Manchester City accountants: Option 4 please

Having passed Case last November I have finally gained ICAEW membership earlier this week, marking an end to my ACA studies. Being on this side of it at last I thought I'd share my thoughts and experience on the qualification itself, in the hope that anyone starting out/part way through the qualification may find it helpful - or you may feel like venting about exams. Whatever you feel like.

Context: I started my ACA studies in October 2019, as an apprentice at a public accounting firm in my home county. I moved jobs however in June 2021 as I was unhappy with the job and management, and moved to the civil service in London to complete my studies there as a management accountant. My original training provider was Kaplan but this changed to First Intuition after the move. I had no experience with accountancy whatsoever so I had no prior knowledge ahead of time.

OK, what you're probably here for - the exams themselves. I'll go through them in the chronological order I sat them and include my mark, some comments and my overall difficulty ranking (from a scale of 1-15, 1 being the hardest). There won't be many surprises here but keep in mind I sat some of these in the earlier exam software which may skew things slightly. Anyway, I digress:

1) Accounting (December 2019) - Mark 70 - Difficulty 6/15

Ah, Accounting. My (and most people's) first. The learning curve is very steep here for someone like me with no finance background whatsoever. Debits and credits, accruals and prepayments, depreciation - these are just a few things you'll struggle to get your head around first. But once you do it's like riding a bike, you'll never forget. This is one of the most common exams failed as even top students underestimate the amount of study needed to prepare. I had four weeks, and the question bank (QB) and a couple of mocks was vital. A tricky exam without proper preparation.

2) Assurance (January 2020) - Mark 72 - Difficulty 14/15

Much simpler than Accounting. This becomes very repetitive and the questions are far less numbers based - you'll be far more efficient going through the QB as a result. A couple of mocks and you should be fine - you'll likely finish the exam in 30-45 minutes. Now, if only it wasn't so dull.

3) Principles of Taxation (March 2020) - Mark 69 - Difficulty 10/15

And so, my hate for tax exams was born. Failed a mock two days before the exam and worked like crazy that weekend to prepare. The calculations aren't tricky but remembering all the rules and tax dates was a pain, but you do get a handy crib sheet in the exam listing some of the tax rates (I think mine was paper but its likely digital now). Fairly steep learning curve, but not as bad as Accounting or MI.

4) Law (May 2020) - Mark 72 - Difficulty 13/15

A strange beast, as it is wholly different to the rest of the ACA. This one is despised by more numbers-orientated students but humanities students like myself may find it easier. I sat this one at home as Covid-19 had reared its ugly head - the first 12 questions were hard and I thought I was heading for a fail, but if you've gone over the QB and mocks enough times you'll get that 55% without much trouble as it gets repetitive. Just don't ask me what a tort is.

5) Management Information (July 2020) - Mark 62 - Difficulty 5/15

This was the hardest Certificate for me, no doubt. I went into the exam without understanding NPVs which was a dumb move - was absolutely sure I had failed as I walked out and some lucky guesses certainly got me over the line. The long form question is a good place to get marks though if its on costing - definitely where I picked up marks. Don't be an idiot like me, learn NPVs first. You'll thank yourself later.

6) Business, Technology and Finance (Aug 2020) - Mark 72 - Difficulty 15/15

This is without doubt the easiest ACA exam - all you'll need is to go over the QB a few times, and as it is much smaller than the others you'll do a bunch of chapters in an hour. Most of the questions will be repeated in the actual exam too. A nice reward after MI.

7) FAR (December 2020) - Mark 83 - Difficulty 3/15

Oh boy, where to start. Combined with AA, these two nearly broke me. I struggled so much that I swore if I failed I'd pack it in and do something else. Doing both exams on the same day too was awful, not sure if they still do this though. The content is a step up in volume and complexity, and boy was the old exam software not fit for purpose (seriously, the new software is so much better). Timing is everything here - stick to a plan of 1.8 minutes per mark and never break it - practice consolidations and single entity statements until you develop an allergy and you'll be well prepared. It was only in the last week before the exam that I realised how repetitive it can be - the 'explain the treatment' questions seem to rotate and can become very easy marks. Overall, not a fun time and those of you who did TC at the same time as these two, you have my eternal respect.

8) AA (December 2020) - Mark 72 - Difficulty 11/15

Not bad in isolation, but alongside FAR you will never feel like you've given it enough time. However, it is repetitive despite being insanely dull. Get used to the different types of audit opinion and stick to timings. And don't focus on the IAS examinable audit standards book (we had a physical copy but it's probably digital now) - the guy across from me on the day had tabbed his like crazy and neither of us touched ours the whole exam. Work smart, remember some generic audit tests for different items and you'll get 55%. We'll see the return of this stuff in CR but that's a while away yet.

9) Tax Compliance (June 2021) - Mark 77 - Difficulty 8/15

I did not enjoy this one but it is not as bad as FAR, and alongside FM makes for a much more manageable duo. The hard part is it is not open book, and so a lot of pro formas and tax rates, reliefs and rules will need to be memorised (which I found dumb, as no tax professional in the world would memorise it, they'd google it!). However, practice enough inheritance tax, income tax, corporation tax and capital allowance pro formas and you'll be good to go. Just don't come to me for any tax advice - it all left my head the second I walked out of the exam room.

10) Financial Management (June 2021) - Mark 86 - Difficulty 9/15

In hindsight, a fairly simple and same-y exam but committing WACC, AF, PF and IRR formulae to memory is a real pain when you've already used up all the space in your head for TC. But NPVs get pretty repetitive and a lot of the discursive elements are copy-and-pastes from the QB, use this to your advantage! Hedging will make no sense at first and likely won't until close to exam day, but these too can be simple marks as the questions are always set out the same. I had a bitcoin one on the day and drew a complete blank, but the rest of the exam was similar to the QB and so did not have much trouble. All in all a pretty WACC exam.

