Important update on Management Accounting: Decision and Control

Adam144

"Important update on Management Accounting: Decision and Control (MDCL)
Following on from our ongoing quality assurance review of Management Accounting: Decision and Control (MDCL), we can confirm that we are replacing the live assessment with a new version.

As a result, students will not be able to sit MDCL from Monday 26 February 00.00 (UK time) to Sunday 4 March 23.59 (UK time).

Why we're replacing this assessment
After reviewing the assessment of skills, knowledge and understanding, and listening to stakeholder feedback, we have eliminated the over-assessment of assessment criteria across task positions in this unit assessment.

The key changes are as follows:

Number of tasks is being reduced from 10 to 8
Total number of marks is being reduced from 160 to 120
The duration of the assessment remains the same: 2 hours 30 minutes.

Timeline
All times are UK times.

Friday 12 January 2018–Sunday 25 February 23.59: Current MDCL assessment stays the same
Friday 19 January: A revised version of the specification for Professional Diploma in Accounting (version 4.0) will be published
Monday 22 January–Sunday 28 January: Pre-testing of new practice assessments will take place. If you would like to be involved in this please express your interest
Monday 5 February 00.00: New practice assessments will be available online and available to schedule within SecureAssess
Sunday 25 February 23.59: The last date the current MDCL live and/or practice assessments can be scheduled and sat
Monday 26 February 00.00–Sunday 4 March 23.59: Students will not be able to sit MDCL during this period of time
Monday 26 February 10.00: You can now schedule your students to sit the new MDCL assessment on 5 March onwards
Monday 5 March: New MDCL assessment available for sitting"

Does anybody else think we should complain to AAT regarding the current MDCL exam? I passed all the other exams, apart from MDCL.. I failed MDCL three times with 67%, 68% and 68%, which is really unfair. I ran out of time every time I took the assessment, whereas now the assessment will have less tasks, less marks, but the time remains the same? It is not fair, because obviously all my three attempts I would have passed if I had a chance to attempt all the questions ...

tinkerbell0406

You can complain but i can bet they will not change the grade, i am also struggling to pass this. I was always struggling for time. Possibly free re-sits are a way forward or an uplift across the board.

tinkerbell0406

And at the last attempt getting 55%would gives you 88 marks when the new version is in you would only need 84marks to pass. Does anyone have any more logic to put to this?
In reality anyone getting a mark of 53%or above passed!!
I feel better already

JoJoMis

@tinkerbell0406 If you are struggling with time then the shorter assessment should benefit you. They are only going to have 8 questions instead of 10 now. Also, forget about the points- if you got 55% with 160 points then 55% would be 66 points with the new system. Yes, the new 70% would be only 84 marks, but the max would also be a lot less, so your marks do not transfer like this. All in all, they are just trying to make the assessment easier to pass.

Vader

This is good news, as I was about to book my MDCL exam. Is this news on the official website?

JoJoMis

@Vader Log into MyAat-Training and assessments- Suspension of MDCL.

Vader

JoJoMis said:

@Vader Log into MyAat-Training and assessments- Suspension of MDCL.

Thanks, although that page on MyAAT doesn't say anything about lowering the number of questions. Just that they are uplifting the percentage marks of students who have taken the exam.

tinkerbell0406

Here's the link https://www.aat.org.uk/assessment-venue-news.
Took me a while yo find it but its there alright.

GMS1992

I have my MDCL exam booked for Monday 22nd
Anyone know what this means for me, are AAT uplifting marks etc?

I feel like it's a waste of time taking it as it looks like I'm going to have to re-take.

badger636

What a result, thanks for sharing this, failed first time with 64% and was dreading having to take it again, I went into the exam thinking I was fully prepared, but boy was I wrong!!

absco14

Does anyone know how to complain regarding this? I think it's very unfair that i am sitting this exam on thursday with the same time limit as the new exam will have but need to complete 2 more sections and get an extra 28 marks (i believe) to pass in comparison to the new exam.
Does anyone know if the old exams are receiving an uplift in marks/%?

Thank you

tinkerbell0406

Cancel your exam and re-book. If the marking is the same point to point i would have passed last time.

badger636

> @tinkerbell0406 said:
> Cancel your exam and re-book. If the marking is the same point to point i would have passed last time.

Yeah I totally agree. Have you passed it yet? How many times have you tried? I have only taken it once but personally found it so hard it made me want to actually give up, which is ridiculous really!

GMS1992

Took mine yesterday, too late to cancel and re-book so thought I may as well have a go at it.
I think because I was expecting it to be so bad, it was actually okay... have to wait for the results I guess and worse case I'll take again once the exam has changed.
Still don''t think it's very fair but would have lost out on the exam booking payment either way so had to give it a go.

tinkerbell0406

Good luck gns, i have taken it three times the third i thought i had walked it as it seem less like a Chinese test and more like accounts. But failed with 55% guess this why they are changing it....i am going to book mine first week in march.

badger636

> @tinkerbell0406 said:
> Good luck gns, i have taken it three times the third i thought i had walked it as it seem less like a Chinese test and more like accounts. But failed with 55% guess this why they are changing it....i am going to book mine first week in march.

Yeah same here booking mine for first week of March too, good luck, let’s hope it’s more in line with the syllabus this time

agirlcalledamy

I've just found out i failed the exam, with 58%, which by the new standards, I would have passed!! does anyone think its worth complaining as its not fair. especially since people sitting it after 5th March would have the same amount of time, for an easier exam! I'm sure they may get a lot of phone called from angry students about this. I know previously they bought a lot of peoples marks up to pass.

absco14

I just found out i failed the old style by 1% which i think is crazy - If that was the new standards id imagine id of passed by a mile

GMS1992

Found out last Thursday I passed this with 91%, I'm used to getting between 85%-91% however after reading the comments in here I genuinely thought I would fail.
I studied very hard, making sure I did a bit every day and it paid off.
Good luck to everyone with the new style of exam.

tinkerbell0406

Yehhhh!! We'll done u. I am going this evening to attempt the new exam. I have spent day revising. If i don't pass I'm giving up

VS1

@tinkerbell0406 let us know how the new exam went? also don't give up yet It will all be worth it in the end

tinkerbell0406

Thanks x think of me at 5pm struggling with variances

tinkerbell0406

All done, questions i would say are harder but clearer but more time to suss it out. And possible more written element as you are ask a numeric question and then asked for an explanation. Better i don't know possibly find out in five weeks.

VS1

Ah i see, do you feel more positive this time? Also do you have many exams left?

Good Luck with the results, let us know when you get this.

tinkerbell0406

I have my synoptic....third time lucky!!! And yes i did feel more positive but i did last I did it.

DLStudent_Hannah1

Currently i can not see that changing the tasks from 10 to 8 has actually helped to positively effect the average pass rates.

Even with this change i am still coming across lots of examples where results are 65% - 69%

Have many people seen examples where this change has actually improved the pass rates - for their class or friends in general?

Has this change been effective?

Simon_Phillips

didn't do the old 10 task exam, but just got a result of 78%