Examiner’s Approach Interview: P5 - Advanced Performance Management
Interviewer: Welcome to the P5 Examiner’s Approach interview.
The following is an Examiner’s Approach interview for Paper P5,
Performance Management.
The content of this interview has been prepared by the examiner,
working with the Qualifications team at ACCA, and is presented by
actors representing an interviewer and the examiner in discussion.
For more detail on the examiner’s approach, please see the article
produced by the examiner in the May 2007 edition of student accountant.
The P5 examiner is Shane Johnson. Shane has many years of
lecturing experience within Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He
has lectured accountancy students in both public sector and
private sector organisations within the UK and continues to do so.
Shane has also worked as an author for leading tuition providers
for several years and has written tuition materials in the areas of
management accounting, business strategy, business information
management and financial management. He has held a number of
senior financial and management accounting positions within
different industrial sectors.
Interviewer: I suppose it would be most appropriate to start off by asking where
P5 fits within the overall structure of the ACCA Qualification.
Examiner: The Professional Level of the ACCA qualification syllabus is divided
into two modules – Essentials and Options, with Essentials coming
before Options. Both these modules have been set at an
intellectual level equivalent to that expected of a student taking a
Masters degree.
The focus of the syllabus at the Professional level is to build upon
the technical skills already acquired, and to explore more advanced
professional techniques, skills and values which are required by
the expert accountant acting in an advisory or consultancy role at a senior level.
Studying P5 as an Options paper will allow the student to develop
their expertise in this area, drawing upon knowledge obtained from
studying the underpinning papers in the Skills modules. An
example of such expertise would be the ability to apply appropriate
strategic performance measurement techniques in the evaluation
and improvement of organisational performance.
Interviewer: From what you have just said, P5 is connected to other papers
within the ACCA Qualification. What are the links with other
papers, or with other components?
Examiner: The introductory paper for the management accounting and
performance management group of ACCA papers is F2. This is
where many of the fundamental principles and techniques of
management accounting are introduced. P5, however, builds
mainly on F5, Performance Management. Students are expected
to have a thorough understanding of the F5 syllabus before they
choose the P5 options paper.
In addition, P5 has a relationship with P3, Business Analysis, in
the areas of strategic planning and control and some strategic
performance measurement issues.
Also, in situations where students prepare for P5 at the same time
as they prepare for P3, Business Analysis, there are overlaps,
since both papers may examine the strategic aspects of
organisational performance, and managing and reviewing performance.
However, the knowledge and capabilities acquired in P5 will be
applied, in context, within the Practical Experience Requirements.
The relevant Performance Objectives for this paper are
Performance Objectives 12, 13 and 14.
Interviewer: What is the overall concept or theme for P5 as a paper?
Examiner: P5 is a paper which aims to improve students’ understanding of
performance management – a subject which touches on all
management activity in today’s business organisations.
P5 is based primarily on the idea that organisational performance
can be examined from a number of different perspectives. It is
concerned, therefore, with the evaluation of the strategic
performance of organisations and the need for organisations to
have appropriate performance measures from which performance
can be planned, controlled and evaluated.
The following quote sums up this idea.
“It is no use saying ‘we are doing our best.’ You have to succeed in
doing what is necessary.”
This quote explains that endeavour alone will not lead to good
organisational performance. Improving organisational performance
is about doing the right things at the right time.
Interviewer: Are there any other broad themes which run through the P5 syllabus?
Examiner: Yes. P5 is essentially based on the premise that organisational
performance can be examined from a number of different perspectives.
Theme 1 looks at the role of strategic planning and control in the
planning and monitoring of organisational performance.
Theme 2 concerns the assessment and identification of relevant
macroeconomic, fiscal and market factors and the key external
influences on organisational performance.
Theme 3 covers the identification and evaluation of the design
features of performance management information, and monitoring systems.
Theme 4 develops the application of appropriate strategic
performance management techniques.
Theme 5 looks at the evaluation of business performance and
corporate failure.
Theme 6 covers the identification and assessment of the impact of
current developments in management accounting and performance
management on organisational performance.
Interviewer: The syllabus for P5 is structured into six main sections. Can you
briefly explain the main content of these syllabus sections?
Examiner: The first syllabus section (Section A) introduces strategic planning
and control, and the role of strategic management accounting.
Section B explores the economic, fiscal and environmental factors
that impact on corporate performance.
Performance measurement systems and their design are covered in
the next section – Section C – which leads straight into strategic
performance measurement in Section D. This includes
performance issues in complex corporate structures, as opposed to
the more straightforward situations as would normally be examined
in F5, Performance Management.
The next section, Section E, introduces performance evaluation and
the ability to predict corporate failure.
And lastly, Section F deals with emerging issues in management
accounting and performance management.
Interviewer: Thank you for explaining the main content of the syllabus for us.
What can you tell us about how the exam itself is structured?
Examiner: As with all papers at the Professional level, the writing time for this
exam is three hours. All ACCA three hour papers have been
allocated an additional 15 minutes reading and planning time,
within which students can read the paper, understand the
requirements and choose which questions to answer. An article
explaining how this time should be productively used has been
published in the student accountant magazine in the August 2007
edition which can be seen on the website.
Interviewer: What exactly can students do in reading and planning time?