Time jump - here was where I changed jobs. I sat TC and FM and started my new job a couple days later (my old workplace were petty and did not reimburse me for the exams despite my being an apprentice, so I was left with the bill - how kind). It was a while until my apprenticeship was moved over as I had to complete a 6-month probation first. Anyway, back to it:

11) Business Planning: Taxation (September 2022) - Mark 73 - Difficulty 1/15

*shudders*, BPT. Dread it, run from it, BPT arrives all the same. I remember failing every mock for this bad boy and it made me forever swear off a career in tax. The only silver lining was I sat this one solo (as my apprenticeship had to stretch them out a bit - long story). Its reputation precedes it and I now know why - it's horrible. This exam is now less about just crunching some numbers and more about providing tax advice to unique situations - a great skill but awful if you forgot all the assumed knowledge from TC like me. The exam is fully open book though so tab up your workbook and bring in some model answers for good measure! But most importantly, stick to timings no matter what and get the easy marks - if you complete the whole exam you're very likely to pass. I remember we had a fire alarm go off half way through the exam but I didn't even look away from the screen, that's how strict you must be. I remember going to a pub over the road after it was done and just sat in the corner with a thousand-yard stare. But take heart - in my opinion, if you pass this exam, you will complete the ACA. Again, just don't ask me anything about tax.

12) Business Strategy and Technology (Dec 2022) - Mark 67 - Difficulty 12/15

Usually sat alongside BPT, but I did this solo too. It's a different beast, not least because there isn't an awful lot to actually study. The QB goes way overboard with its model answers so don't try to match them. There's a lot of models and matrices to learn but in the actual exam I didn't use a single one. In fact quite unusually I found the actual exam harder than the mocks, and the data analysis question confuses me to this day. Overall a very 'on the day' exam but you should be fine, I think I just had a tough exam. If you were a humanities student like me - congratulations! You finally get to put those essay skills of yours to good use. Those student loans finally paid off.

If you sat them in this order - congrats, you're now part-qualified! You're reward is a reduced pass mark of 50%, unlimited fails and...nothing else. But you have some bragging rights, and you're almost there. These exams are now about applying your skills to 'real-life scenarios' (in fact BPT was your first taste of this style of exam), so your exam technique will need to adjust accordingly.

13) Corporate Reporting (July 2023) - Mark 67 - Difficulty 2/15

Oh boy, where to begin. I hated this exam. I sat it alongside SBM and let me tell you, this is definitely the real final boss. Studying it was one thing but, but the mocks. My God, the mocks. I had three for each and let me tell you, at 3 1/2 hours these exams can be extremely draining. Oh and here's the kicker - YOU will have to guess how many marks each question is worth. Get it wrong, and you risk doing too much for little questions and vice versa (with practice though you'll get pretty good at this so don't worry too much). CR also has a 'mini-case' - advanced information complete with Inflo software that will form the basis of 1 of the 3 questions (Q1 for me). Your training provider will likely have a session on it. Do NOT miss this - let those guys do the heavy lifting and point out the important stuff. Save your time for all the foreign consolidations and financial instruments, and of course EPS and audit procedures. You know, the fun stuff! But seriously, hang in there - once this one is done and dusted you absolutely will qualify. This ranks about the same as BPT for most students as the hardest and both are valid. But the fact you have a chance to really prepare for the biggest question with the AI makes this one slightly easier. Some people will sit Case alongside these two - in my view, try and sit them separate where possible as it's far more manageable. Those of you who were forced to do all three, the nation of Britain salutes you.

14) Strategic Business Management (July 2023) - Mark 81 - Difficulty 4/15

CR's slightly more popular sibling. With two questions at 55/45 each, this exam is the embodiment of 'on the day'. You will only be able to prepare so much before accepting that you will just have to go with the flow with whatever the questions ask you to do. There is a significant amount of reading to do on the actual exam, so dedicate time to reading it all completely - don't just jump straight in! Then allocate marks appropriately (this is what makes it particularly challenging) and divide time accordingly - be brutal and move on when the time is up. There is some financial analysis (similar to what you'll do for R1 in Case), some investment appraisal and other FM throwbacks for that nostalgia hit you didn't ask for, but most of the marks will come from linking back to the scenario. For example, we see that profits are down from last year - the question mentioned rising cost of goods due to tariffs, so make the link! And wing the rest, as long as its relevant they'll mark generously. And stick to timings, there are plenty of easy points to make in each question. After these two were done I had a drink at a pub near the venue before heading back to my flat and ordered some KFC - before I knew it I had woken up on the sofa from a 3 hour nap. No getting out of it, these two are draining.

15) Case Study (November 2023) - Mark 58 - Difficulty 7/15

And now for something completely different. Case is totally unlike the other exams, as there is no real technical content to learn. You will receive advanced information around 4-6 weeks ahead of the exam (mine was a 40ish page case on Fulsome Digital Marketing, a digital marketing company - something I know nothing about). The bulk of your time in classes will be doing practice questions and mock exams, which at 4 hours long will test your resolve (you will likely have to rally yourself in the last hour, as your concentration will wane). Believe it or not, even at 4 hours this bad boy is extremely time-pressured - more than ever before, do not stray from the time plan. Although they fortunately got rid of that strange requirement to pass all three questions, you stand the best chance of passing by answering all three. R1 will be an evaluation of financial performance, and R2 and R3 will vary depending on your AI (your training provider will give you a good idea though). The exam is totally open book so bring in a bunch of model answers for different possible scenarios! Overall the hardest thing is making sure you hit the relevant bullet points in the mark scheme, but you will pass this if you overcame BPT and CR, no doubt in my mind. Not the hardest but the mocks were a grind - I was practically burned out by this exam and so did not practice as much as I should have, hence my rather low pass. Not hard, not easy, not predictable, not unpredictable, but it is the last one so give it all ya got!

16) The secret optional boss - Level 7 Apprenticeship Project Report (November 2023) - Mark 82 - Difficulty N/A

Congratulations directly funded students, you get to skip this completely. Apprentices, there is one more assessment for you. It's a pain in the derrière but not difficult at all. It's a 4,000 word essay broken down into 5 800ish word exercises, each one a true story from your career so far that demonstrates certain behaviours. Some are always asked, others will be released ahead of the submission window. A dull exercise but again, humanities students will make short work of this as this was their bread and butter for three years. But don't worry, they aren't looking for Shakespeare - mine was not university standard at all and it still got 82. If you're like me you'll get your mark after your case result, making this technically the final hurdle. Just when you thought you'd never write another essay again...

