Appealing for SYNOPTIC Level 4 results?

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Comments

  • unicorn1905
    unicorn1905 Registered Posts: 47
    @Lindi that was a response to an email of complaint I sent. I have also appealed by post. Going on what people have said on here I'm not expecting to get a higher mark from the appeal but some feedback so that I can work on where I went wrong for my resit.
  • unicorn1905
    unicorn1905 Registered Posts: 47
    @Lindi you only have 10 days to do it from date they released result.
  • unicorn1905
    unicorn1905 Registered Posts: 47
    @93jw11 I feel more positive about the email we received this morning compared to the one they sent to students after the previous Synoptic assessment which basically said it is what it is!!
    Hopefully the more people that complain about it the more chance they will look into it properly. We can't all be wrong, can we?!
  • 93jw11
    93jw11 Registered Posts: 20
    True! I cannot understand how I got below requirement on task 3. I thought i did really well on that! The results have really confused me!!
  • MissHermansen
    MissHermansen Registered Posts: 103
    I appealed and complained 3 times but they do not seem to budge at all. I was only 3 % off!!
    I still feel we need to keep voicing our concerns though, as something is clearly radically wrong here!
  • MissHermansen
    MissHermansen Registered Posts: 103
    WE CANNOT ALL BE WRONG!!
  • MissHermansen
    MissHermansen Registered Posts: 103
    SueFW said:

    I got 69% and appealed but they upheld the result I also complained it got me nowhere. I'm sorry to say I feel for you as I am so mad I'm resitting it next week for 1 mark. They also messed up my feedback from the appeal, they said I'd got a question incorrect when it was correct so I paid £30 for them to remark and then mess up the feedback that's really not good enough :'(

    I cannot understand how they can fail someone by 1% in a word heavy exam such as the Synoptic one. Surely they could find an additional 1% somewhere?! I am so disappointed in AAT for the way in which they have handled the lauch of the Synoptic Exam!
  • JayKallee
    JayKallee Registered, Tutor Posts: 92
    edited August 2017
    MissHermansen said:

    SueFW said:

    I got 69% and appealed but they upheld the result I also complained it got me nowhere. I'm sorry to say I feel for you as I am so mad I'm resitting it next week for 1 mark. They also messed up my feedback from the appeal, they said I'd got a question incorrect when it was correct so I paid £30 for them to remark and then mess up the feedback that's really not good enough :'(

    I cannot understand how they can fail someone by 1% in a word heavy exam such as the Synoptic one. Surely they could find an additional 1% somewhere?! I am so disappointed in AAT for the way in which they have handled the lauch of the Synoptic Exam!
    This is quite common with ACCA and CIMA exams, the pass mark being 50 and students really struggling and ending up getting 48 and 49. Looks like AAT is following their steps.
  • MissHermansen
    MissHermansen Registered Posts: 103
    JayKallee said:

    MissHermansen said:

    SueFW said:

    I got 69% and appealed but they upheld the result I also complained it got me nowhere. I'm sorry to say I feel for you as I am so mad I'm resitting it next week for 1 mark. They also messed up my feedback from the appeal, they said I'd got a question incorrect when it was correct so I paid £30 for them to remark and then mess up the feedback that's really not good enough :'(

    I cannot understand how they can fail someone by 1% in a word heavy exam such as the Synoptic one. Surely they could find an additional 1% somewhere?! I am so disappointed in AAT for the way in which they have handled the lauch of the Synoptic Exam!
    When I did my ACCA exams 15 odd years ago, the pass mark was 50 yet a lot of students were getting 49 marks. One would feel lucky if they got 50. Guess AAT is upping its game now.
    ACCA pass mark is still 50%.. I fear AAT have brought their standards to ACCA, without lowering the pass mark. In my opinion they have totally messed up with the 2016 standards..
  • unicorn1905
    unicorn1905 Registered Posts: 47
    @MissHermansen agreed!
  • MissHermansen
    MissHermansen Registered Posts: 103
    unicorn1905 said:

    @93jw11 I feel more positive about the email we received this morning compared to the one they sent to students after the previous Synoptic assessment which basically said it is what it is!!

