however, if any of you should need to resit perhaps you need to consider your exam technique which is discussed on this forum frequently e.g. one student prefers to answer the written questions first.

When I sat my level 4 exams I would start at the beginning and work through each question and answer them as I progressed through the exam making a note of any I oculd not answer. The CBA system has an option to 'flag' a question if you are unsure how to answer so you can return to it later. I would read the 'written' questions and make some notes on my scrap paper and continue with the 'short' questions and then return to the written questions at the end.

I hope this helps, even if it just helps one student I'll be happy

Good luck with the results when they come through.


JC

Jo, you just have a way with words.

Jo Clark

Louise89 wrote: »

Jo, you just have a way with words.

:blushing: good or bad, or maybe I shouldn't be asking?!?!

Louise89

Jo Clark wrote: »

:blushing: good or bad, or maybe I shouldn't be asking?!?!

Good of course!

welshwizard

Hi
For what it's worth, here's my thoughts on these issues:

1) The use of commas in numbers - I agree that numbers should be separated according to the accepted standard as it is difficult to decide if we're talking about ten million (10000000) or one hundred million (100000000) especially as the zeroes seem to flow into each other at the font size used (bear in mind you have no facility to change font size).

2) Time issues and other matters - Whilst I understand that you would like to see an assessment in a similar form to your practice material, surely management accounting (which is what FNPF is) has no set format and, therefore, questions should reflect reality and appear in many different forms? Also this tests your knowledge of the subject and not just your ability to recognise a pattern. I have seen a lot on these forums recently where students are complaining about assessment layout etc. Why don't you ask yourself is this because you're trying to find a reason for not doing as well as you think you should have in the assessment? I do agree, however, that practice material should reflect the style of questions (language, use of terminology, consistency in difficulty) asked and this is something the AAT should address this issue because, as some of you have rightly said, in the middle of an assessment, panic sets in and you can easily 'go to pot' as my mum used to say. These assessments are supposed to check whether you can meet the assessment criteria and it should never be a test of your knowledge of English.

Time is always an issue and, to be honest, the hardest assessment you sit is the real one as there is no pressure on you to pass the practice ones, there is no threat of a resit if you don't pass a real one and you can alsways look at the answers of a practice assessment - somethign you will not be able to do with a real one.

To be brutally honest, every assessment is passable if you have a good grasp of the subject. This is where your provider comes in. They should be ensuring that you can pass a practice assessment before you sit a live one. It is counter-productive to enter people who have not demonstrated that they are ready to sit an assessment as a not yet competent result can have quite a negative effect on future successes - indeed, the AAT's own success rates show that success rates at resit are nowhere near as high as first time success.

Good luck to all thsoe who still have Level 4 assessments to sit - hard work and a good understanding of the concepts are the key to success.

CovTeej

I sat FNPF approx 8 weeks ago, I felt I had plenty of time to answer every question and check every answer, in fact, it was the only exam this year that I have left feeling in any way confident about. However I failed and I have my resit tonight, I have revised and revised the three areas that I dnm last time and have just skimmed over the 5 areas that I exceeded. I am not feeling confident and seem to have a black hole where ratios and fixed overhead variances are supposed to be!

Whirlwind

Hi CovTeej,

All the very best with FNPF tonight. At least you know what to expect!!

My issue was that I allowed the panic over the variances to totally hijack the rest of the unit. This meant that once I arrived at the written tasks and felt that so much time was taken up with scrolling, that I had to really get a grip to not hyperventilate!!

So ... please dont do a me ... take a deep breathe, don't panic and remember that you exceed in 5 areas (wow!!).