FAE September 2014

Dellboy2007

Looks like the institute do be on boards!

Hai goys!!

Accountant81

Dellboy2007 wrote: »

Looks like the institute do be on boards!

Hai goys!!

It certainly does! Just received an email with the updated instructions for the exams. Alcohol and smoking is now prohibited. Spoil sports.

Dellboy2007

Accountant81 wrote: »

It certainly does! Just received an email with the updated instructions for the exams. Alcohol and smoking is now prohibited. Spoil sports.

Yeah... That's kinda what I was on about.

Accountant81

Dellboy2007 wrote: »

Yeah... That's kinda what I was on about.

Dreaming of sunshine

Guys, need help, can anyone recommend the cases they got the most out of from a PM financial reporting perspective? Running out of time case wise so I'm going to have to prioritise! Any advice would be much appreciated!!!

20 Times 20 Times

Dreaming of sunshine wrote: »

Guys, need help, can anyone recommend the cases they got the most out of from a PM financial reporting perspective? Running out of time case wise so I'm going to have to prioritise! Any advice would be much appreciated!!!

FMJ :-)

Dellboy2007

Dreaming of sunshine wrote: »

Guys, need help, can anyone recommend the cases they got the most out of from a PM financial reporting perspective? Running out of time case wise so I'm going to have to prioritise! Any advice would be much appreciated!!!

I'd say use DC's case book, pick X amount of cases that cover off the most amount of standards. Ensure your notes are in order and keep the toolkit handy also.

FAEStudent2014

LOccitane wrote: »

Folks; just a follow up on that LogicMed solution.. It states that Warranty provisions are tax deductible as created.

Does anybody have the relevant TCA sections or Revenue guidance references for this? I've searched online but can't seem to find anything. Thanks.

I did a case last night... O Reilly Mortages and there was deferred tax indicator. It states that the bad debt provisions which is the question was both general and specific are tax deductible and therefore no deferred tax impact....
I know it doesn't answer ur Q above but helpful to know as I know we discussed this on earlier pages!

PhilipLuke

How are people who have done full exams finding timing?
What is the general consensus on time allotted to planning?

PhilipLuke

And whats the study plans for the last week?

jny107

I'm doing 1.5 hours planning (reading 1 hr and notes 30 mins) need to jot down all relevant points before I start writing otherwise when I get to that indicator I'll forget my relevant points because I'm too busy writing! Getting files sorted for all notes next week, so I know where everything is and I only have what I need with me. Almost broke my back last year trawling everything I had accumulated from cap1!

PhilipLuke

jny107 wrote: »

I'm doing 1.5 hours planning (reading 1 hr and notes 30 mins) need to jot down all relevant points before I start writing otherwise when I get to that indicator I'll forget my relevant points because I'm too busy writing! Getting files sorted for all notes next week, so I know where everything is and I only have what I need with me. Almost broke my back last year trawling everything I had accumulated from cap1!

Are you bringing in the books as backup incase you need to check something?

littlemiss123

PhilipLuke wrote: »

Are you bringing in the books as backup incase you need to check something?

I know I'll definitely be bringing books with me anyway!

Cagney87

does it matter for the core comp what order you answer the indicators in? looking at the 2013 comp it just seemed to be random enough wheras the steps cases seem to start with strategy co. analysis and flow from there??

littlemiss123

Cagney87 wrote: »

does it matter for the core comp what order you answer the indicators in? looking at the 2013 comp it just seemed to be random enough wheras the steps cases seem to start with strategy co. analysis and flow from there??

I vaguely remember being told to start with the 'numbers' first i.e. FR indicators or if there was an NPV analysis or something. The outcome of these could affect some of your strategy type answers later in the paper.

galway321

Cagney87 wrote: »

does it matter for the core comp what order you answer the indicators in? looking at the 2013 comp it just seemed to be random enough wheras the steps cases seem to start with strategy co. analysis and flow from there??

I'm going to do PM first. Then finance/BL.
Then any order of audit and tax.
IMP will be dead last as I imagine the requirements will be quite low seeing as you can't repeat it next year. So if I'm stuck for time IMP will take a hit.

FAEStudent2014

Going to do 1 hour planning including reading time, maybe 1.15.. Plan for next week is to read over all my notes and ensure I have everything.. Not getting much from cases at this stage?!

Cagney87

ya I thought so too just looking at the core they started with Audit, tax, ethics, HR, then did man acc and FR and finished with the ABC costing. I think starting with the Strategy, BL, FR is nearly the best way alright

myshirt

Anyone have the balls to go 1:1 on the planning and executing?

No lie, chap I know didn't start writing his answer until 1p.m for core, and came in Decile one.

I just don't know.... I couldn't pull that off... but anyway, seriously guys, big big tip, do not sell yourself short on reading and understanding. An extra 10 minutes reading is better than an extra ten minutes winging it and writing crap for the sake of writing crap.

