Cash management assessment

Jonno7970

Hello everyone,

I am on my last exam of level 4 cash management. I have taken all practice exams and workbooks but the questions I faced in the exam were not set out like any in the resources.

I know that it is not all about answering a certain question but the way they were worded really confused me. For example question 1 is normally a statement of profit and loss or financial position with some adjustments in order to show how much cash is held by the business. However this exam had both statements and also a forecast for both for the following year, the tax payable was required and I just didn't know if I was taken the tax from the current years spl or sfp or the forecast spl or sfp. It really threw me. This and the fact I fluffed my written leads me to believe I have failed. The questions are just so much more wordy.

Does anyone have any tips for revising for an exam you failed as I need to get this passed to go to uni in September

Thank you

John

zippi

Hi Jonno7979,

I think I had the same paper. I have also passed all my exams first time, however, I am struggling with this one. I totally agree with you. The exam is extremely wordy and long with lot of unnecessary wordings (red herring) just to confuse us more. Did your long task contain advantages and disadvantages on overdraft etc. If so I had the same paper. Usually tax from last year p&l is paid this year. Cash flow forecast, I think was there just to confuse us more. What threw me more was it had balance b/d from one year e.g x8, whereas c/d was from another year x9 and then you would have something like tax paid of x amount is x9. I have never come across this in any resources myself. This is my third attempt. Each exam was different each time. I missed out by 5% last time. Hope we both pass. Are you still with college if so you can approach your tutor for help and further information.

Let me know how you get on.

Jonno7970

Hello Zippi,

Yes I do think we had the same paper. The long questions at the end were on bank overdraft or loan, listing liquidity and gearing advantages/disadvantages and the final question was based on all different investment opportunities.

Question 1 really did throw me as I had really nailed all the question practice. even the easier ones where you work out the amount of payables are paid in each month and the balance of trade payables was confused by being too wordy. There were unnecessary curveballs that really threw me and made the exam a lot harder than all the practice exams. When you say it was different each time, did you have any other questions that caused issues? I have a deadline of September to finish this exam otherwise I miss this years intake at uni.

Panic stations

kind regards

John

zippi

Hi John,

When I say it was different each time meaning, I took cash management 3 times as missed out by few marks on passing either due to time issue and lengthiness and how it has been worded etc but each exam paper was completely different, no questions were similar from one to the other paper. They do not reflect like any resources I have used. Only some written ones were like in the book.

I hope all works out for you, Which other option paper did you do? If you haven't done credit control than that's a good and easy option to choose.

Good luck, just keep trying, you will be ok.

All the best.

Jonno7970

Hello zippy,

It does seem a bit of a gamble for the exam then as you can learn all you can from the resources but they will throw a curveball in there every time, I have completed personal tax and just need one more module to complete level 4, is credit control easier? If so I may just do that to get it out the way, teach it myself

Thank you

John

zippi

Yes definitely, as I have done that. I am a bit fed up and looking to divert myself. Did you manage to pass Ptax first time. Can you study that yourself?

Jonno7970

I did pass the personal tax first time, however I must admit that the tutor I had for that was excellent. She was a former tax manager and was highly qualified specialising in Tax. Whether you can study it alone depends on if you are good at digesting a lot of information.

The tax questions do have a set of rules and guidelines and it is mostly about identifying changes and how they affect the spl and sfp. such as pension allowances, how that affects the personal allowance and how much tax should be paid at the end of the year.

The written questions are just listing out the rules and any fines that could come into play should payments be missed etc. Sometimes asking you to advise on how to help a customer with their tax calculations.

It is a wordy subject but one where you can pick up a lot of marks.

Is credit control an easy exam? I would hate to go through learning the syllabus only to then have the same situation as cash management i.e easy to learn but exam confuses things

kind regards

John

zippi

Yes definitely, it is one of the easiest option exams in credit control and reflects same as practice papers on AAT website. However, I did my paper well over a year ago, hopefully there hasn't been many changes since then. I passed that first time and in comparison to others it is definitely one of the easiest.

Thank you for filling me in for Ptax. Just wanted an opinion when comparing Ptax to cash management in terms of exam, did you find cash management harder or just confusing? You were lucky you had a good teacher for Ptax. I didn't have a choice. I passed my cash management 2nd attempt in level 3 but as college chose the option, I had no choice but to re do it as an option in level 4. I am glad that someone out there shares the same idea about cshm as me. I thought I was being thick. Apparently according to all cshm & credit control are the easiest units at level4 to pass.

I think you will be ok with credit control if your college allows you to take it. Unfortunately mine doesn't seem to respond when asked a question!

Good luck and all the best. Let me know how you get on.

Lelouch

Agree with both of you. I thought that Cash Management was the hardest exam I did at AAT level. I didn't do any of the Tax modules though. I thought it was the easiest to learn and prepare for, but the exam was a lot different than I expected and took me a lot longer to finish and check than any of the others.

