In July 2023, I sat my final two exams for the ICAEW Chartered Accountant qualification (ACA). In total, there are 15 exams over three levels: Certificate (6 exams), Professional (6 exams), and Advanced (3 exams). Both the amount of content and the length of the exam increases as you move up the levels.
I'd already sat the first of the Advanced Level exams (CR) in November 2022. The final two exams are considerably less stressful, so I was definitely calmer for this sitting than I'd been for the previous one.
SBM
This is a 3.5 hour exam which follows on from BST (Business, Strategy and Technology) at Professional Level. Around 20% of the exam is corporate reporting, so most students sit SBM alongside CR, however as I'd sat CR earlier, I was most nervous about this aspect of the exam. That said, SBM is much less technical and less stressful than CR, so I revised by watching through the debrief videos on the First Intuition website (for reference, First Tuition was my tuition provider), and then getting straight into practice questions. Although I fell very behind the rough revision schedule that I'd made, I'd passed all four of the mocks comfortably so wasn't too worried about this exam. I ended up achieving 80% in the final exam, which should provide a good idea of the level of difficulty.
Case Study
This exam is very unique in that there isn't additional content to revise for. Instead, Advanced Information is released about 1.5 months before the exam, which consists of around 40 pages about a fictional company, including its financial statements and background information.
The exam itself is 4 hours and consists of multiple requirements, each of which have specific marks that can be rewarded, however unlike in previous years, my sitting was the first in which you simply needed 100 of the 200 marks available in order to pass, as opposed to having to pass each requirement, which was a lifesaver.
I found it very hard to revise for this exam and had planned on simply reading through the Advanced Information several times before the exam, however I found myself slacking until about 3 weeks before the exam, at which point I attended a couple of online sessions on the Advanced Information (run by First Intuition and Paradigm Shift), which were extremely helpful. As the exam got even closer, a colleague of mine suggested buying a package which offered five additional mocks for £200. This was very pricey given I wouldn't have the time to do even three of the mocks, however I thought it was preferable over resitting the exam, and so I bought this and managed to cram in two extra mock exams before sitting the real thing.
One thing to note with Case is that there are three main questions, or requirements, which you have to respond to, including a conclusion for each of these and an executive summary for the paper. Of the three requirements, the first is pretty homogenous in all sittings, meaning that with a bit of practice you can be fairly confident in your answer. That said, the other requirements vary so you need to improvise on the spot in the exam. Although four hours seems like an eternity, it really does fly by.
Of all 15 exams, I achieved my lowest mark in Case at only 54% (the pass mark drops from 55% to 50% for Advanced Level exams). Therefore, I would definitely recommend reading the Advanced Information multiple times so you are very comfortable with it, and doing as many mocks as possible (especially in order to practice Requirement 1) before the final exam.
Final thoughts
The ICAEW Chartered Accountant qualification is a long slog, with many ups and downs, however after 15 exams, 450 technical days, 52 professional development steps and 6 ethics reviews, it is so satisfying to have accomplished the three-year feat (and a great excuse to celebrate)!
If you are sitting your final exams, good luck!
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