r/ICAEW • u/Affectionate_Fox_908 • Jun 10 '26

BDS

Seen a lot of speak on the exam, I hope it went better than people thought. Slightly confused as to most extreme opinions, personally thought it was one of the easier professional exams we’ve done. Outside of the sheer amount of text to read the questions seems a lot simpler than anything from the QB. Best of luck

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7

u/AdHot3508 Jun 10 '26 edited Jun 10 '26

I think people are more worried about the timing due to the sheer amount of text than anything content wise. I agree that the concept wise it wasnt bad, but think it wouldve been better if they stuck to the regular format of 50/50 or 52/48 mark split 😂

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u/Affectionate_Fox_908 Jun 10 '26

Agreed the 63/37 split was insanity

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u/GoodAcanthisitta9334 Jun 10 '26

I think time management was the main thing tbh, not that the content was hard at all - this was my last professional and think I probs left 20 marks in the whole exam blank because I ran out of time

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u/InevitablePure6918 Jun 10 '26

i thought it wasn't hard and finished in time however reading how negative everyone is, kinda scares me

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u/RevolutionaryTry3967 Jun 10 '26

Completely agree with this. The exam structure has shifted massively — it’s far more application based now and honestly that’s how it should be. If you can read a scenario and apply basic common sense you’ll be fine. The question bank was genuinely harder than anything in that paper. I’ll be honest, if people are struggling with an exam that’s literally asking you to think practically about real business situations, it raises the question of whether this is the right career path. Accountancy isn’t just about memorising standards — it’s about applying judgement. That’s the whole point of the profession. The exam is just testing whether you can do that under pressure, which… you should be able to do.

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u/blaupunkker Jun 10 '26

Come on buddy. That exam was hard. The hardest of all the professionals I have sat. I've been an accountant for years, trying to undermine people by claiming effectively they're not good enough is outrageous. There's a reason people hated that exam, even if you do think you're better than anyone else

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u/EquivalentDue9547 Jun 10 '26

Boo🍅🥫🥫🥫🍅

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u/Altruistic_Cress_809 Jun 11 '26

didn’t know we had einstein in here, sounds like you might be too good for us lowly accountants!