I also did credit control and that is very straight forward, as what you see in the practice assessments is what you get in the actual exam.

Good luck Guys

Jonno7970

Thanks Lelouch,

I think based on both of your views on credit control, I may take that if I find out I have failed cash management. I will start teaching it to myself in anticipation of a fail.

As you both say the actual Cash management learning process seemed simple and the practice assessments were all passes. However the actual exam was very different and is the first time I have come out of an exam convinced I have failed.

In reply to your question about tax Zippy, the exam was pretty much what you had learnt, however the actual learning process is tougher as you need to allow for any eventuality as the exam does attempt to throw you off scent. The tax return makes up a lot of marks so learning the format of that can almost guarantee you marks. The Other statements are where it becomes more difficult, testing your knowledge on income types and any related tax calculations.

The exam did take me all the way to end so in terms of exam, cash management is more unpredictable and PTAX is more about making sure you have revised everything.

kind regards

John

zippi

Thank you both. My paper was 50/50 this time. I found last times cshm paper easier but wordy and did not manage to finish the paper. Anyway may think about auditing. Like you John just a bit sceptical about the reality of real exam. Also heard it can be pretty boring but if it's gets me a pass and a certificate, I will be happy. Anyway just awaiting results and will then decide.

Hope we all get what we want.

Jonno7970

I hope that you get a pass Zippy and the 50/50 sounds better than what I think of mine.

The credit control does seem the easier option then as I have previously worked in credit control and I do have experience of terms and conditions etc.

I think my result is due the first week of May so I will decide after that, in the meantime I will study credit control.

kind regards

John

zippi

I hope too. My result is out end of April beginning of May as well. I used BPP credit control book to revise. It's good you know a bit about it but even if you were not familiar with it, I promise it is the easiest option. I might order my auditing text & QB this week.

Queenb

You guys i am about to sit for cash management in a few weeks. So freaking out after reading your comments

Jonno7970

Don't freak out, stay calm and just make sure you have a good knowledge of all questions, the written questions will get you a lot of marks too, mine was from rushing to teach myself in 4 weeks so I was open to a few problems. Just take your time and read the question through, don't let it throw you or panic you as this will put you off questions you are strong on.

Regards

Joun

Queenb

I will study smarter

Many thanks Joun

clara

Could you tell me what you mean when you say paper is 'wordy' are you referring to written questions or are you saying that questions such as one and two are lengthy in their getting to the point!!! Sorry to be thick!

Jonno7970

The written questions are as to be expected and are similar to practice assessments. However the numerical questions are a lot more wordy with a lot of red herrings to try and alter the way you answer the question.

I think I had a bad day and do not want to scare anybody as the actual questions when revising are quite simple. It is just that the questions were a lot more complicated on the actual exam.

Kind regards and good luck

John

clara

Thank you for replying. It's good to know other people's views on the exams. I've just started revising, exam in May.

Jonno7970

I PASSED!!!!!!!!

James_B

Jonno7970 said:

I PASSED!!!!!!!!

Great news, well done

Queenb

Which tasks in particular were wordy ?

Jonno7970

The wordier ones were the ones that I initially found the easiest from practice assessments. Question 1 is normally a SPL or SFP with details of any alterations from the year. The one in my assessment included both statements with a current year and a forecast for next year, again with details of events throughout the year.

The question where you work out the amount of accounts payables per month i.e 10% month 1, 20% month 2, 70% month 3. This was quite confusing as the usual small table had been populated with extra rows and also details of how certain payments had been included in months, asking you how much was paid not including these amounts.

I just think that it does differ to the practice assessments, however as you can see I have passed so there are plenty of marks to earn.

Good luck

John

pittuck23

HI all, I am taking my cash management exam next week and i'm a bit worried after reading all of your posts... does anyone have any tips or guidance?
Did any of you manage to work out the issue with question 1 on your exam paper?

ANy help would be appreciated.

SAm

clara

How did you get your results through so quickly Jonno!!

Jonno7970

Hello Clara i took the exam on 24th March so it was 5 weeks and 1 day when I got my result, always check on 5 weeks 1 day as they come up then

Jonno7970

I have now finally completed my aat journey, I wish all the best to everyone, my advice on cash management is to cover all bases and nail the written questions, that way you get enough marks to cover any weaker questions

clara

Good luck on the next stage of your journey

ChrisJ30

Hi all,

I took my cash management exam today. Several tasks very different to what I had seen before. I also had a SOFP and SoPL. My task 2 had materials, labour and overheads which I haven't seen in any task before and hadn't touched materials, labour and overheads since C&R level 3. There was alot about markup which I think was as someone else put red herrings. Unfortunately I ran out of time to complete the last two written questions.

My advice to anyone taking the exam is just focus on tasks. Don't get bogged down with all the written text and focus on completing the tasks as best you can because you won't have time to check your work.

Best of luck to anyone taking this exam.