Management Accounting: Decision and Control (AQ2016) Exam

summerbelle86

@GeorgiaH we have done Budgeting and Decision and Control so far (since September), we have Business Tax in June, Financial Statements in July and then Synoptic and Auditing between September and December. Are you doing the course over one academic year? Although I wish we were finishing before the summer, I'm rather glad that we have a bit longer to catch up. How have you found the synoptic revision? Is it tough? We haven't started any of it yet. Good luck for the 18th!

AbbyCarr

@summerbelle86 I started in September, sat Budgeting in October, Decision and Control in December, Financial Statements in March. My Synoptic is next week, then Personal Tax in June and Credit Management in July. The option to but Business Tax before Financial Statements seems odd. The problem with synoptic revision is there isn't one place to start. You learn accounting systems and controls, which is quite straightforward, but then there's elements of the other exams too. The course does feel slightly rushed to say I started September 3rd or something and my last exam is July 11th!

GeorgiaH

AbbyCarr said:

It was on CBT 2 task 1.4. Its part of their suggested answer, so without it, you'd lose marks. It shouldn't be there. Task 1 and 5 seem the easiest to me, the others will be different I think. I think the questions are quite ambiguous as to what they're asking for. Will just have to try our best with this one I think. As someone who rarely struggles, I'm panicking.

Yes I am not looking forward to it at all. Because of our delay with MDCL half of my class have chose to sit the synoptic in July rather than May. But I would rather have an idea of what questions are on the synoptic then if i fail re-sit in July. Did you teacher say that the question should not be there? I hope they dont have problems with the synoptic like they did with MDCL. Surely they cannot ask you questions that are not in the syllabus!

summerbelle86

@AbbyCarr wow that seems quite intense! Although, I would have rather sat Budgeting and Decision and Control before Christmas too, everything was a bit rusty after the Christmas break. Yes I agree, it is odd to be doing Business Tax before Financial Statements, I think the idea was to run the two alongside each other and allow the extra learning time for Financial Statements. I would have preferred to be doing the optional modules at the end. Our training provider don't allow us to sit the synoptic until the mandatory modules have been passed though. Good luck with the synoptic exam next week.

GeorgiaH

@summerbelle86 Oh good. Yes i started my course September 16 and was supposed to finish in June 17 but has now been pushed back to September 17 which i am quite glad of too because it gives more time for re-sits etc. I passed budgetting, then sat financial statements but only got 61%, then i sat decision control on 27th April waiting for results. I am now learning cash & treasury plus synoptic revision. I have 2 teachers on different days studying 2 subjects.
Synotpic is basically what @AbbyCarr said. You learn accounting systems and control. Then use your knowledge of the other 3 compulsary modules to answer the other tasks. I think account systems and controls covers 1/3 of the synoptic

AbbyCarr

@GeorgiaH It wasn't a case that the question shouldn't be there. But for a 12 mark question with like 3 sections, at least 2 marks would have come from the knowledge of throughput. And there is no optional answer of where the marks could come from. I hope they wouldn't but who knows! Task 6 is generally a systemic weaknesses question, so I'm hoping they'll be as in the samples. What's the worst part is I feel like I don't just need to pass, I feel like I need to pass well. I'm not sure how they expect people to get a distinction overall.

GeorgiaH

@AbbyCarr Yes i agree it is so hard to even reach a distinction. I wouldn't put it past the exam to put higher levels of questions in there as i said before in my MDCL exam i had a question which was in an ACCA past paper a few years ago so it would not surprise me.
Our college had to choose our optionals. We have to do cash treasury and credit control. I wish i was doing a tax one.
I find it hard finding 5 weaknesses on question 6 sometimes and i am worried if in the exam i cant find even 1!

AbbyCarr

On CBT 2 the weaknesses are evident! So I'm hoping it will be like that. The pre release seems absolutely useless to be honest.
We did a vote, and ended up with Personal Tax and Credit Management. The two you have are apparently the easiest ones. Personal Tax isn't difficult, but there is a lot of content. A lot of information is given, but there's so much that isn't and little bits you have to remember. But thankfully it's like 80% calculations as far as I can tell from samples.

GeorgiaH

Yes hopefully! But i have been through a couple that are not so obvious. Yes I agree the pre-release material doesn't really seem a lot, quite hard to see what they could ask you. The practice material seems to have more information. Do you know if you have to re-sit the synoptic, would it be on the same company and using the same pre-release or different?

Yes i think that is why my college chose them two! My tutor said that the tax modules had low pass grades compared to the ones we chose. Maybe they should have let us do a vote, but i can always study tax modules myself at a later stage couldn't i?

GeorgiaH

@AbbyCarr Which ones would you have chosen if you didn't do a vote?

AbbyCarr

@GeorgiaH I guess it would be the same material! As if covers up to September I believe?
I think you can! A woman in my class wants to sit both tax modules, so I think she's going to sit it elsewhere.

The two you are doing! My boyfriend did those two as well, so I could have had help haha! I just don't see how personal tax fits into accounting. Like a sole traders wouldn't include inheritance in his books.

GeorgiaH

@AbbyCarr Oh well hopefully if I don't pass the synoptic in May i will re-sit in July with a better understanding of the material and questions we might be asked. There is only about 5 people of of my class sitting in May the others have chose July.
Ah really would you? that would have been useful for you wouldn't it! Atleast your boyfriend can help with credit control haha Oh really? so do you think it is pointless learning personal tax?

