pcr - does anyone else think this was a horrible exam!!

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  • rebeccas
    rebeccas Registered Posts: 25 Regular contributor ⭐
    ChloeGee wrote: »
    I hope we both pass :thumbup1::001_smile::001_tongue::001_tt2:

    :001_tt2::001_tt2::001_tt2::001_tt2:
  • Ozzy
    Ozzy Registered Posts: 21 New contributor 🐸
    ... Rolling Budgets

    Doesnt Rolling Budgets mean just taking forward your results into the next Quarter/Period......? and adjusting eqivalently>?

    E.g 2008 Budget to 2009 Adjusting for any economic factors e.g growth in sales or demand? oh dear?:crying:
  • welshwizard
    welshwizard Registered Posts: 465 Dedicated contributor 🦉
    Ozzy wrote: »
    Doesnt Rolling Budgets mean just taking forward your results into the next Quarter/Period......? and adjusting eqivalently>?

    E.g 2008 Budget to 2009 Adjusting for any economic factors e.g growth in sales or demand? oh dear?:crying:


    Not on my paper - but then I looked in the book!:confused1:
  • Han
    Han Registered Posts: 7 New contributor 🐸
    rebeccas wrote: »
    It sounds as though you had the same idea as me...thanks to the lack of clarity in the additional data I deduced from these statements
    "There is no restriction on closing stocks" and "storage space is not an issue" (or something along those lines) that during Q2 and Q3 when there was loads of idle time that would be best used to produce more stock for the next quarter (due to there being no restriction on closing stock or lack of storage) and thus reducing the burden on Q4 - thereby reducing the amount of agency staff required in Q4 from about 30-odd to about 3(?). However using this approach lead to a whole raft of extra calculations which the AAT doesnt normally ask for! Anyhow I based my report on this so hopefully the marker should see the logic of what I am getting at?!! After all why would you have your staff sitting around for half of Q2 & 3 doing nothing when they could be preparing for times ahead?!

    However, my friend had a totally different perspective to me based on the assumptions that she had made on those two quotes and her answer seems just as valid to me - albeit completely different!!

    I also had trouble understanding EXACTLY what they wanted out of the report - and English IS my first language!

    Really disappointed with this paper as I really thought I had this one sown up :thumbdown:


    Few that’s what I did 2! Again I think it's another question that has been interpreted in different ways. It will be interesting to see how the examiner wanted it answered.
  • rebeccas
    rebeccas Registered Posts: 25 Regular contributor ⭐
    Ozzy wrote: »
    Doesnt Rolling Budgets mean just taking forward your results into the next Quarter/Period......? and adjusting eqivalently>?

    E.g 2008 Budget to 2009 Adjusting for any economic factors e.g growth in sales or demand? oh dear?:crying:

    Something along those lines! It also means you have a constant 12 month (or quarter or whatever) budget. So in Jan you do your budget for the year. In Feb you then have another look at it, adjust it , add things whatever and then re-budget for the next 12 months...ie you now have Jan of next year tagged onto the end.

    Basically it is rolling and never ends! Takes forever and is very boring to keep updating - although is more accurate.

    This is nowhere in our study notes and we wasnt taught it (by Kaplan). Thank God for my boss being a fussy cow and forcing to endure doing them every month!!! :thumbup1:
  • joanne smith
    joanne smith Registered Posts: 2 New contributor 🐸
    PCR Exam Today!!!

    :thumbdown: Hello all.......I have also sat the PCR paper this morning....what a shambles!!!!!???

    I was so prepared for this paper just the same for the other two... However...PCR task 1.2 and the throw in of agency staff???..around 90% ofstudents in my exam felt this task had not been touched upon with our teacher and not even approached in any past papers!! Therefore i ask you...how the hell are we expected to know the answer????

    I thought i was just was just being thick and totally messed up..but, as it happens everybody i have spoken to is in exact same boat...and i think the examiner needs head examining!!!! x
  • Sonny_L
    Sonny_L Registered Posts: 201 Dedicated contributor 🦉
    1) with the first labour cost statement, before the additional info. Did everyone else deduce the regular staffs overtime from total require hours less normal time available less 7200 agency staff hours?
  • laurenw
    laurenw Registered Posts: 42 Regular contributor ⭐
    Ozzy wrote: »
    Doesnt Rolling Budgets mean just taking forward your results into the next Quarter/Period......? and adjusting eqivalently>?

    E.g 2008 Budget to 2009 Adjusting for any economic factors e.g growth in sales or demand? oh dear?:crying:

    Apparently that is the correct answer (looked on the net). Shame i didnt put that tho lol.
  • LANETTE DARNBROUGH
    LANETTE DARNBROUGH Registered Posts: 5 New contributor 🐸
    PCR what a sham this paper turned out to be. Section 1, what was all that about, i found this paper very confusing and had no idea what was been asked, also with the feeling half the information needed to calculate was missing.