It's not a writing test; and it's not an English test. It's a test of decisions, analysis and recommendations. Short, sweet, focussed, 'balls out of the bath', no bullsh!ting, straight to the point honest accurate advice.

Anyone gonna for 1:1 on the planning?

PhilipLuke

myshirt wrote: »

Anyone have the balls to go 1:1 on the planning and executing?

No lie, chap I know didn't start writing his answer until 1p.m for core, and came in Decile one.

I just don't know.... I couldn't pull that off... but anyway, seriously guys, big big tip, do not sell yourself short on reading and understanding. An extra 10 minutes reading is better than an extra ten minutes winging it and writing crap for the sake of writing crap.

It's not a writing test; and it's not an English test. It's a test of decisions, analysis and recommendations. Short, sweet, focussed, 'balls out of the bath', no bullsh!ting, straight to the point honest accurate advice.

Anyone gonna for 1:1 on the planning?

Thats brave!! I wonder how much did he write per indicator?

Dellboy2007

myshirt wrote: »

'balls out of the bath'

These are the quotes that I will bring with me to the rds.

jny107

PhilipLuke wrote: »

Are you bringing in the books as backup incase you need to check something?

Absolutely! Nothing worse than the panic of thinking " I know that's in my book" and not having it to hand. Key is knowing what you have with you and in 2 seconds being able to find it - if you need a quick refresh

lydia123

I just noticed on an institute newsletter email (came this afternoon) it says the website will be down next Saturday 30th from 8.30am to 1.30pm
Epic timing of course but just passing it on for people doing last minute panic searching etc.
We're nearly there :-)

m1ck007

Just did the elite academy of sport case, took an hour to plan it, def helped when filling in the indicators.

LOccitane

I'm working with 85 - 95 mins for reading and planning for the CORE COMP. That's a 30-35 / 70 ballpark split. I tend to write far too slowly and I'd be severely worried about going past 40% on reading and planning.

In terms of next week - I'm just going to revise notes in summary, focus on weak areas technically and tab up some good examples and briefly index them from the Cases covered.

A question also.. In terms of Finance, out of any case that I've looked at the workings are not computationally heavy outside of a financial analysis ratio type piece. How likely do you think it is we'd be asked to calculate a B factor for example? It was more prominent on the old MABF Papers but it seems the new FAE approach for finance doesn't go into that computational depth? Any thoughts?

Nothin but the Truth

LOccitane wrote: »

I'm working with 85 - 95 mins for reading and planning for the CORE COMP. That's a 30-35 / 70 ballpark split. I tend to write far too slowly and I'd be severely worried about going past 40% on reading and planning.

In terms of next week - I'm just going to revise notes in summary, focus on weak areas technically and tab up some good examples and briefly index them from the Cases covered.

A question also.. In terms of Finance, out of any case that I've looked at the workings are not computationally heavy outside of a financial analysis ratio type piece. How likely do you think it is we'd be asked to calculate a B factor for example? It was more prominent on the old MABF Papers but it seems the new FAE approach for finance doesn't go into that computational depth? Any thoughts?

No chance whatsoever, cap 1 and cap 2 have tested all the really technical stuff. The FAE is about applying things like WACC to a company situation and not calculating it. The only way they will something a little more technical is if there are 3 indicators for finance but then they will also give 2 std type finance ones to offset this.

jaybeeveedub

Not a tall wrote: »

Has anybody done the Argon Visio STEPS Case?

Any idea how the contributions from the contributions from the different projects were calculated? And how did they arrive at the €500k provision against the Twinkle project?

For teh contribution PM took an average contribution for the firm based on revenues less standard COS/budgeted revenues i.e. 33,310/78,000 = 42% the multiplied that by the sales figures given....

Can't see how he got to the R&D w/o though..... anyone?

Dreaming of sunshine

I find it tricky to practice timing in a way because it will all depend on what kind of things I have to deal with on the day. But I would say it definitely will pay off if we spend a significant amount of time planning as we will have a better chance of picking up on some of the smaller details (that might change the whole indicator) and also on the key issues that will help link indicators. Once you have the idea and plan well laid out and roughly bulleted in the planning, writing a clear concise answer to the indicator probably won't take that long ( with the exception of any number/calculation indicators of course!)

Nothin but the Truth

jaybeeveedub wrote: »

For teh contribution PM took an average contribution for the firm based on revenues less standard COS/budgeted revenues i.e. 33,310/78,000 = 42% the multiplied that by the sales figures given....

Can't see how he got to the R&D w/o though..... anyone?

