Today we had our study group to review and discuss example exam for Managerial Accounting. We were in the meeting for almost 4 hours. First we went very briefly over all the cases we had prepared during the course. This review was very cursory, just to highlight the underlying concepts. We did not delve into actual numbers crunching analysis.
After that we moved to the actual example exam. The answers for the questions in the exam were already in the course pack, only one of us has actually attempted to solve some of the questions without looking into the answers first. I knew if I attempted to do that, four hours would not be enough. So eventually we slid to looking into the answers and discussing them, also correlating the numbers and calculations in the answers with the input information.
A few of the questions did not actually require any calculations. Instead we were asked to draw a diagram of the cost system in the organization or give our opinion/recommendation on making changes to the existing system to better reflect the actual cost allocation.
Our professor in Financial Accounting told us in the last class that Managerial Accounting “does not have any rules”, so in that regard it would be very different and may be somewhat “easier” than Financial Accounting with its quite specific and often stringent rules of presenting and analyzing the data. The example exam had a vivid illustration to that point of having “no rules”. Our favorite question, slightly paraphrased, went like this:
The CEO is considering the performance measure used to evaluate Managers of two company branches.
- Why should the performance measures be the same for both branch Managers?
- Answer: They conduct the same business, so should be pursuing the same goals.
- Why should the performance measures not be the same for both branch Managers?
- Answer: The clienteles are very different in the two branches.
Of course I am not giving you the whole case, and intentionally simplify the situation, but still it is quite indicative of the Managerial Accounting methods and approaches. Either answer goes, as long as you can do proper explanation and justification.
Frankly, I did not feel that we used our time in the most productive manner. But it is still probably better than just wasting precious time for exam preparation on writing the blog posts 
Actually, I am taking this little break from my at-home independent preparation.
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