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How to Pass the ICAEW ACA Case Study Exam

Updated: Feb 22, 2023

This article offers advice on how to pass the ACA Case Study exam. Written by a multiple prize-winning ACA tutor who scored 92% in the Case Study exam and won the ICAEW prize for the highest score in the world, this is essential reading for any student preparing for their Case Study exam.

How to Ace the ACA Case Study Exam

The Case Study is unlike most other ACA exams as there is very little technical content to learn. Therefore, students who are used to memorising technical concepts and then ‘smashing out the question bank’ will be perplexed when they are presented with 40+ pages of advance information and a Case Study exam paper seemingly testing nothing they have learnt in their other 14 exams.

However, the Case Study is actually very similar to the other ACA exams in that the three exam requirements are always the same, as are the mark schemes. By appreciating the consistency in the exam requirements and the mark schemes, you can develop your exam technique to ensure that you tick all the 'boxes' on the mark scheme and complete your ACA qualification in style.

In light of this, we believe that there are 5 steps to Case Study success:

1. Understand how Case Study is marked

2. Understand what each of the three requirements involve

3. Understand what information is provided in the Advance Information (AI) and what is provided in the exam

4. Learn the Case Study exam technique which ensures that you hit all the boxes on the mark scheme

5. Practice mock exams to master your exam technique

Step 1: Understand how Case Study is marked

The Case Study marking process is objective: there is a set marking key for each requirement and if a student’s report includes a point which is on the mark scheme, they will get the mark. This is not like an academic essay where the examiner forms an overall opinion of the piece of work and then decides whether it is good enough to pass; the Case Study marking grid is rigid. Whilst it can be frustrating that making a valid point which is not on the mark scheme does not score a mark, it does mean that the marking process is very transparent and easy to navigate. Below is an example from a Case Study mark scheme to illustrate what I mean by points and boxes.

Step 2: Understand what each of the three requirements involve

As explained above, the three requirements are broadly the same in each Case Study exam.

R1: Analyse the financial performance of the company

R2: Evaluate a financial proposal

R3: Evaluate an opportunity or issue

The mark scheme for each requirement is also the same. This makes the exam fairly predictable.

By having a look at recent past papers, you will soon start see the consistency in the requirements and build an understanding of what each requirement involves.

Step 3: Understand what information is provided in the AI and what is provided in the exam

In addition to the exam requirements and mark schemes being in the same format every time, the AI is also in the same format every time (albeit a different business with different issues).

By working through past Case Study exams, you will soon start to see that the AI always has the same exhibits with very similar types of information e.g. industry background, prior year accounts, key customers / suppliers, strategic goals and risks. Similarly, all the exams include the same exhibits with very similar types of information.

Having completed the exam, it is important to mark it and reflect on what information came from the AI and what came from the exam exhibits. You will soon start to see that the majority of mark scoring points come from the exam exhibits rather than the AI. You will also learn which types of information in the AI tend to be rewarded in the mark scheme and where in the mark scheme they are rewarded, i.e. which box.

Step 4: Learn the Case Study exam technique which ensures that you hit all the boxes on the mark scheme

Having understood what the exam requirements are and how they are marked, you need to develop an exam technique which ensures that your report includes the points which are included on the mark scheme. Fortunately for you, we have developed an exam technique which does this and it has resulted in two students winning the prize for the highest mark in the world (90% and 92%), another winning a prize for the highest mark in their region (88%) and another achieving the highest mark in their firm (81%)!

Given the practical nature of exam technique, it is not possible to explain this in text so you can watch a free class here which teaches you exactly how to ace Requirement 1 and get a prize-winning mark.

Step 5: Practice mock exams to master your exam technique

By this stage in your ACA journey, you will already know that question practice is key to success. Having learnt the prize-winning technique, you then need to practice mock exams on your case study business under exam conditions so that you master the technique and sign off your ACA in style!

Need Help Passing the ACA Case Study Exam?

Details of our live tuition, video tuition, mock exams and proforma reports can be found here .

About the Author

Kieran Doe is a Senior ACA Tutor at ACA Masters. Kieran won ICAEW prizes for his performance in Financial Accounting and Reporting, Tax, Financial Management, Audit, Business Strategy and Case Study. This is in addition to winning several prizes at university for various Accounting, Management, Business and Economics subjects.

Kieran’s tuition is based around the learning techniques and exam strategies which enabled him to win prizes for all the subjects he teaches. Under his guidance, several of his ACA students have also won ICAEW prizes.