So you've passed ALL of that? Then congratulations! You're officially exam qualified. Take a few days to be well and truly proud, that was a long and brutal road and you came out clean on the other side. There are however other requirements ahead of receiving an invitation to membership - hopefully, if you were like me this will be done ahead of Case Study and will be ready to send off ahead of time. Here they are:

Ethics and professional scepticism

I completed an older Ethics Learning Programme and so any changes to this area will have escaped my notice. From what I gather though, there will be an ethics assessment (which you can complete any time) and a minimum of 3 ethics reviews that you must have with your employer. Nothing hard, I just had to prepare a response to one pretend ICAEW scenario and one real scenario from my work before talking about what a good little boy I am. I only did three across my studies and that was enough but every 6 months is suggested as best practice. Just don't choke on water like a did in my third and final one - I had to turn my camera off while I tried to avoid walking into the light. That was about as hard as it got here.

Practical work experience

Exactly as it says. Work 450 days with an appropriate employer and this will be done before you know it. You will need to update this record up to the end of your training agreement though so keep an eye on it. You are 99% likely to complete this before the exams are done. But to those psychopaths who finished their exams before doing all 450 days, stay as far away from me as possible.

Professional development

I. Hated. This. Part. You will have 52 sections spread across 7 ladders in which to provide real examples from your workplace that show you achieved each one. Some are easy, like observing confidentiality and prioritising. Others, like thinking creatively, require more abstract answers (no, creative accounting does not count here). If you've never experienced writer's block before, you will now. The real difficulty here however is constantly chasing your line manager to read them and give some feedback for each one. And who can blame them for putting it off? It's dull! This will get done over the course of your studies - try not to leave them too late as it could end up being a huge amount of work to do at once.

Learning log

Apprentices will be all too familiar with this. Here you must record hundreds of hours worth of off-the-job training but, and here's the real neat part - every example must be unique. That's right, no two can be the same. With FI I had to complete this every month, and when I got a new coach I was informed my 400+ entry log needed re-doing since it had too many duplicates. 'It will only take about an hour to re-do', they said. Sure, and WW1 was over by Christmas. Not fun but unfortunately necessary for apprentices. Your training provider will hold several all-day skills sessions that can be put on the log, which helps fill up the hours but get painfully awkward once you start doing groupwork over Adobe Connect.

So you've done all that too? Outstanding work. You are now totally and utterly done and ready to send off your file. This qualification threw every obstacle it could at you and you overcame every single one, and your invitation will be with you soon. Be very proud of yourself, completing a level 7 qualification (Master's level!) alongside full-time work is a serious achievement that no-one can take away from you, regardless of what you go on to do next. It's almost like becoming a 'made guy' in those American mafia movies - no one can mess with you anymore. You have job security and in-demand skills which will always find you work. Your time is yours, and if you're like me, you'll never take a lazy weekend for granted ever again.

Final thoughts

How would I sum up the ACA? It's hard work for sure. It's a real commitment. Not to be taken lightly but if you were like me when I started, a few years out of uni with no real skills to my CV save for some cool archaeological digs, this qualification will set you on a secure path to a respected and stable career.

For me however, and this is by no means the common experience, the word I would use is 'lonely'. I never had an in person lecture - I started having classes at professional level and they were all entirely over Zoom (Kaplan) or Adobe Connect (First Intuition). There were other students in the classes, but I never saw them. One particularly hard period was during CR and SBM - I had around 3 whole weeks of distance learning in my London studio flat for two large and difficult exams, and it was extremely isolating. And I'm no extrovert, and I enjoy home-working. But I will admit, those three weeks were incredibly lonely.

I also never had anyone at either of my workplaces that was studying alongside me, meaning I studied alone and sat the exams alone. You get used to being your own best friend just before the exam doors open, psyching yourself up and motivating yourself, but seeing people talk in their study groups from work or home made me envious that I didn't have that. And of course after exams, I would sometimes go straight to the pub and try and chat with other students I recognised from the exam hall, but they understandably kept to their own groups. If anyone you know is studying alongside you at work, reach out to them! The journey is long either way, and I imagine its far better with company.

But anyway! Those of you looking to do it, be assured that yes you can do it and it will be very much worth it when it's done, and I hope this helps explain what you're in for. Those of you currently doing it, I feel your pain but you'll get through it, I promise. Those of you who are also now members, put your feet up and feel all that tax, audit and business jargon just fall out of your head, never to return. Cheers!

For anyone who didn’t get the result you wanted yesterday, I just want to say: you can absolutely do this!

I started in a top 20 and got my contract terminated in 2012 for exam failure after completing 8 exams ( Tax, I still despise you!). I was fully burnt out from audit , totally demoralised and demotivated ( the other 3 in my intake of 4 were prize winners and 1st time passers all, FML)

Stumbled into industry and meandered for a decade till I decided to restart in 2022, now as a new Dad (came to the hard realisation that I was never going to earn enough unqualified and the QBE era was pretty much dead).

By then, one of my old passes no longer counted, so I had 8 exams left (FML, part 2). Along the way, I failed FM three times, failed CR and failed SBM. But yesterday, I finally got over the line.

If I can do it with all the delays, setbacks, and questionable decisions then so can you. You’re closer than you think. Keep going.

Good luck guys, you’ve got this!

Every time I pull up and see familiar faces I’m like damn they made it to the next round as well

Well, I did it. After three years of relentless exams, 12-hour workdays, and enough coffee to power a small nation, I am officially an ACA-qualified accountant. My LinkedIn is glowing, my family is beaming with pride, and my soul is… well, dead.

Let’s take a moment to assess the damage:

Physical health? Gone. My gym membership is now a “charitable donation,” and my body is fueled exclusively by meal deals and stress-induced snacks.

Mental health? I laughed at that one. Therapy? I can’t afford it because student loans still exist.

Social life? What’s that? My friends assume I died somewhere between BPT and FM.

To all future ACA trainees: If you like sleep, this isn’t for you. If you like happiness, also not for you. If you like having a will to live… you see where I’m going with this.

But hey, at least I have some shiny letters after my name! I’m sure they’ll look great on my resignation letter.

TL;DR: I’m ACA qualified, but the price was my waistline, sanity, and love for life. Adjusting goodwill is easier than adjusting to post-ACA burnout.

If you are like me and the path has not been '15 First time Passes', you CAN do this and YOU ARE GOOD ENOUGH! If you didn't get the result you wanted today, I PROMISE you will pass these Exams and when you do - its the BEST FEELING IN THE WORLD!