    Hopefully the more people that complain about it the more chance they will look into it properly. We can't all be wrong, can we?!

    What did the email say?
  • unicorn1905
    unicorn1905 Registered Posts: 47
    @MissHermansen

    I am writing in response to your email received on the 18th August 2017.

    We are in the process of reviewing the concerns that you have raised and the points which you have mentioned. In order to respond to your concerns we are required to liaise with different teams within the organisation. As such, unfortunately we have not been able to offer you a response as early as we would have anticipated and for this we apologise.

    We aim to provide you with a response or update within 10 working days. I'm sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.

    If you have any other queries please do not hesitate to get in touch.
  • MissHermansen
    MissHermansen Registered Posts: 103
    unicorn1905 said:

    @MissHermansen



    I am writing in response to your email received on the 18th August 2017.



    We are in the process of reviewing the concerns that you have raised and the points which you have mentioned. In order to respond to your concerns we are required to liaise with different teams within the organisation. As such, unfortunately we have not been able to offer you a response as early as we would have anticipated and for this we apologise.



    We aim to provide you with a response or update within 10 working days. I'm sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.



    If you have any other queries please do not hesitate to get in touch.

    This is a standard response I think but fingers crossed
  • MissHermansen
    MissHermansen Registered Posts: 103
    here is my latest complaint..

    Dear xxxxxx

    Thank you for your response. I believe the issue with the Synoptic Assessment is that it is in actual fact not fairly representing your student's understanding of the connections between the different topics covered.

    It is clear that students achieving strong Merits and Distinctions in all other topics have a good understanding and grasp of the accounting qualification, and to then fail or merely pass the Synoptic Assessment, it does not represent their capabilities in the slightest.

    The pass rate for this exam has been one of the lowest and has left many of your deserving students, including myself, feeling completely let down. It is absurd that you as a professional body cannot admit that the Synoptic Assessment has some serious holes, which has had devastating effects on your students.

    In my opinion there is nothing wrong with your student's understanding of the topics, but the way in which the questions have been asked. I have not spoken to a single student who has completed the Synoptic Assessment without leaving the assessment room feeling confused as to what the questions were actually asking for.

    Even the students who did manage to achieve well in this, did not feel confident that they had managed to understand the paper correctly.

    There is also very little guidance as to how you want the questions to be answered.

    I remain that to simply 'brush off' your student's mass complaints is completely unethical and has left me as well as so many others with a huge sense of disappointment.

    Regards

    xxxxx
  • unicorn1905
    unicorn1905 Registered Posts: 47
    @MissHermansen very well said.
  • cmcd
    cmcd Registered Posts: 14
    What questions in the exam are people finding most difficult?
  • Lindi
    Lindi Registered Posts: 166
    edited September 2017
    Comment removed

    [A Contribution must not disclose any material from live assessments, AAT-produced or otherwise]
  • unicorn1905
    unicorn1905 Registered Posts: 47
    @cmcd decision & control one. I couldn't find a limiting factor so struggled with what they wanted me to recommend other than the one with highest contribution but that seemed to easy.
  • cmcd
    cmcd Registered Posts: 14
    Do you always include figures and calculations in your written answers? I only ask as our College really drilled it into us that AAT want you to use figures and how you arrived at those figures to support your decisions.
  • unicorn1905
    unicorn1905 Registered Posts: 47
    @cmcd I did, but maybe not enough. I struggled to actually work out what they wanted in some of the questions. They weren't clear so ended up writing what I thought they wanted....but obviously not!
  • busydays
    busydays Registered Posts: 12
    edited August 2017
    I barely scraped a pass on my first sitting of the synoptic and got 91% at the second. For the second sitting, I spent a couple hours skimming over Chapter 9 of Management Accounting by Colin Drury and realised that I hadn't understood the concept of relevant costs and how important they are. It was a bit of a light bulb moment. In my first exam I just jumped in and started blindly calculating marginal costs and contribution, in the second exam I completely changed my way of thinking and concentrated on relevant costs and suddenly the decision & control question was super quick and easy. Looking at some of the comments on this thread I think this is probably where a lot of people are going wrong,
  • marialucas
    marialucas Registered Posts: 49
    > @busydays said:
    > I barely scraped a pass on my first sitting of the synoptic and got 91% at the second. For the second sitting, I spent a couple hours skimming over Chapter 9 of Management Accounting by Colin Drury and realised that I hadn't understood the concept of relevant costs and how important they are. It was a bit of a light bulb moment. In my first exam I just jumped in and started blindly calculating marginal costs and contribution, in the second exam I completely changed my way of thinking and concentrated on relevant costs and suddenly the decision & control question was super quick and easy. Looking at some of the comments on this thread I think this is probably where a lot of people are going wrong,


