The November 2024 MCS – Shinyglas

The pre-seen for the November 2024 and February 2025 MCS exam has been out for a little over a week now. This time the company is Shinyglas, a manufacturer of double-glazed windows and doors.

By now, you should have already gone through the pre-seen and taken some notes. You’ll need to ensure you’ve memorised everything ahead of the exam, so while I’d like to offer some tips here, don’t just rely on summaries like this.

Here are a few of the things I’m expecting to see based on my own reading of the pre-seen.

---

#1 – Financing

Financing is one of the more common MCS exam topics, so it’s usually a safe prediction. In the case of Shinyglas it’s even safer, as there is a high level of debt which financing will be used to manage.

Some key factors here include significant non-current liabilities, as well as high annual finance costs and a decrease in cash reserves. Figures are given for these, so make sure to memorise these.

Because of this, you could expect to see questions on debt management, changes in interest rates, or how new investments should be financed. You should also be prepared to see these pop up as part of other questions.

---

#2 – IFRS 15 Revenue

This is a relatively new standard, and has appeared in a few recent exams. For Shinyglas, it can have a significant impact on how financial performance is reported, which in turn can affect shareholder attitudes.

This topic is covered in quite a lot of detail in F2. This is a module you should be revising heavily anyway, but you should also revisit the E2 content on how changes in revenue recognition can affect performance management.

When preparing for IFRS 15, expect more technical questions. For example, what the recognition criteria are, how they affect contracts with multiple performance obligations, and how this affects Sinyglas’ own financial statements.

---

#3 – Performance Evaluation

This is another fairly common topic. The pre-seen makes mention of customer care, regular training for sales staff and operational efficiency and product quality, all of which are important to evauate in terms of performance.

These topics are covered in P2 and E2. You can prepare by looking at topics like KPIs and the balanced scorecard, management control systems and the relationship between performance measures and strategic choice.

The good news is that any questions you receive here are likely to be straightforward. You may be asked to discuss the effectiveness of Shnyglas’ existing KPIs, or to develop or critique a balanced scorecard.

---

If you’re sitting the MCS this November or February, I wish you the best of luck and hope you find these predictions useful. Leave a comment to let me know how you feel about the exam!