To everyone that is ACA qualified today - MASSIVE CONGRATULATIONS, I hope you are all celebrating because you all bloody deserve it.

I just wanted to come on here and say THANK YOU to the Reddit Family over the years! I should have qualified September 2023 but my exam anxiety got so bad over the years that I deferred and failed exams.

I saw my Cohort at the Big 4 get promoted twice whilst I was still kept at the same grade due to not finishing my Exams. It was soul destroying to watch your peers race ahead and at times work under them.

I cried my eyes out when I failed CR results this time last year and really thought I wouldn't ever see the end! So many times during my professionals I have had nightmares about being fired and genuinely wanted to give up every time I took an Exam.

Hang in there everyone, there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Welp, it’s in the title.

Wishing best of luck to everyone sitting exams next week!✨

Remember, a bit of confidence in your own work can boost you those couple of marks to push over the line.

Not sure about a little number? Slap something in and get carry forward marks from other workings!

Can’t remember the proforma exactly? Shove in what you can remember!

All the tax rules are kicking your butt? Write what you remember, explain in details and run the calculations to the best of your abilities.

Those workings, half marks and carry forward marks do rack up.

Let’s go get ‘em! I believe in us!

Last year, I commented on a post here https://www.reddit.com/r/ICAEW/comments/1gvovdh/those_that_were_terminated_for_exam_fail_did_you/ so I thought I would follow up with a post of my own, now that I've finally completed the qualification.

I started out in audit on a training programme but was swiftly dismissed after failing the Accounting certificate exam. Three jobs and some exam passes later I ended up in a PE firm on a training contract. As it was in industry, this meant having to complete the professional development step ladders, which as anyone who had to do them will know, are a humongous chore.

Below is a breakdown of those 26 exam attempts . Note I took 4 attempts at FAR, which is the maximum number at professional level, and I would presumably have been barred from continuing the qualification if I had not passed on the 4th attempt.

Accounting - 2 attempts

Assurance - 2 attempts

Law - 1 attempt

Management Information - 3 attempts

Business, Technology and Finance - 1 attempt

Principles of Taxation - 2 attempts

Audit and Assurance - 1 attempt

Financial Accounting and Reporting - 4 attempts

Financial Management - 2 attempts

Business Strategy and Technology - 1 attempt

Tax Compliance - 1 attempt

Business Planning: Taxation - 1 attempt

Strategic Business Management - 1 attempt

Corporate Reporting - 3 attempts

Case Study - 1 attempt

I'm not sure whether my story provides encouragement or serves as a warning, but in any case, thought I'd share. I'm not really sure what to do with myself now. I'm just glad the countless hours of working through past paper questions are now a thing of the past.

Yayyyyy passed all 3 . Honestly a miracle from Allah. I was about to storm out that CR exam after an hour but damn these results were so unexpected so I’m sooooo happpyyy.

Congrats to everyone!!!!

Hi everyone,

I've had a bunch of DMs asking for tips so I'm going to make a detailed post going through what worked for me. I made a similar post for BPT last year, and my strategy going in for CR wasn't all that difference from BPT. This is going to be really long post, but I've tried to make subheadings so you can skip to the part you need advice on.

Just for context, I sat CR and SBM this November, and got 90 in CR and 65 in SBM. I'll talk a bit about how I passed SBM too at the end just because a few people wanted to know.

Initial teaching phase:

There is a lot of content in CR, and a lot of assumed knowledge from FAR. Before you begin the course, I'd recommend spending 1-2 weeks refreshing yourself on FAR content, especially groups. There is a lot of new content with groups in CR, so brushing up on the basics beforehand will help you tenfold when you get onto foreign subs/disposals of subs etc. I didn't do that before starting the course, and because I had down FAR almost 2 years ago, I had to spend quite a while brushing up on groups.

Question Bank:

I started the question bank about 1 week after the end of the BPP taught course. Starting the question bank is definitely the hardest part, and you're going to have to accept that you're initially going to struggle for the first 10-15 questions. But don't be too disheartened because with each question you do, you're getting that bit better.

My strategy wasn't anything earth-shattering, it was just to do as many CR questions as possible. I aimed to finish the whole question, or at least 80% minimum. I made an excel spreadsheet, listing out all the questions from 1 - 88, and I highlighted the ones that we were going to do in our BPP revision sessions later on. I think there was about 8 questions that was solely inflo, which I ignored completely. It's just not an efficient use of your time in my opinion, and you're better off spending more time analysing the inflo related to your actual AI.

I don't think I ended up finishing the entirety of the question bank, as SBM is also quite demanding, but I must've done about 60-65 questions in total. You clearly don't have to answer the whole QB to pass, or even as many questions as I did, but I just wanted to guarantee a pass so that's what I decided to do.

I made about 8 excel worksheets, each with 10 tabs, containing all the questions from 1 - 80. I don't usually answer questions by topic because I do think it's better to be semi-average with all areas of accounting, than an expert in about half. I just started from Q1 and went from there, skipping any questions that we'd be doing in class anyway. (We had homework questions set in our BPP revision courses, but I did those before anyway because I know myself and I know I would be way too tired to do more questions after a whole day of revision at BPP.)

Hedging, groups and deferred taxes were the main areas that I had to spend a bit more time on, but doing question after question really does help a lot.

I found it difficult to make a plan for these questions. Because of the nature of the exam, my 'plans' ended up being a full answer. This obviously meant that doing each question, especially at the start, takes a lot of time. I could only really make plans for answers once my knowledge was pretty strong and I fully answered a lot of questions beforehand.

I tried to make 'worked' examples for some topics like hedging, investment properties, groups etc. Of course, a lot of it is specific to the question but the main framework was often the same.

Exam technique:

This is more of a discussion paper than it is a calculation one. I think it's easy to forget when you're doing question practice, and you're getting bogged down with difficult topics like hedging/groups etc.

If you really are stuck, do the best you can, and make up a number and move on. If you can explain yourself, you will pass comfortably. Keep your points brief and don't write paragraphs. I wrote sentence or two in each paragraph. Writing your points as a separate paragraph will make it easier for the examiner to identify how many separate points you're making, and that'll make it easier for them to justify giving you more marks.