    Am i the only one. ??
  • rebeccas
    rebeccas Registered Posts: 25 Regular contributor ⭐
    pcr What A Sham This Paper Turned Out To Be. Section 1, What Was All That About, I Found This Paper Very Confusing And Had No Idea What Was Been Asked, Also With The Feeling Half The Information Needed To Calculate Was Missing.

    Am I The Only One. ??

    Nope!
  • ChloeGee
    ChloeGee Registered Posts: 23 New contributor 🐸
    PCR what a sham this paper turned out to be. Section 1, what was all that about, i found this paper very confusing and had no idea what was been asked, also with the feeling half the information needed to calculate was missing.

    Am i the only one. ??


    Nope you're not, don't worry. Think the general consensus is that it was a particularly tough paper.
    I just didn't think there was enough guidance, usually AAT like to molly cuddle you into questions but not this.
    Bish: here's the info. Bosh: Do something with it.
    :mad2:
  • connora
    connora Registered Posts: 4 New contributor 🐸
    No you are not the only one, question 1.1 refered to QTR's 1,2&3 then question 1.2 included QTR 4 with no indication of what the closing stock might be, indicating earlier that it increases by 2% each time so its doubtful to be zero but we had no further information! on the whole it was worded terrible and didn't specify what it wanted from us.....but i just loved the way they expressed the fact they wanted 3 "TABLES" for their answers, god knows what they wanted in them though lol
  • laurenw
    laurenw Registered Posts: 42 Regular contributor ⭐
    PCR what a sham this paper turned out to be. Section 1, what was all that about, i found this paper very confusing and had no idea what was been asked, also with the feeling half the information needed to calculate was missing.

    Am i the only one. ??

    No your not the only one, i feel the same.

    I did all the budgets ok and i think i kind of did the revised budgets right.

    The flexed budget was ok, but no idea on the rest, the memos i blagged my way through. Never heard of any of thoses terms before.

    I just hope i pass, especially after PEV in Dec, i cant take anymore of costing exams :-(.
  • elaine83
    elaine83 Registered Posts: 1 New contributor 🐸
    That was horrible! Was so confident about PCR....nearly all past papers got right and understood! But what an earth was today's PCR exam about!
  • DMM
    DMM Registered Posts: 6 New contributor 🐸
    I agree Lanette, this was my second attempt at PCR and Section 1 has let me down again, even more so this time as I couldn't understand 1.2 or even continue on to 1.3. I am gutted. Both me and the other two students in the room used the full time allocation and was still writing when time was called.

    :-(
  • Jay
    Jay Registered Posts: 11 New contributor 🐸
    What's THE POINT!!!

    I am there with the rest of you ....

    I keeping banging on to my teenagers to work hard and revise and you'll do well in your exams. HA HA .... In the case of this weeks costing papers I think the joke is on me (and unfortunately by the looks of it, also several other students!)

    I, like so many of us, spent a great deal of time revising for something that didn't resemble the syllabus (secton 2 PEV and section 1 PCR)

    I don't think it is a tuiton problem, I think there may well be a problem with the examination content reflecting the syllabus that we are being taught.

    Although, it appears that the PEV 2007 Dec (the tea-bag question) and the two costing papers this week have been set in a different way to anything previous. I think there is a new examiner??

    Well whatever the reason for today's mess up it needs looking into.

    If I was considering taking technician and I came on to this forum and read these threads I would think again.

    Everyone likes to feel reasonably challenged - its nice to think you have earned a qualification. But no one likes to think that the examiner is deliberately make it so difficult that the pass rate falls into single figures!!!!! (well my class anyway!!!)

    Hopefully the examiners will take notice of the feedback and respond appropriately.
  • tre4sgal
    tre4sgal Registered Posts: 7 New contributor 🐸
    humm and I thought this was the easier of the exams. Question 1.1 fine the rest of the section???????????????????????????????

    We have not covered this and I have seen nothing like it in other past papers. It was badly worded hard to fathom and over complicated.

    Section 2 was fine ...... just as well as I had spent well over 2 hours on section 1 and still had it wrong. I had to abandon section 1 and return after completing section 2 as I thought I was going to run out of time. I was still writing until the end and so were around 3/4 of the other students. A very harsh paper! :thumbdown::crying::mad2:
  • carjon
    carjon Registered Posts: 14 New contributor 🐸
    DMM this was my second attempt aswell ! and the same section caught me, the examiner needs his head read, this is supposed to be the easiest of technician, budgeting is something we do every day of our lives, but I didn't have a clue what was going on there is section 1.
  • Ozzy
    Ozzy Registered Posts: 21 New contributor 🐸
    ...
    Sonny_L wrote: »
    1) with the first labour cost statement, before the additional info. Did everyone else deduce the regular staffs overtime from total require hours less normal time available less 7200 agency staff hours?


