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b# 【F5】09年12月F5官方考试分析—— Ms.Wu
Analysis of Exam Paper F5 in December 2009
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d- Generalcomments &`x
1_*l Theexam consisted of 5 questions which were compulsory, and there was no evidenceshown that the candidates had time pressure.
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++c,= Thepass rate was 52%.
-J &y]' %[S-"k Specificcomments / vgEDw Questionone 2 8 Q\{Z. Variancecalculation and analysis
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BDyF =)b!M^=X-a a) Straightforward calculation of material price and usage variance – easy mark butmany candidates were very poor of doing that because it was the content in PaperF2.
% Yw?!GvL[ b) More difficult calculation of operational and planning variances for materialprice and usage – unsurprisingly, answer for part (b) could have been better.There are two methods of calculating these variances, both of them were markedcorrectly; however, you should make sure they were consistent.
z H| YVg c) Written requirement to assess the performance of the production manager. Even ifyou had no idea about all the above questions, you still had opportunities togain the full marks for question c. Do not forget to mix your common sense withthe knowledge and also analyze according to the specific case. Operationalvariances are deemed to be within the control of the production manager,planning variances are not; the net effect of usage and price variances must beconsidered when assessing the production manager’ performance.
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X uv G' Kx Questiontwo 'k '"+ a) Easy marks, average cost of a chair using learning curve. – we found the mistakeagain which was happened frequently. a = the cost taken to make the first unit,this cost is the cost of labour used for making the first unit not the totalcost of making the chair.
V_\9t8 b) Discussion how to close a cost gap – target costing is the selling price isascertained and then, taking off the business’ desired margin, the target costis arrived at. So you can say, sourcing cheaper materials of the same quality,but not increase the selling price. You should know what the meaning of targetcosting is!
~t+T5`K c) Higher level, average cost of a chair based on the incremental cost of the finalchair when learning curve is finished. Please do not forget to bring thescientific calculator into the exam！
~ aBf. 2 o)8 'Lp Questionthree okm
}%#| Thequestion was a predominantly numerical question about budgeting. Answers to thisquestion were a lot better than expected.
_p*a `,tK a) time series analysis
!#y_vz9 b) regression analysis – lots of candidates used high – low method, we guess it wasnot because they made mistake on reading the question, the true reason was theydo not understand what the regression is, this is the content in Paper F2too.
f?JP=j c) advantages and disadvantages of a local government organization usingincremental budgeting. – we got many reasonable answers, however if you canmention a specific local government organizations as an example, that will bebetter.
S$N!Dj@e; ^iA_<@[`X[ Questionfour x3AA n,m8 Classicperformance management question, both financial and non-financial performanceindicators
f/P qkHF 7m$EZTw? a)always happened, the calculation was all right, but only few analysis and deepthoughts. For example, Sales increased by 1.3%. many candidates wrote: SALESINCREASED BY 1.3, WHICH IS GOOD. Actually you should say: sales increased by1.3%, just above inflation. This was purely down to the increase in admissionprices rather than an increase in the volume of sales, since visitor numbersactually fell by 6.7%, overall this is not particularly good. Also you’d betterto mention some qualitative factors, such as “it is not good for the long – termprosperity of the company”.
Uc%kyT Bm1 b) Quality of the service and risks thecompany was facing with its current policies. This question was answered betterthan last one. We found some good common sense points. But some students forgotto mention the risks. I guess this was due to reading carefulness.
s,CN<`/>x "%(SLQOyy Questionfive : %[mc-6. Decision-making,relevant costing, pricing and outsourcing
;SgPF:T>Q a) Straightforward shutdown decision with a tricky of bulk purchase discounts. Butyou should review the meaning of relevant cost. For example, if productionceased now the factory space could be leased out for $12,000 per annum. Manyanswers showed this as income in the ‘cease now’ calculation but then also as acost in the ‘stop in 12 months’ calculation. This double counting waswrong.
i2P:I A|@ b) Regarding the pricing strategies, you can say complementary or product linepricing. But you should not say ‘penetration pricing’ or ‘market skimming’ as TDis not a new product.
u_HCXpP!Q c) Outsourcing, majority candidates answered this well.
@ / .w% \X2r? z{H=;"+rh Writtenby Yue Wu, lecturer Paper F5.