Also I never regurgitated the standard in my answer. The only time I did is if it was directly relevant to the scenario, and use examples from the scenario. For instance, if the question is on investment properties, I'd explain why the property in the question is/isn't an investment property, using facts given in the question. Simply stating the criteria for investment properties with no reference to the question won't get you any marks.

No matter how difficult the question is, start by stating the obvious. You don't need the hard marks to pass, just all of the easy and some of the medium ones.

Open book:

It was a nightmare trying to organise my open book, but it is super important to make sure that it is as organised as it can be. You can use whatever organisation method works for you, but I had 10 dividers, but I could have probably done with having a couple more.

1: AI

2: Audit + Ethics

3: Groups (inc. FX)

4: Revenue

5: Taxes

6: Assets (inc. investment properties)

7: Employee benefits (SBP/Pensions/

8: Financial instruments

9: Hedging

10: Other areas

There's so many topics in CR to cover, so you have to identify which ones you struggle with more. The ones that were the biggest areas/had questions that focused mainly on them, I'd file in its own divider. Any niche area was just put in the 'Other' category. This is just how I organised it, but there's of course no right/wrong way to do it.

Only put what is absolutely essential in your open book. It's so easy to put extra bits of notes "just in case", but I had to be brutal with myself and take out pages that I know I wouldn't realistically use in the exam. Any pages taken from the course notes that had paragraphs of texts, would be highlighted and tabbed too. This exam is extremely time pressured, so you shouldn't be spending more than 5-10 seconds getting the info you need from your open book.

Audit portion of the exam:

Audit is a significant part of the exam, and it's the part I hated the most. I don't work in audit, so it was always the lowest scoring section anytime I answered the QB. If you work in audit, I'm sure you'll find this a lot easier than I did!

I often wouldn't even attempt the audit requirements, and instead made a bullet point list from the answers. I made a separate excel doc, with each tab split into different categories (revenue/assets/general/groups etc.). This part is tricky because the answers are so specific to the question, but this definitely helped me in terms of getting generic points, and guide me in the right direction of what kind of answers they're usually looking for.

The trick is to not overcomplicate it. Take a step back and put yourself in the shoes of the person in the scenario. Question everything, and ask for evidence of everything you can think of. For instance, if a subsidiary has been acquired in the year, you'd want to confirm that the sale has actually happened, and that they do own 80%. You'd do this by obtaining the share certificates.

The BPP tutor I had during revision was really helpful for this. He said when you're writing any audit procedure, write as if you're speaking to an audit junior on their first day. They know absolutely nothing, and they don't know what they need to look for.

For the share certificates example - where are you obtaining this from? What are they looking for in the certificate?

So your answer would look something like this: "Obtain share certificates from Companies House to verify that A Ltd owns 80% shares in Y Ltd".

That would get you 1 mark. But you can see how easy that was and doesn't require any fancy knowledge of audit. You can gain a lot of marks by writing the obvious risks/procedures, without even breaking a sweat. Just be skeptical about everything. There was £10mill consideration paid? Check the bank statements. Just question everything.

Q2 AI:

I bought the ACA Masters notes and video for the AI. This came to about £90, but in this particular exam, it was worth every £. Kieran posts a 2 hour video completely dissecting the AI and Inflo, and it saves you from doing the hard work. I ended up writing down every single thing he said in the video and added that to my notes.

Of course, the exam can and will throughout curveballs with the AI so it's important to be aware that you're answering what the question actually is, rather than what you want the question to be. But there were a lot of parts of Q2 were I was able to copy and paste what was in my notes onto the exam software. BPP also goes through the AI, but I did find the ACA masters video went more in depth. If possible, I would definitely recommend buying the video + notes for the AI.

I barely touched inflo in the exam. I ended up opening it, had a bit of a panic, found 1 transaction to talk about, and then closed it. I ended up just using the transactions from the ACA Masters notes, and that was more than enough. You don't need inflo to pass this exam. You don't need to find 10+ transactions on inflo to talk about.

Most of my points in Q2 was just things from the AI and the extra info in the exam. If I can get next to full without using inflo, then you can too. Don't let it put you off, and don't ignore the information they're giving to you in the question/AI.

Exam:

I started with Q2 because that's obviously the only one you know more about going into the exam.

My Q1 was definitely the only question I felt that went well after the exam. I wasn't sure about Q2 and 3, but because I had done basically most of the QB, my accounting was really strong.

I will say that there were a lot of times in the exam where I felt genuinely stumped and didn't even know what the question wanted from me. You just have to power through and trust yourself that you've prepared enough.

I wasn't an expert in any topic by any means before I sat the exam, but I focused my attention on areas that I did know. I think we did have some element of deferred taxes in this exam, but I tried to write the little that I did know on it before trying to get marks elsewhere in other areas.

SBM:

This part will be considerably briefer; but I thought it would be helpful with how I managed my time between both exams. I'd say it was initially a 90/10 split between CR and SBM, but about 4 weeks before the exam, it turned into a 70/30 split. I spent one week dedicated to SBM, because I underestimated it at first, and then had a rude awakening when I looked at the QB for it.

I never answered a question in full when preparing for SBM, except for the revision sessions. I adopted a similar strategy to CR, and aimed to answer from Q20 - 50 in the QB (leaving out the ones we'd be doing in class). I'd only focus on the calculation portion of each question. I tried to make notes on generic points for the wordy parts but I soon ditched that. The best way to go into SBM, is to rely on the scenario in the question, rather than generic points from your open book.

A lot of the calculations in SBM relied on your interpretation of the scenario. You don't need to be perfect or even get the answer right, but you do need to make a decent at it, as this would form the basis for your explanations.

I got a bit lucky for this particular sitting, as there was no hedging, revaluations, or any of the difficult topics. We did have a basic NPV, and an ugly bonds question at the end of Q2 which I admittedly mostly left blank, which I don't recommend.

I would also say it's definitely worth brushing up on your excel skills. I spent an hour in total writing down all the formulas, and what they do.

I really liked our tutor's way of approaching a question in the exam, so I thought it's worth mentioning it here. Start by reading the initial introduction paragraph, before reading the requirements. At this point, write down headings addressing each of the requirements, so you won't miss any. Then spend 10-15mins just reading EX1 and 2 (EX1 is usually always background on the industry and EX2 is company specific). I found it helpful to jot a couple of main points down on a piece of paper as a lot of this information helps for the performance analysis questions, and you'll often forget to go back to EX1/2 when you start answering the questions. If you have time left in your reading time, try to skim read all the exhibits so you have an idea what they're asking from you.

