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failed B2 exam!!! anyone disputed marks?

  • 13 posts
  • # 114098

Hi, I done my B2 exam at the beginning of the week and just missed the pass mark by 1%!!!!

I just wondered if anyone has ever disputed the score they got if they believe one of the questions seemed incorrect and misleading??

The last question didnt seem right when I first went onto it and have emailed ICB to clarify that particular question for me as I believe its unfair for me to lose marks on that when it doesnt seem like a full question if that makes sense. I havent heard anything back yet and dont want to re book until I hear from them.

Has anyone else found some questions misleading??

Thanks

  • 6 posts
  • # 114099

Sorry to hear that, especially to only miss by 1%!

 

Funnily enough, I have just this evening gone through the B2 mock and got a question wrong that I'm almost certain was actually correct (it related to CIS and I've since put the figures into an online calculator which agrees with my answer). So I would certainly chase this up.

 

Best of luck!

  • Member PM.Dip
  • 54 posts
  • # 114120

Hello Lozza

I advise you chase ICB if they still haven't answered your email.

I recently did the Self Assessment Tax mock and found a question that didn't give adequate information for candidates to decide on how to treat it. T therefore decided to toss a coin to choose one of the possible scenarios, and not surprisingly I got it wrong. But as it was a mock I had feedback and so contacted ICB who agreed that more information was needed to answer the question fully. They advised that they were going to review the said question, so hopefully this has been corrected so that other candidates are not put in the same dilemma.

In this same mock I got another question wrong and didn't see why, so I queried it and ICB confirmed it's correct and remarked. Unfortunately, as yours is the real exams, feedback for specific questions are not available unless you pay extra for it.

By the way, shouldn't our pretigious Institute have very high quality standards so that when mocks or exams are released for candidates to be tested on, they are absolutely free from errors - that is 100% accurate. Is this too much to ask? It's hard enough having to study to pass exams so I'd rather have 100% confidence in the exam material.

Like you, I didn't have the confidence to book the real exams without hearing from ICB about the queries, so I had to chase. I've since done the exams and passed but I can't help wondering if the 4 marks I lost was actually an error on my part or the exams material - this is how much confidence I have in the exam materials now.

  • Companion Fellow PM.Dip
  • Practice Licence
  • 82 posts
  • # 114126

Further to the various posts below I would like to assure everyone that ICB takes the issue of its examinations very seriously. We look carefully at the wording of every question we set to ensure that the language used is clear and unambiguous. Each paper is written, moderated, checked and tested and hundreds of candidates take our core assessments each week with no issues or problems. If at any stage of the process we feel that we are less than completely clear then we will amend and update the wording of a question. The particular paper (B2) identified below has an excellent achievement rate spanning back to June 2014 when our syllabus changed.

Obviously the writers below feel that they are sufficiently unhappy with the outcome of their own particular assessments to raise the matter on the Forum and I would like to follow this up. As forum posts are not identifiable, could you kindly give ICB some additional information so that I may check your individual papers and talk to you about your specific concerns, hopefully clearing up any misunderstandings that may have arisen. Please telephone our examinations department on 020 7856 2567 so that we can discuss your query with you. Please ask for me and state that it is as a result of a forum post.

Unfortunately, when looking at the B2 result, an 84% mark in an assessment does mean a loss of 16 marks overall which is quite significant at any Level 2 paper and such a mark is highly unlikely to be the result of any ambiguity or error in the paper. In this instance it is quite possible that there will be sections of this particular paper that have been misunderstood and hopefully we can talk about it and ensure you are on the right track.

With regards to the CIS query, again, without having access to your paper until you can identify yourself, it is difficult to make any comment. However, I wonder if your query is to do with the travel element of a CIS invoice. I did try out a number of 'online' CIS calculators (mostly from accountant websites) and none of them included travel as an option (which our questions often do). I would like to know which calculator you used so I can check that particular one out. As a matter of interest, HMRC is very specific that travel on an invoice is subject to a CIS tax deduction (which does not apply to fuel) so this might be where the confusion has arisen. If our questions include travel then you should deduct tax on this particular element.

Do please contact us so that we can discuss your concerns individually and hopefully ensure you are able to progess through your assessments successfully.

 

 

  • Member
  • Practice Licence
  • 40 posts
  • # 114127

Hi

 

My advice would be to raise the issue with your tutor first. I have found in the past that doing this brings things to light that I hadn't noticed before and my initial assumptions about there being an error on the paper have been proved wrong. It's all a learning experience. I hope you manage to get this sorted out and good luck next time. I failed my first exam twice! Third time was successful thankfully. 

 

Best wishes, Naomi. 

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