October 2024
How were the September exams? Here is some of the feedback from those who sat them.
AA
Students were in general agreement that Mondayâs AA exam was âOKâ. Some 69% pressed the OK button on the Open Tuition Instant Poll this time around. Just 7.6% felt the September exam was a disaster for them â thatâs low! One sitter said: âIt wasnât an easy paper and I did not manage to finish the whole paper.â Another felt that while section A was a disaster, section B was much better.
AAA
One in five (19%) sitters told the Open Tuition Instant Poll that this sitting was a âdisasterâ of an exam for them. Another 33% found it âhardâ. As one sitter said: âIt was a bloody horrible exam.â Time was an enemy too, and a student admitted they just wrote bullet points for some of their answers at the end. We also heard there were some technical issues for those sitting in Manchester in the morning. One sitter admitted they struggled to identify the ethical threats when writing about sustainability reporting. Many fellow PQs agreed. The problem with AAA is that even when people think they have done well, they look at the pass rates and become worried anyway!
TX
Most votes on the Open Tuition Instant Poll opted for the âOKâ button, some 53% in all. Just over one in four (27%) found the exam âhardâ and 12% had a âdisasterâ. As one sitter said: âI thought the exam was OK, but I feel that there were many areas that did not come up.â
Time was also a pressure for some sitters. One wondered why it was necessary to put students under so much time pressure, when you get more time in the âreal worldâ.
SBL
On the Open Tuition Instant Poll, just under a third (30%) of the votes went to âhardâ and 10.5% to âdisasterâ. This left just over half (53%) of sitters feeling the exam was OK, 6% even thought it was easy. One sitter was shocked they finished the paper. It was the first time they had ever done that, and with three whole minutes to spare. Other sitters struggled with the press release element in task 3 (about ethical issues on drivers, customer safety, compliance and data security). How do you show scepticism in a press release?
FR
Many sitters found this a hard exam, with too many calculations in section A. Another just called it a weird exam. This was a hard exam for 41% of those voting in the Open Tuition Instant Poll. Just under one in 10 said it was a âdisasterâ.
SBR
One of the tougher exams at this sitting, according to the Open Tuition Instant Poll. Some 20% said their exam was a âdisasterâ and another 39% found it âhardâ. Just 37% said the exam was OK. One sitter thought having a full 25-mark question on sustainability reporting wasnât fair. A fellow sitter said: âA quarter of an exam question on a niche topic! I checked BPP, Kaplan Acowtancy, Open Tuition, and everywhere and this section is described very briefly.â Another student said they were fully prepared for a sustainability question, but that one wasnât in their paper.
PM
Although the paper wasnât hard it had a lot of obscure topics being tested, suggested one sitter. That said, in the Open Tuition Instant Poll some 55% of sitters said the exam was âOKâ. Just 5% felt it had been a âdisasterâ.
ATX
An OK exam, although one sitter wasnât sure if they had written enough. Time was also an enemy for some, and many sitters admitted their time management let them down. Some 14% of sitters clicked on the âdisasterâ button in the Open Tuition Instant Poll. Another 38% said it was a âhardâ exam.
APM
The September sitting was a âdisasterâ for one in 10 sitters, according to the Open Tuition Instant Poll. Another 29% felt it was a hard test. Quite a few students admitted they ran over time at the end. As one student said: âInteresting exam, vfm at the university, rewards plus calculations of controllable and not controllable variations, transfer pricing in overseas country, and the final one bsc compared with performance pyramid plus evaluation.â
FM
Quite a few sitters were shocked at this one! It was described as âtoo hard for meâ and âpart B was crazyâ.
Another sitter just said: âWTF was that?â In the Open Tuition Instant Poll, some 36% called this a âhardâ exam, and another 13% voted it a âdisasterâ.
AFM
âTerribly difficultâ and âtrickyâ is how the September AFM exam was variously described by sitters. Post-exam, many sitters said they felt deflated, âlike crapâ even! The stats bear this out. One in five (22%) of people voting in the Open Tuition Instant Poll said it was a âdisasterâ, with a further 41% saying the exam was âhardâ. Just a third (33%) of sitters felt the exam was âOKâ.