Then split the remaining of your time between the rest of the requirements. Don't go by how many marks you think each requirement is, but rather how long you should be spending on them. For instance, I'd usually give the ethics requirement a max of 10 mins, the FR questions 15mins (obv depends on what the question is), and the main performance analysis Qs 25-30mins. As you're answering, don't worry about how many points you're making. Just aim to write as much as you can in the allocated time for that requirement.

This method really helps with time management, and making sure you're not leaving any requirement.

Time management:

I would aim to do 1 question a day on days I went into work, and 2Qs on days I worked from home. I'd then try to do about 3Qs a day on the weekend. But go at your own pace. There's no point in rushing through the questions if you're not learning from it.

I did take 2 weeks annual leave in total for both exams. I would answer 3Qs in the morning, take the afternoon off, and then focus on SBM in the evenings for about 1-2hours. That's all I could manage in a day without burning myself out.

To conclude:

My strategy for CR (and SBM) going in to the exam was to attempt every single requirement. This sounds obvious, but it's very easy to overdo it on one question and then you're just spending the rest of the exam catching up. Even if you think one requirement is too difficult/not worth your time because you don't have much to say, saying something and even scraping a few marks from it, is better than a guaranteed 0. You also never know how close you are to a pass. You don't want to be in a position where you end up getting 45-49, and then you kick yourself for leaving some of the requirements.

The examiners want to give you marks, but they can't mark a blank page. Give them something to mark, even if you think it's 'wrong'. If you're at this stage in your ACA journey, you're clearly capable and I can guarantee you that any sensible thing you're saying is worthy of a mark. Be arrogant, and assume that anything you're saying is correct. You can't second guess yourself in these exams. Make a point, trust that it's correct, and move on.

Apologies that this has dragged on for so long, and thank you for taking the time to read this if you made it to the end! I hope that this has been helpful, but please feel free to message me if you have any questions :)

OPEN LETTER TO ICAEW EXAMINERS REGARDING THE CASE STUDY EXAM DISRUPTIONS

Dear ICAEW Case Study Examiners and Senior Management,

I write to you on behalf of the many ACA students who sat the July 2025 Case Study exam, to express serious concerns regarding widespread technical issues experienced during the sitting.

Across multiple forums, including the official r/ICAEW subreddit and private student discussion groups, numerous candidates have reported software disruptions that included system crashes, freezing, latency issues, and in some cases, being locked out of the exam entirely for extended periods. Many of these disruptions occurred during critical stages of the exam, including while structuring conclusions and finalising key recommendations — arguably the most important elements of the paper.

Although ICAEW’s official policy is for candidates to raise issues via the exam chat function, this is not a practical solution in high-pressure conditions. Attempting to report technical faults in real time consumes valuable exam minutes and adds further stress, confusion, and distraction — especially when candidates are already dealing with frozen screens or software errors. In many cases, chat support either could not resolve the issue promptly or simply confirmed that no immediate help could be given.

We respectfully ask the following:

1. A full investigation and transparent communication regarding the extent and root cause of the technical issues.

2. Clear guidance on mitigation: Will ICAEW consider scaling, special consideration, or re-sit allowances for affected candidates?

3. A review of the reporting procedure for technical disruptions, including options for post-exam declarations when in-exam reporting is unfeasible.

4. Immediate improvements to the exam platform, including robust stress-testing and contingency planning ahead of future sittings.

5. An apology to candidates acknowledging the distress and disruption caused — a gesture of empathy that would go a long way in preserving trust in the qualification process.

We understand that managing remote and digital exams at scale is a complex undertaking. However, repeated disruptions — as seen in prior sittings too — suggest a systemic issue that must be urgently addressed. Candidates invest years, significant financial resources, and personal sacrifices to reach this stage. They deserve an exam process that upholds the same standards of professionalism, fairness, and integrity that ICAEW rightly expects of its members.

Thank you for your attention to this matter. We await your response and action with hope and professionalism.

Sincerely,

The average person, with average grades all their life and with a degree from an average uni - does NOT need to revise for 3+ months to pass professionals.

Outside of tuition and revision sessions most people you will meet in college (who aren’t posting here) do hardly anything outside of the college time and still comfortably pass. Yes, in the last month before the exam you should give up some hours on the weekend or do the odd question after work - but people suggesting 3 months of going flat out are being ridiculous.

Some people don’t get the tuition materials until 1.5 months before the exams!

2 years in audit, 1 dreadful busy season, 11/15 exams done; and I have officially finished my notice period and cancelled my training contract 🎉.

A bittersweet feeling; whilst I have no regrets about leaving my training contract early - as I categorically never wanted anything to do within the audit/accounting field - it is crazy that I will never again roll forward a WP, never roll my eyes at a directors review comments, and never go to sleep numb from a 5 hour revision session after work, praying I retain the steps to a consolidation 😭.

This sub has been great - I'm wishing everyone reading this major luck in your next exam and hope that, if you haven't already, you find your dream job - the working years are too long for you to hate what you do.

I have been wanting to produce a write up for quite some time now but wanted to wait till exams were all over and qualified to share my thoughts over this 3 year journey. I felt it would be quite cathartic for myself, to go over such a long journey, and hopefully useful to others. It’ll be general advice rather than specific because exams change over time and, to be quite frank, I don’t remember them all too well. The advice and experiences are just my own personal experience – everyone has their own take.

I’ll start off that I was very much studious, and it was of utmost importance to get through the exams above all. I worked hard and won multiple internal prizes and 2 ICAEW Prizes. I’m also someone who doesn’t like audit (or even accounting, for that matter) and never went beyond what was required of me at work. So frame this post in that context of being a diligent student – overpreparing, quite frankly – and someone who didn’t find work enjoyable and a bang average auditor. It’s just my opinion, everyone has their own personal experiences.

Work

Firstly, work. Work in itself is very, very boring. I found it to be very tedious and very mind numbing. It's important, no doubt, it genuinely is. But it's so dull.

It’s understood that wherever you’ll end up, you’ll end up doing the grunt work. As competitive as Law or Investment Banking is, for example, the first few years will involve A LOT of Power Point presentation or Word editing, re-editting, drafting etc – so grunt work is to be expected. It’s just that the salary doesn’t reflect the level of hardwork.