Examiner: They can make notes and plan answers. This may only be done
on the question paper and not on the answer booklet. The answer
booklet cannot be used until the exam begins.
Interviewer: What kind of questions will appear in the exam and is there any
choice?
Examiner: As can be seen here, the exam is divided into two sections, A and B.
Section A will comprise two compulsory questions normally worth
60 marks. A maximum of 40 marks will be available for either
question in Section A. Since Section A is compulsory it is expected
that candidates will not only attempt it in the examination, but will
also allocate the appropriate amount of time. The two questions in
Section A may or may not be based upon the same scenario. They
may typically assess capabilities from several sections.
Section B contains three 15-25 mark questions (each one is
normally 20 marks) which are much shorter scenarios. At least one
of the questions in Part B will be entirely discursive in nature.
For more information about the exam itself and how it is
structured, there is a pilot paper and past exam paper available on
the ACCA website.
Interviewer: How should students deal with a requirement that asks the
candidate to do something AND something else?
Examiner: Because some questions may ask the candidate to do something
‘and’ something else, the candidate may have to use judgement to
decide how much effort to devote to each aspect. This will be
based on the difficulty of different cognitive levels, for example
‘describe’ is usually easier than ‘assess’. However, markers will be
asked to exercise quite a lot of flexibility in awarding marks in this situation.
Interviewer: What are professional marks?
Examiner: Between 4 and 6 professional marks will be awarded within
Section A for the form and tone of an answer, for its structure and
for the strength and persuasiveness of arguments put forward.
There is an article which was published in the October 2007
edition of student accountant explaining what professional marks
are awarded for. This article will give more information on the
awarding of these marks.
Interviewer: What advice would you give about revising effectively for, and
passing, P5?
Examiner: I would recommend that the key strategy to adopt in the revision
phase is to closely revise from the relevant Official Study Text,
supported by references to the texts cited as additional reading in
the P5 study guide.
This strategy must, however, be supported by practising questions
in the main areas of the syllabus from past papers. All of the
questions from the previous syllabus paper 3.3 ‘Performance
Management’ are relevant to P5, and of course close attention
should be paid to the P5 pilot paper.
Interviewer: What would your three main exam tips be?
Examiner: My first tip is to recognise that each examination paper covers a
range of topics. Students should try to ensure that they have
adequate knowledge of all syllabus areas and are prepared to deal
with a mix of computational and discursive requirements. ‘Question
spotting’ should be avoided at all costs!!
My second tip is to make full use of the time allotted. During the
allocated reading time students should decide which questions will
be attempted and also the order in which the selected questions
will be attempted. Students should aim to do their best question
first and their worst question last.
My third tip is to advise students to read the questions very
carefully. When asked to comment in relation to a given scenario,
it is vitally important that information in the scenario contained
within a question is used as much as possible. Students must
ensure that they answer the question being asked and not the
question that they wish had been asked or similar questions they
have previously encountered.
Interviewer: What do you believe to be the main potential pitfalls in preparing
for and taking the P5 exam?
Examiner: The main pitfalls I have seen students fall into are the following:
The first pitfall is a general lack of preparedness for the exam by
many students. For example, in December 2007 students hadn’t
adequately prepared for ‘economic added value’ in Question 2,
parts (b) (i) and (ii) regardless of the fact that an article on this
syllabus topic had featured in a recent edition of Student Accountant!
The second main pitfall lies in the fact that a significant number of
students produce workings which are difficult to follow and display
their answers poorly. This was particularly noticeable in their
answers to part (a) of Question 1 in the December 2007
examination. The need for students to give more thought to the
layout and organisation of their answers is of paramount
importance. This is especially the case now that ‘professional
marks’ might be awarded for well-presented answers.
The third main pitfall is poor or inadequate use of data. In
particular, students either fail to use data given in the scenario in
order to answer the questions, or they take a scattergun approach
to answering certain questions and write what they know about a
particular topic area as opposed to observing the specific
requirements of a question.
Interviewer: It is clearly important to follow the above tips and avoid any
common pitfalls in exam revision and performance. What further
information about student performance would you give which
might help students prepare for exams?
Examiner: After each examination session, all ACCA examiners are required to
produce an exam report. These reports highlight key issues arising
in the last exam and focus on where students performed
particularly well or badly. These are published in February and
August and can be found under paper resources for each paper
which can be accessed through the website.
In addition, after each exam session has been completed, the exam
review board meets. This is a board consisting of ACCA internal
Education staff and six representative members of the approved
learning partner community. Minutes from this board summarise
the comments made by tuition provider representatives, report
survey results about the exams from student questionnaires and
detail the responses. Again, the minutes from the exam review
board are available on the website.
Interviewer: And finally, what would be your concluding advice about the P5
examination paper?
Examiner: Firstly, students must always read the question as carefully as they
can; identifying clearly the instructional verbs contained within
each requirement.
Second, it is important to properly understand the requirements,
assessing how much the examiner is really looking for in each
question part. Students should also be fully aware of the marks
available for each requirement.
And finally, don’t forget that answers given should relate to the
question actually asked, not the one that a candidate would have
liked to answer!
Interviewer: Thank you very much for sharing your insight into this exam paper.
I’m sure it has given students and tutors lots of useful information.
Examiner: Thank you.