I think its the 1.410 milllion left to be amortised which is then divided by the 18 remaining periods x 6 periods remaining this year which is 470. I think he just rounds it up to eliminate the 500k that is calculated later on in qus

Mark1916

Done LogicMed today and it was ok-ish I thought the FR adjustments were a bit off the wall especially the good will impairment and pension I can't imagine that coming up in an exam! Plus the depth of the answers to get C I thought was very tough to achieve!

20 Times 20 Times

Mark1916 wrote: »

Done LogicMed today and it was ok-ish I thought the FR adjustments were a bit off the wall especially the good will impairment and pension I can't imagine that coming up in an exam! Plus the depth of the answers to get C I thought was very tough to achieve!

So then you didn't think its was "ok-ish" !

Mark1916

20 Times 20 Times wrote: »

So then you didn't think its was "ok-ish" !

Ha! Yea I suppose I didn't, tough to get C in the majority of indicators! Couple of the indicators were ok - ethics, business analysis and due diligence!

littlemiss123

Mark1916 wrote: »

Ha! Yea I suppose I didn't, tough to get C in the majority of indicators! Couple of the indicators were ok - ethics, business analysis and due diligence!

I think I've just given up on those cases, not gonna be scare-mongered by them anymore! Doing them just knocks my confidence and that's the last thing I need a week before the exams! The actual exam papers are more do-able.

Mark1916

littlemiss123 wrote: »

I think I've just given up on those cases, not gonna be scare-mongered by them anymore! Doing them just knocks my confidence and that's the last thing I need a week before the exams! The actual exam papers are more do-able.

Defo! From monday onwards just going to concentrate mostly on FR and management technical with a few of the BL cases thrown in to keep it fresh!

ted2767

Cagney87 wrote: »

does it matter for the core comp what order you answer the indicators in? looking at the 2013 comp it just seemed to be random enough wheras the steps cases seem to start with strategy co. analysis and flow from there??

From last yr numbers first fin reporting then finance. Any adjustments will amend reportable profits and subsequently could affect finance e.g. valuations, share price, EPS etc.

After that it doesn't matter whatever suits yourself.

Do your damnest to finish the paper obvious but true the more indicators you do the better chance of passing you have. A buddy of mine ended up with 10 bullets for last indicator but it was better than nothing and he passed.

I did nearly 1 : 1 planning ; writing personally I think the better prepared you are the more structured your answer will be and the better your chances of passing.

jaybeeveedub

Nothin but the Truth wrote: »

I think its the 1.410 milllion left to be amortised which is then divided by the 18 remaining periods x 6 periods remaining this year which is 470. I think he just rounds it up to eliminate the 500k that is calculated later on in qus

See thats where I'm thrown, the original "horizontal" deferred R&D balance remaining at dec13 is 1,159 less that amortised to date of 835 leaves 324, while he says we need top keep a close eye on the vertical spend in this year which is deferred of 1,410

jaybeeveedub

Mark1916 wrote: »

Done LogicMed today and it was ok-ish I thought the FR adjustments were a bit off the wall especially the good will impairment and pension I can't imagine that coming up in an exam! Plus the depth of the answers to get C I thought was very tough to achieve!

That goodwill baffled me!

Surely LMEL aren't required to prepare Consolidated Financials being a 100% sub of a group which does! Yet he seems to be

maninblack

LOccitane wrote: »

I'm working with 85 - 95 mins for reading and planning for the CORE COMP. That's a 30-35 / 70 ballpark split. I tend to write far too slowly and I'd be severely worried about going past 40% on reading and planning.

In terms of next week - I'm just going to revise notes in summary, focus on weak areas technically and tab up some good examples and briefly index them from the Cases covered.

A question also.. In terms of Finance, out of any case that I've looked at the workings are not computationally heavy outside of a financial analysis ratio type piece. How likely do you think it is we'd be asked to calculate a B factor for example? It was more prominent on the old MABF Papers but it seems the new FAE approach for finance doesn't go into that computational depth? Any thoughts?

Yeah that's pretty much how I'm working it.

30 min = read solely to identify indicators (fast read)
next 60 mins = re-read with the indicators in mind and map out all the issues and where they fit into the solution.

Some of the comps are so long-winded it's tough to get the first read done within the 30 but definitely do-able.

I'd be worried if I wasn't starting to write my answer after 90 min tbh. Only leaves circa 20 min an indicator and I think you'd need that as a minimum if you're writing 2/3 pages!

Androma1984

Just out of interest, do people flick to an appendix once mentioned,go through it at that point and then back to main body, or just read the appendixes all together at the end?

I know it has been discussed already, but i'm still at a loose end as to what is expected to be written in the answer book to show planning. My intention was to take the right hand corner technique while initially reading, noting issues under the separate topics (during and after the first half hour). But then effectively i'm doing all my planning outside of the planning booklet and will get no value for planning as mentioned by some markers. Any advice appreciated.