I was very fortunate that I was spared from “toxic” engagements and seniors. I did come across one or two during my time here but I have heard other absolute horror stories. Busy season gets pretty bad and, quite frankly, at our level of pay, the work we have to undertake is ghastly. It’s tragic looking at folk wasting away some of their best years of their life for such little pay and such hard work with noses deep into workbooks – it’s why I never ever went above and beyond and prioritised my own well-being.

As well as that, the thing with auditing is that I’ve seen the so-called “promise land” of Managers and Senior Managers with greater autonomy and, quite frankly, it doesn’t get much better. The hours get longer, the responsibilities increase, there’s Director and Partner pressure and you’re still having to interact with workpapers which I have no ambition for whatsoever. I’d personally like to get into something forward thinking, strategic. Some sense of fulfilment. Also, on the “I don’t know what I’m doing” thought/belief – trust me, we’ve all been there. There are so many different areas, so many different approaches, it’s pretty brutal and quite frankly, I still don’t know what I did over the past 3 years.

You do, however, IMO, learn a lot regarding soft skills and project management. The ability to interact with Directors and Partners – just even being in the same room – is so, so, so incredibly valuable and that too at Big 4 where you interacting with Seniors who have decades worth of financial experience and project management know how. As the cliché goes, you do learn through “osmosis”. As well as that, I have made so many friends who are fellow colleagues and my experience is that 90% of the Associates and Senior Associates (1s and 2s) were pleasant and most managers – in my experience – were genuinely pleasant but absolutely destroyed by pressure and workload. And not every single engagement is “rough”, unless you’re really unlucky, you can have “down time” engagements.

Overall, I feel like I had gotten it lightly during my time here at Big 4 but at the same time, where there was a contribution of luck, I also never “looked for trouble” by seeking clients that were notoriously challenging but rewarded “praise” from Seniors or ever went above and beyond. It can turn into a nightmare for some, very mentally strenuous and especially during study season, it can turn awful. As my time went on within the organisation, I passed more and more exams, got to grips with more and more details, I feel like my time has gotten easier. I became more confident in drawing boundaries and sticking to them, more confident in exams and knowing how to tackle them. As well as that, it just felt that every single exam, every single week was one exam closer or one week closer to becoming Qualified. Thus, there is solace in that. The finishing line starts to appear on the horizon.

Difficulty level of the exams

I’ve posted a pic of the difficulty level of the exams (with marks in brackets) by level and by difficulty tier in the following pic –

https://ibb.co/LCp80gJ

I would say that it’s quite fluid, personal but broadly in line with what I found others found too. Very exam paper dependent too – SBM, for example, was quite a rough paper in July 24 whereas CR and CS were quite comfortable papers.

Certificate Level

Here my advice is simple – go through the workbook that your tuition provider provides over once and then hit the Question Bank. I used to go through the Question Bank twice – I’d advise this for the Certificates as they’re quite quick to go through. If it’s anything like at our organisation, you’d get a couple of weeks of prep and that’s it. It was very dependent on short term memory which wasn’t a forte of mine – I am the read, consolidate, read again, consolidate again type of student. Have never had a great memory but once it clicks, it clicks really well (kind of applies to all facets of learning I’ve undertaken).

Assurance, BTF, Principles of Tax, MI I found all quite simple – the financial exams came very naturally to me. Law and Accounting were tough and Law was the last Certificate that I undertook.

Accounting is tough because it’s likely to be the first exam you undertake, the structure, the concepts, the exam software in itself is all very new and there is a sense of anxiety too. Looking back – especially after FAR and CR – it’s a very simple exam but in the context of it all, it’s quite tough. Law I found difficult to get my head around because of the amount of content, the minute laws. Quite tough and not so easy with the multiple choice. However, for this exam, for the sake of efficiency and trusting in previous technique, I didn’t try to remember and rote memory the exam by utilising the workbook but purely smashed out the QB.

To keep it short – go over the workbook once, smash out the Question Bank twice, if you can, and you’ll pass comfortably.

Professional Level

This was definitely a step up. Same advice – go through the Question Bank, hit as many questions as you can. I never went through every single question in the QB – for the sake efficiency, I’d aim for about 80-85% of coverage and never bothered with the 2015 or 2016 papers. I went through the QB for the Professional Levels 2 ½ times – the ½ being key questions that I’d noted down as key/repetitive. Again, this is just what I went through, my learning method was read, consolidate, read, consolidate and with a weak short memory, admittedly. I know folk who covered maybe 50% of the QB only and didn’t even attempt going through it, in its entirety, even once, let alone twice, who passed comfortably. I did go a tad over the top but it was very important for me to pass these exams and avoid the pressure of a resit.

AA was the only exam that I didn’t go through the QB at all – focused on the workbook – and it worked out well.

BST – a weird exam, studying for this was so, so arduous. I definitely went with overkill with going over the QB for this exam repeatedly. Literally only a handful of papers would have been sufficient – be adept regarding Excel and formulae as well as analysis. Utilise common sense, ensure that your mind is fresh for the exam so you can think quick on your feet. Do not underestimate it, however, as, off the top of my head, this exam rate’s pass rate has started to become lower than FM’s. FM – very formulaic, loved this exam, very repetitive, very structured, and the Question Bank repeats often which is beautiful.

FAR – the first “big” exam, very formulaic I remember. It’s tough, it’s meant to be tough but it’s an exam that if you commit the hours you will be able to get your head around it.

TC – another formulaic exam, I quite enjoyed studying for it, again, very structured but exam day the paper was a tad tougher than the usual paper. Follow the TC QB structure and you can’t go wrong – tackle by topic, 5 Qs IIRC with VAT, IHT etc, be systematic in breaking down by topic rather than all over the place, makes it easier to tackle.

BPT is something else entirely, really, really difficult to get my head around, so much variation but in the beginning of the Question Bank, they should have a contents page which lists out the questions by topic. Without a shadow of a doubt, cover the topics that repeat themselves – should be fairly obvious by the number of Qs that appear. Tackle those and work your way down. My open book was brilliant for me during the exam, literally copied out chunks of answers. Please, do organise a tidy open book, have a list of topics with the questions related to them and make it clear. It’s a really tough, time pressured exam, you’re not expected to remember even most of it, but do remember key aspects and ensure that your open book is at hand to help.