    Fair enough, well done in your results and thank you for your advice. What I don't agree with , is that in order to pass this exam you need to go through other completely different books ( rather than Osborne, Kaplan, BBP) The way we have explained what we know is from the units and assessments we had during the year not from other sources.
  • busydays
    busydays Registered Posts: 12
    @marialucas I totally agree and I was really upset after my first exam result! Relevant costing is actually covered in chapter 6 of the Osborne D&C book but it's easy to overlook as it's hidden at the back! The other book just explained it in more detail and made me realise how important it is. I completely agree that we shouldn't need to use other books!!
  • 93jw11
    93jw11 Registered Posts: 20
    Would u send me the link to that book please!
  • MissHermansen
    MissHermansen Registered Posts: 103
    > @busydays said:
    > @marialucas I totally agree and I was really upset after my first exam result! Relevant costing is actually covered in chapter 6 of the Osborne D&C book but it's easy to overlook as it's hidden at the back! The other book just explained it in more detail and made me realise how important it is. I completely agree that we shouldn't need to use other books!!

    Thanks for the heads up on this.. however this heads up should have come from AAT who are supposed to guide us in our studies. Especially considering this is the first year the synoptic exam has been running. Even the tutors are walking blind it seems! Finding the right study materials shouldn't be cryptic and hidden.. we are paying a lot of money for this course and even more so with the resits! It drives me absolutely crazy!!
  • busydays
    busydays Registered Posts: 12
    @93jw11 it's this one
    https://www.amazon.co.uk/Management-Cost-Accounting-Student-Manual/dp/1408093944/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1503516670&sr=8-3&keywords=colin+drury
    It's not that cheap and I only really used it for the one short chapter so you might be able to just google for articles on relevant cost and how they apply to decisions on discontinuing products.
  • JayKallee
    JayKallee Registered, Tutor Posts: 92
    busydays said:

    I barely scraped a pass on my first sitting of the synoptic and got 91% at the second. For the second sitting, I spent a couple hours skimming over Chapter 9 of Management Accounting by Colin Drury and realised that I hadn't understood the concept of relevant costs and how important they are. It was a bit of a light bulb moment. In my first exam I just jumped in and started blindly calculating marginal costs and contribution, in the second exam I completely changed my way of thinking and concentrated on relevant costs and suddenly the decision & control question was super quick and easy. Looking at some of the comments on this thread I think this is probably where a lot of people are going wrong,

    That is a very good book on Cost and management accounting

  • JayKallee
    JayKallee Registered, Tutor Posts: 92
    busydays said:

    @93jw11 it's this one
    https://www.amazon.co.uk/Management-Cost-Accounting-Student-Manual/dp/1408093944/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1503516670&sr=8-3&keywords=colin+drury
    It's not that cheap and I only really used it for the one short chapter so you might be able to just google for articles on relevant cost and how they apply to decisions on discontinuing products.

    Try your college or local library. I prepared my teaching lessons for MMAC using materials from this book which complemented Osborne books.
  • Multiplicator
    Multiplicator Registered Posts: 116
    many thx ellada - make that very many thanks - just accessed it. x-ier

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