George Huxley 1983

I'm doing this too. I figure I will earn more marks in the time I save by not wasting it transcribing the notes I'd written during reading time

littlemiss123

Androma1984 wrote: »

Just out of interest, do people flick to an appendix once mentioned,go through it at that point and then back to main body, or just read the appendixes all together at the end?

I know it has been discussed already, but i'm still at a loose end as to what is expected to be written in the answer book to show planning. My intention was to take the right hand corner technique while initially reading, noting issues under the separate topics (during and after the first half hour). But then effectively i'm doing all my planning outside of the planning booklet and will get no value for planning as mentioned by some markers. Any advice appreciated.

My first read through a case will be a quick enough read, only highlighting the indicators. I usually go to an appendix and read it once it has been referred to because some of the info in the appendix can be mentioned later in the main body of the text so I don't want to get confused!

During the first 30 mins in gonna read through the case once quickly and pick out the indicators, then a second time slowly highlighting all the relevant points, jotting a few notes on the paper. Once I have that done the 30 mins reading time will nearly be up and I'll just start planning in my answer booklet then, giving myself approx 7-8 mins per indicator to plan.

laser08

The whole area of planning is ridiculous and surely there can't be any marks going for it. I don't see how the institute expect u to show evidence of planning when u can't write in the exam book for the first half hour. Once you have a plan I doubt it matters whether it's in the book or done externally

littlemiss123

laser08 wrote: »

The whole area of planning is ridiculous and surely there can't be any marks going for it. I don't see how the institute expect u to show evidence of planning when u can't write in the exam book for the first half hour. Once you have a plan I doubt it matters whether it's in the book or done externally

I think it's pretty important and your planning is marked. The examiner is obliged to take into account everything that is written in the exam booklet, regardless of where is it written and whether it related to planning or not.

Having a plan will keep you focused and on track and ensures you cover all the relevant points because there is such a high volume of information. As your planning is marked, if you ran out of time and didn't get to properly cover an indicator it might just be your planning bullet points that get you over the line. TBH, it usually takes half an hour to read the case twice so I don't think I'll be putting pen to paper before the reading time is up anyway.

mark_m360

laser08 wrote: »

The whole area of planning is ridiculous and surely there can't be any marks going for it. I don't see how the institute expect u to show evidence of planning when u can't write in the exam book for the first half hour. Once you have a plan I doubt it matters whether it's in the book or done externally

If your plan states issues that you didn't put in your answer, and your around the pass rate, they may drag you over the line. They can't do that if there is no plan. You need to do as much as possible to show your competence. They review your script in its entirety.

bikeman1

They definitely take into account your planning. Part of doing any job in real life is planning what you are going to do. The same is the case for this exam.

While you may be highlighting / jotting the main points down in the first 30 minutes, you must show some prep work in the answer booklet.

I write out what I see as an indicator in the order they come up in the case, then leave space below it to fill out the key points I want to address. I go back and beef up the points when I have all the indicators down. Finally I select the order I am going to answer them in. Usually it will be numbers first and then the non numbers issues.

Anyone else just want this over at this stage? Oh and if only the exams were this week, we could go and enjoy EP next weekend. So jealous listening to my friends, knowing I won't be joining them this year :mad:

littlemiss123

bikeman1 wrote: »

Anyone else just want this over at this stage? Oh and if only the exams were this week, we could go and enjoy EP next weekend. So jealous listening to my friends, knowing I won't be joining them this year :mad:

This is exactly how I feel :mad: Sick of having these hanging over me and even more sickened to be missing EP, so jealous of those going!!

PhilipLuke

littlemiss123 wrote: »

This is exactly how I feel :mad: Sick of having these hanging over me and even more sickened to be missing EP, so jealous of those going!!

I am starting to feel like I would be better off if they were last week, the more I do the less prepared I feel due to feeling drained

laser08

I'm not saying planning isn't important. I plan externally and my point is I don't see how they can mark you on it when you can't write in the book for the first 30 mins. I can't see rewriting what I write in the first 30 mins in my answer book as an efficient use of time

littlemiss123

laser08 wrote: »

I'm not saying planning isn't important. I plan externally and my point is I don't see how they can mark you on it when you can't write in the book for the first 30 mins. I can't see rewriting what I write in the first 30 mins in my answer book as an efficient use of time

Well everyone works differently! I know I will still be reading for the first 30 minutes won't need to write anything, then I'll spend about an hour planning once we are allowed to start writing. I know what you mean though, it is a bit annoying.

laser08

littlemiss123 wrote: »

Well everyone works differently! I know I will still be reading for the first 30 minutes won't need to write anything, then I'll spend about an hour planning once we are allowed to start writing. I know what you mean though, it is a bit annoying.

This whole grey area around planning could be removed if they got rid of the no writing for first half hour. Everyone could do their planning In answer books then. It's a pointless rule