PEV Exam December 2004

System · January 2005

I have had a few emails recently asking about how I got on with the examiner at the lecturers and examiners meeting just before Christmas. Unfortunately, Andy Royle who is the PEV examiner was not able to attend. He works for an organisation who sadly had insisted he worked on the day organised. From my existing understanding of how the exams are assessed, I suspect that the problems people encountered in Section 2 will not be crucial to passing the paper. As many threads have shown, we all would like to see the marking schemes, but these are not disclosed to lecturers or to students. What has happened in the past with questions approaching the subject from an angle not previously used? These questions have had a proportionately lower number of marks than question formats that are more familiar. So, I suspect a lot of people who use these discussion boards will be pleasantly surprised when the results come through. Remember that section 2 must be passed, but as only 80 minutes were allocated (the nearest we'll get to a guide about marks) then fewer marks will be needed to pass this part than the first section. I've also received countless emails telling me how mean the examiner was to ask the questions in 2.2 and 2.3. I have gone back to the specifications for PEV to see where the justification of the revised profit and loss account comes from. If you look at 8.2b you will see identify potential improvements and estimate the value of potential improvements In this exam the proposal was to close Factory A and to transfer its business to Factory B. The task asks for an estimate of the value to the business of this potential improvement - how it impacts on the profits (of Factory B and of the company as a whole). So I may be the first person to post a message here that says, the question was justified. I think it is fair to note, that this sort of question could appear again. AND when it does it will carry more marks. I will certainly be covering this approach to the topic in my future classes (the weekly 2hr ones, the four-day ones and the one-day revision ones). sandy.hood@chichester.ac.uk

System · January 2005

PEV Exam December 2004

I understand that the AAT has a right to ask this sort of question in a Exam paper Sandy but my concerns are that book companies like BPP, Osborne and FTC are not including similar questions in their text books for students. Dont the book companies work closely with the AAT ? Most lecturers (except yourself) were not preparing students before the exam for a question like this and by focusing on past papers its not really helpful. I spent a lot of time going through text books, doing past papers preparing for this exam and for the examiner to throw something new in with little warning I feel knocks your confidence and you waste time and in my case mess up 2.3 memo question. MY other moan is that the sample paper the AAT issues is usually different to the actual paper, what is the purpose of this paper ? I feel that the AAT should warn book companies of possible changes in question types so they can provide practice exercises in their books.

System · January 2005

PEV Exam December 2004

Daniel your response raises a few very important points. These are the issues that very many students often miss. So, many thanks for this opportunity for me to respond. First point. "my concerns are that book companies like BPP, Osborne and FTC are not including similar questions in their text books for students. Dont the book companies work closely with the AAT ?" They do not work closely enough. I think Osborne do the best job of matching their books to the specifications and they do go along to the meetings between the examiners and lecturers to get clarification of how the exam is likely to go. But AAT do not necessarily want to give away the format or even the topics that will be in any particular exam. These are NVQ units, so anything that might give the impression that someone could pass without a comprehensive coverage of the whole NVQ may bring AAT into conflict with NCVQ. As you know from my class, I did cover topics that had not been tested before and although the main thrust was to use past papers, I did look at some other ways to test the topics. But as you know, I did not look at a forecast profit and loss account approach. Second point. MY other moan is that the sample paper the AAT issues is usually different to the actual paper, what is the purpose of this paper ? I am pretty sure that no sample paper had come out between the June 2004 paper (written by John Watts) and the Nov 29 paper (written by Andy Royle). There have been sample papers. I think that FRA and ECR (Intermediate papers in Dec 2003) were remarkably similar to the respective samples. By the time of the June 2004 FRA and ECR papers, the changes had come in. The sample does give a flavour of what is coming in future exams, but that seems to be all. I have very many views about PEV (as you know!). One is that it will develop over the next few sessions. I will be expecting lots of different approaches to the tasks over the next few exams. In fact, I think that this will be a hallmark of the new examiner. It will move the exam away from something that follows a standard format and could be passed using standard approaches, into something which demands a core of knowledge and the ability to apply the knowledge in a context of the examiner's choice. Third point. I feel that the AAT should warn book companies of possible changes in question types so they can provide practice exercises in their books. I agree. And I think the critical point here is worth noting by anyone studying alone at home. AAT produce a newsletter for college tutors. In it they will update us on any changes that they plan. Recently, the new ECR examiner put an article in about how he sees the paper going in the future. This sort of thing puts the colleges at an advantage over the publishers, as these snippits of information can be built into classes and exercises even though they are not in the books. As you can see, the student relying on just books can be disadvantaged by not being fully up-to-date with what is going on. My suggestion to anyone in this position, is to read the accounting technician magazine articles relating to exams thoroughly, as the same articles (or similar ones) are sometimes printed there. sandy.hood@chichester.ac.uk

PEV Exam December 2004

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