    Yeah i did - minused this first as you know they will work it then dervived the overtime/idle time from the permanent staff

    Phew!:thumbup1:
  • rebeccas
    rebeccas Registered Posts: 25 Regular contributor ⭐
    Here's a joke...

    According to the Kaplan Pocket notes neither PEV or PCR are "intended to be time constrained examinations"

    :lol::lol:
  • carjon
    carjon Registered Posts: 14 New contributor 🐸
    I totally agree with what you say, it's all down to the examiner, we have all worked hard for this, maybe he he/she hasn't even taken note of what is actually in the past papers that we have all revised on like mad.
  • dawn
    dawn Registered Posts: 7 New contributor 🐸
    Does anyone know if you get full marks on 1.1 and 2.1 and 2.2 .... but nothing on the rest, can you still pass???
  • tre4sgal
    tre4sgal Registered Posts: 7 New contributor 🐸
    Does anyone know if you get full marks on 1.1 and 2.1 and 2.2 .... but nothing on the rest, can you still pass???

    ha ha I am hopeing so! :crying:
  • mehmet
    mehmet Registered Posts: 113 Dedicated contributor 🦉
    carjon wrote: »
    I totally agree with what you say, it's all down to the examiner, we have all worked hard for this, maybe he he/she hasn't even taken note of what is actually in the past papers that we have all revised on like mad.

    Yeah, because past papers haven't had a production budget, a revised production budget, a report about the revised production budget, followed by a flexed budget, explanation of variances and a short answer question. :glare:

    Personally, I thought the exam was OK. A bit harder than previous exams, but not exceptionally so. Task 1.2 was a little different to what normally comes up, but had enough information to understand what was going on.
  • dawn
    dawn Registered Posts: 7 New contributor 🐸
    you and me both lol

    also, does anyone know what the weighting of these tasks are points wise or %'s???
  • Ozzy
    Ozzy Registered Posts: 21 New contributor 🐸
    dawn wrote: »
    Does anyone know if you get full marks on 1.1 and 2.1 and 2.2 .... but nothing on the rest, can you still pass???
    I think you have to get at least 50% on each question to pass / if everyone flunks a question then they will lower the 50% to whatever they decide as the examining board....

    But you need to show competencies on both sections

    E.G i think i done well for Task 1.1 , messed up 2.1 but got there somewhere i hope in the end,
    Done section 2 with ease explanations on the varianes where assumptions but tried to base them on the results but was rushed as i want4ed to correct or ad some stuff to 2.1 becuz i was near in cracking it.. i was going in the right direction on 2.1 but time was the obsticle this time not teh question so much.... but it was wierd......
  • miri123
    miri123 Registered Posts: 2 New contributor 🐸
    What a paper!

    I did not get the overheads in 1.1... Was I just tired???

    1.2 hopeless and 1.3 as well
    2.2 not covered at all

    This is not looking good, is it? :crying:
  • smoggi
    smoggi Registered Posts: 4 New contributor 🐸
    Thought PCR section 1 was terrible. Lack of information. Were regular employees guarenteed 480hrs per quarter if so where was the idletime charged to. I personally went back over this twice. In the end i added a note at the bottom of the calculations saying that i assumed that idle time was paid for as the question didnt state anything to the contrary and charged all costs to direct labour.

    In the revised labour budget i got 16 temps in Q1 and 3 in Q4.
  • Lizy
    Lizy Registered Posts: 24 New contributor 🐸
    Pev & Pcr

    Hi Lanette Darnbrough, I know how you feel about spending the past 6 Months preparing for exams only to end up feeling very up set.

    In my own opinion I think the text book authors and the examiner need to sit together and re-write another text book. for example I have read osborn textbook from back to back Tutorial and workbook, I have not come across such question in PEV question 2.2
  • AdamR
    AdamR Registered Posts: 668 Epic contributor 🐘
    smoggi wrote: »
    Thought PCR section 1 was terrible. Lack of information. Were regular employees guarenteed 480hrs per quarter if so where was the idletime charged to. I personally went back over this twice. In the end i added a note at the bottom of the calculations saying that i assumed that idle time was paid for as the question didnt state anything to the contrary and charged all costs to direct labour.

    In the revised labour budget i got 16 temps in Q1 and 3 in Q4.

    I got the same as someone then! Wonder what the examiners will make of all our papers?!:laugh:
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