AbbyCarr

@GeorgiaH The fundamentals of personal tax is:
Calculating income tax (including reliefs and benefits in kind)
Calculating Capital Gains tax
Calculating Inheritance Tax

Income tax is useful for payroll. But most people who do AAT aren't looking for a job in payroll. Then I'm not sure where you'd calculate the other two, as it's for individuals not companies. So even in practice, not many people would come across it, or I don't believe they would.

GeorgiaH

@AbbyCarr Yes i know what you mean, not really relevant for business is it. Well maybe i wont do that one haha Good luck in your synoptic, if you find any good revision sources let me know

Alicia84

I did both the Tax ones as I was self employed and yes they are both useful. On a tax return for a Sole Traders it does ask you about Capital Gains and Inheritance as well as other sources of income ie rental properties and investments. Also if you are a Director of a Ltd company you still need to complete a self assessment and may have various sources of income. Personally I think they're the most useful because apart from anything you can look at the reliefs you get etc and look at ways of investing yourself :-). Plus having am understanding of the final picture of what you are working towards on a day to day basis will help. Also income tax and NI are relevant regardless of whether it's business or personal as you need to budget and take it into account.

GeorgiaH

@Alicia84 The place I work right now i dont actually deal with any taxes etc which is why i was interested in learning something new. But because my college chose our optional subjects I was thinking of maybe doing the tax exams afterwards

Alicia84

@GeorgiaH I would definitely do them because they would give you more options in the future x

GeorgiaH

@Alicia84 Would you say they were hard to study? I was definitely thinking of doing them both after I pass my level 4 are you allowed to do this? x

Alicia84

I personally found them the easiest and most interesting of all the L4 topics but I have read online that generally people have found them the hardest. Maybe I found them easiest because I had the understanding from being self employed,I don't know. I just found them enjoyable and easy reading lol. I'm sure you can chose to do addition ones but personally I would either scrap your other options if possible or study ATT after you complete. Adding additional exams to level 4 doesn't give you any extra qualification as such so seems a bit pointless. ATT is all tax based xx

GeorgiaH

@Alicia84 Yeah i suppose it's personal preference i liked learning professional ethics level 3 but everyone else i know hated it haha. Oh yes i see how you mean if you don't earn any extra then i probably won't. Do you have to complete them before you do ATT or do you learn whilst studying ATT.
I still don't know what to study when i complete L4. What did you go in to?

Alicia84

ATT is completely separate so I'm not sure- if you look on the kaplan site though it should tell you. I haven't completed yet but when I do I'm going to do ACCA as it's more of an all-rounder and includes advanced personal and business tax. X

GeorgiaH

@Alicia84 Oh i will have to have a little look in to it. I think after i finish Level 4 i am going to have 1 year break maybe then go back to study more so i do have time to think. We get exceptions from ACCA don't we? because we have completed Level 4 AAT? How many level 4 have you got left? xx

Alicia84

@GeorgiaH yes you miss F1-F3. I have to resit Financial Statements and do the ISYS project. Hoping Ill be done within next couple months.

GeorgiaH

I have to re-sit financial statements too i got 61% I was gutted as i really studied hard but just unlucky with my statements questions i got on the exam. Couldn't get them too match and kept changing my answers. So do you not have to do the synoptic?

Alicia84

I dont know what percentage I got but know i got below requirement on the cash flow on question 1 and below requirement on the second written task which is pretty much how I thought it went. I'm resisting it 8th June. I was gutted to as studied so hard. I was sure I was fine on cash flows and spent so long studying statement of financial position as that's what I struggled with then in the exam poof it went out my head. I'm sure if I'd got a SOFP I would've passed! Hopefully get that one the resit lol . You can eijther do the project if you're on AQ2013 like I am or you can transfer to the new syllabus once you've completed all the other L4s and do the synoptic. I was going to do the synoptic but changed my mind after reading all the comments on here x

Yalda20

Hi all,
I have just found out that percentage uplift for MADC will only apply to students who has taken the exam between September 2016 and 23 March. Also, not everyone will get the same percentage which I think is really unfair. I took my exam on the 25th April so will not get the uplift thank you

Irrorate

That's incorrect. All tests taken on/before 23rd March will have had the uplift after the results were released where any exams taken after 23rd March will have the uplift prior to release of results.

The uplift will remain for the duration of the year and was confirmed at the 2017 AAT Training Provider conference.

https://www.aat.org.uk/assessment/review-management-accounting-decision-and-control-assessment

We will be making adjustments to all assessment results that have been released from 1 September 2016 until 23 March 2017, which will mean a number of results may change. Updated results will show on Centre Assessment Results from Monday 10 April.

After 23 March, these adjustments are applied to results prior to release.

Cheesypeesy

@Yalda20 Could I ask where this information has come from? From the AAT website:

"We will be making adjustments to all assessment results that have been released from 1 September 2016 until 23 March 2017, which will mean a number of results may change. Updated results will show on Centre Assessment Results from Monday 10 April. After 23 March, these adjustments are applied to results prior to release".

I have interpreted this as the adjustments continuing to be made, it's just that we don't see our pre-adjusted mark. Could be wrong though!

@Irrorate snap!

ted_holmes

Yalda20 said:

Hi all,

I have just found out that percentage uplift for MADC will only apply to students who has taken the exam between September 2016 and 23 March. Also, not everyone will get the same percentage which I think is really unfair. I took my exam on the 25th April so will not get the uplift thank you

This suggests to me that they have simplified the exam a bit. Maybe realised that the syllabus doesn't cover everything in the exam?
Has anyone done a resit after the 23rd March? If so, did they find it easier second time around?

Cheesypeesy

@ted_holmes based on the exam I got I don't think this is the case (took mine on Monday), least I hope for my sake it isn't I think AAT are just monitoring results at the moment to see what changes need to be made.