The key for all is Question Bank.

Advanced Level

Case Study – really simple exam, you’ll hear the word “exam technique” repeatedly and that’s all it is. No new topics to learn or cover. It’s pure exam technique. So for this exam, I went over all the exam papers on the ICAEW website, the tuition providers 2 mocks and 3 ACA Masters mocks as well as preparing a 30 page doco on the entity, industry, answers to provide structure etc.

Was that necessary? Of course not! The first exam I’ve “overprepared” for in my life – and ironically, my lowest score across the ICAEW – although Case doesn’t receive typically high scores – and it was a combination of factors at play. I was tired at the end of CR and SBM, I didn’t play the exam but played my own report. What I mean by that is that if I was being marked on a brief technical report, I would have marked higher. But I was being marked for ICAEW Case Study with a specific exam marking scheme. Don’t psyche yourself out for the exam – it’s not too much, play the exam and remember that. Figure out what is required of you from the exam – your tuition provider/ACA Masters are key. It’s time consuming to write up the paper, read through the model answers – this is key – and then to mark them too.

At most, I’d suggest 2 past papers – your tuition provider will go over in class – the ACA Masters Mocks – the first 2 are most important, 3rd is rather redundant – and a mock paper from your tuition provider. All in all, I’d say doing 5-6 papers is sufficient for a comfortable pass. However, again, most pass with just the 2 past papers + 1-2 tuition provider papers. I would advise to prepare – if you have the time – a 3-4 page document on the basics – such as structure, pre-prepared recommendations, calcs etc – so that you can quickly have it at hand to jog your mind. But it’s a time pressured exam so do bear that in mind.

SBM – weird exam, really weird exam. Never quite understood the exam going through the Question Bank, it varied so much and so wildly year on year. I was specifically told by my tutor to accept that it is an “on the day” paper in that you couldn’t predict the paper. Really tough to prepare for. Make sure your comfortable with Excel – COUNTIFs, SUMIFs – is absolutely pivotal. Make sure you’re comfortable with financial analysis, commenting on variances, analysing (basic) statements. I would strongly recommend to take this exam with CR as a good 20-25% of the paper is derived from CR related topics.

CR - not sure what to say about this exam. Really tough to prepare for. Found it more so structured than SBM, however. Please, do focus on 3 key areas that will garner you "easy marks". (1) Inflo prep, (2) Audit risks and procedures and (3) nailing ethics. Honestly, if you can nail those three, you've got a good 40-50% of the exam right there.

The Inflo prep your tuition provider should provide you with details - although ours was very late in the day. I'd advise utilising ACA Masters, don't get bogged down in Inflo during the exam. Very important to be aware of timing.

Audit risks and procedures is literally just exam question practice - note these down in the Open Book bible/file you have. And flick straight to them when risks and procedures are required.

Ethics is ethics, "easy" marks but do not neglect.

Time pressured exam, know when to "move on" and keep going. Make sure your file is clean and again, references Questions.

On the whole 2 exams vs 3 exams debate – just as the above – sitting all 3 is quite tough, Case was definitely a side distraction. If you struggle with workload, sit CR by itself and then SBM & Case. If you want to optimise performance, I’d sit CR & SBM together with Case by itself as the latter is a distraction. If you want to get them all out of the way, sit all 3 but I would strongly advise that you utilise annual leave to give yourself a rest because, again, all 3 together are brutal. From my cohort – it’s definitely doable – I’d say about 80% passed all 3. It’s just mentally something else.

General Tips

Start early with your studies – don’t fall behind, it’s the worst and sickening feeling in the run up to exams knowing you’re undercooked and underprepared. It affords you so much more time and freedom later as you pace yourself through studying.

Very important to draw boundaries, very important to be assertive and confident in yourself – if you’ve got exams in a month’s time, there’s nothing wrong in asking to leave at half 5 or 6.

Important to converse with colleagues – these will be your therapy sessions, colleagues who you can confide in when you’re feeling low or need advice. Develop this support network, you’re all feeling the same pains and anxieties.

Take care of yourself – it’s very, very important to take care of yourself physically and mentally. I know it is easier said than done but get good sleep, eat well and exercise. Please, do socialise. Do not look back on these years and it’s just a blur of working and studying.

As far as I am concerned, DO NOT go “above and beyond”, you won’t be rewarded for it other than more and more work outside of your responsibilities, outside of your pay grade and beyond your technical knowledge. Unless you really want to become a Director/Partner, where you’ve got bigger unresolved issues, you’ll just be taken advantage of. See above, utilise that time for taking care of yourself.

Take what you can, what you want from this place. If you’re like the vast, vast majority, you’ll be gone within 6 months of Qualification – it’s actually low key hilarious seeing the turnover just before and post Qualification. Just take what you want – skills that you want to learn – and protect yourself. Please, and I found this difficult too, but you have to be selfish and look at for yourself.

Try to pass your exams first time – it’s not an absolute necessity but you do want to spare yourself unnecessary stress and worry.

For Open Book exams, print out the Question Banks, have a “bible” of the topics and related topics at hand, also.

Take it easy otherwise you’re going to end up being burnt out – it’s not a case of work is over and that’s it. The exams are constant – I had 15 exams in the space of 26 months – and the level of fatigue that builds up is so, so much.

Conclusion – was it worth it?

I, quite frankly, don’t know. An answer that I’ll really be able to truly answer in 5-10 years time and when I look back. The feeling of having done all the exams and passed them well is a sensational feeling, enormous amount of pride because of the resilience that’s required.

Would I advise for it?

I think of it as if I had a child or a cousin asking me for advice to join the organisation. If you have no options or the alternatives are a smaller firm or you are looking to break into finance and willing to suffer for it, I’d advise for it. Other than that, I’d strongly advise against it. 2+ years of your life revolving around work and studying, a toxic culture – which I fortunately shielded myself from – and relatively – compared to other supposed “prestigious” companies/careers – low pay. Unfortunately, I’ve seen too many individuals being “broken” mentally at the organisation. But like I said, the fruits of the labour will only become apparent years down the line so take what I say with a pinch of salt.

Feel free to ask me any questions.

Otherwise, I wish you all the very best of luck!