Did anyone have any trouble doing past paper question No 20 on this paper? The examiner's report says that the bulk of the marks were available for commenting on the ratios, not calculating the ratios themselves. Yet it takes ages to calculate the ratios themselves. The examiners report does not show any working on how the ratios are calculated and I get ratios that are way different to the ones in the examiners report. Would any marks be available for calculating???
Hi there. Yes I attempted that question a couple of days ago and found that it took me well over my time allocation. Did you look at the solution in asset? This shows the income statement and balance sheet which help to understand where the examiners ratio calculations come from. I think the only saving grace in a question like this is that most people will run out of time and not be able to complete the paper...hence a lower pass mark. Anyway I wish you good luck for Monday.
For this question I set out the calculations before I started on the report (on a new page). This way you show how you derived your figures from, and because the ratios can be worked out in different but valid ways, so long as your method is logical and you point out in the report what the numbers tell and don't tell you, then you should get the marks. In terms of time, I got a good tip from Margaret for CT7 when I went to the tutorial, which I think applies here. In doing past papers I've found that I do much better if I did the multiple choice, then the long 20 markers, and then back to the short. This way I get the important marks (usually 60%) by half time - the multiple choice shouldn't take 1.8min per mark, so you should have a good amount of time allocation from that.
This is when you know you've done too many balance sheets..just don't start talking about ASETs in your exam! Good luck to all on Monday.
Hi. Thank you for pointing out my spelling error. Yes I have to many ASETs and assets going round in my head at the moment. But I will try to avoid the reverse error in the exam.
