The Hindu Business Line : No posers to account for allotted marks

This was after a complaint from a student who took up the accountancy examination at the then Intermediate level, wherein the paper had questions from just five topics out of a possible 20.

Perhaps the observation is valid even today. Under the current CA exam pattern, which has been in vogue for over five decades, it is impossible to cover the entire syllabus.

The CA Final paper on cost management held on May 9, 2006, turned out to be something totally out of the blue.

In September 2002, the ICAI had clarified that under the revised syllabus, 30 per cent of the questions on cost management will be from operations research (September 2002 issue of the ICAI's `Students' Newsletter'). From November 2002 onwards till the current exam, the coverage has been more or less 25-30 per cent. However, in just concluded exam, only four marks were allotted for the topic.

It is surprising how this was overlooked. Technically it is open for somebody to argue that Question No. 6 (a) can be viewed as a problem on operations research. But it would be surprisingly if students would have thought likewise.

An analysis of the papers from November 2002 indicates (see Table 1) that for the first time the focus has been on theory.

Generally, 70 per cent of the question paper is on problem-solving and 30 per cent on theory. However, this time around, it was 60-40.

While in the May 2005 exam, the questions were directly lifted from a single text book, in the November 2005 exam, they were taken from two text books.

In the current examination, the questions have been taken from the past examinations of the ICAI as well as the ICWAI, except Question 1(c) which was from the prescribed text book (figures have been appropriately altered except for Question 3(a)). The details as regards the problems are given in Table 2.

Question No 3(a) on marginal costing and absorption costing can be solved on the basis of LIFO method for valuing the stock.

Question No 2(a) can be tackled using the matrix approach, that is, by computing the boundaries. Question No 6(a) can be solved directly by applying linear programming with lesser time duration.

Overall analysis

On seeing the paper, students would have had a shock, as enough coverage was not given to operations research.

However, in comparison to the May and November 2005 examinations, the latest paper was easier to comprehend even with an average level of preparation. The students would have been stumped, but not out, therefore.

Suggestion

Operations research no doubt helps improve the analytical skills of students, but the techniques therein are seldom used in practice.

From the standpoint of cost management, it would be better to test the student on a simpler application of operations research under the topic marginal costing.

It would be more prudent to bring this as a separate subject, say, quantitative techniques in management, at the PE II level, so that areas such as strategic cost management are given emphasis.