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How to Master the ICAEW ACA Case Study Marking Key

Four blogs into the ACA Case Study and you might just start to think that I am slightly obsessed with this exam. The ACA Case Study is so different to any other of the 15 ACA exams that I feel there is so much to discuss for this exam. I was not planning to go into detail about the Case Study marking key. However, I have recently realised many who are independently studying or who are taught by different providers may not have all these details or the same level of understanding. In order to pass the ACA Case Study, you do really need to understand how it is marked . Today this is exactly what I will delve into.

You may also want to refer to the other three ICAEW ACA Case Study blogs:  ICAEW Case Study Made Easy ,  ICAEW Software Testing  and How Much Preparation is Enough? .

Table of Contents

Aca case study marking key terms, maximum marks and marking, different ways to fail the icaew aca case study, overall assessment criteria, executive summary (es), requirements – generic aca case study marking key, marking yourself, aca case study wrap up.

If you are unaware of the exam structure for the ACA Case Study exam, I would recommend reading the Made Easy blog before reading details about the Case Study marking key. You essentially need to know the report you are required to produce is split into an executive summary and three equally weighted requirements .

This will overlap with the ICAEW Case Study Made Easy blog where I have briefly touched on the marking key. The ACA Case Study marking key can be explained using the following terms: “ boxes ” and “ diamonds “, where boxes are skills assessment boxes (SABs). The meaning of these will get clearer as we go on but to give a quick explanation, the Case Study marking key is split into 40 boxes :

• The executive summary has 6 boxes (2 for each requirement)
• Each requirement (r1, r2 and r3) has 11 boxes
• There is one final box for the overall assessment criteria

Within each box, there are diamonds /bullet points that you need to hit to get marks. The maximum mark for each box is 6 marks . Each box will have up to six “diamonds” that are up for grabs from your answer. For example, one diamond could be met by stating revenue increased by x amount/(y %) based on the case study numbers. This will make more sense once you start looking at mock exams for the ICAEW ACA Case Study.

The Case Study marking key is not completely straight forward. It is not one mark per one diamond. Here is how it works:

From the table above you can see you do not benefit from getting more than four diamonds as you will be capped at 6 marks . You may be in fact wasting time and time is definitely of the essence in the ACA Case Study even if it is 4 hours . However, it is difficult to know whether a point you make is a valid diamond or not so it is perhaps best to aim for 5 diamonds at most in each box of the Case Study marking key. 

What makes the ACA Case Study very different from the other exams is that there are  no predetermined correct answers . I have been told only after assessing the first say 100 papers are the diamonds and the marking key put together. You need to write what everyone else writes so state the obvious and work together when preparing beforehand! This ACA Advanced Level Telegram group (essentially WhatsApp without phone numbers) where you can connect with other students may help.

The maximum marks for the ACA Case Study is 240 marks . Remember, there are 40 boxes and the maximum mark is 6 per box. You may think as the ICAEW ACA Case study exam is 50% to pass , you just need 120 marks to pass. Again, the Case Study really is not that straightforward. 120 marks across the whole paper will not cut it. You actually need 50% in each requirement (including the executive summary) to pass. Getting 66 marks in requirement 1 but 20 marks in requirement 3 is a no go. However, this is not the only way to fail the ACA Case Study…

The below ways to fail which I will touch upon are less black and white than the 50% in each requirement criteria. This is a very grey area and is not nice for anybody in this position. I have come across candidates who have achieved 50% in each requirement and still failed. Below outline the other potential reasons why one could fail the ACA Case Study exam:

• As mentioned, achieving  less than the overall 50%  pass mark.
• Achieving  less than 50% in each individual requirement  and being deemed incompetent often. You really need to show you can produce a strong report to be on the safe side. In each requirement, you should ideally be getting over 50% competent grades (CC or SC) which means six or more boxes. Five SCs (30 marks) and the remaining ID/IC grades (6 marks) would get you above 50% in the requirement (33 marks) but may not be enough to pass.
• Missing out parts  of the report. If you score above 50% in all requirements but have missed out 4-5 skills assessment boxes, you are likely to fail. There cannot be gaps in the report. A fail could also be for writing poor conclusions and recommendations throughout.
• This exam is all about balance . If you have too many NA and ID grades, this could also be a factor of failure.

Essentially, the examiner wants to see that you can write a  complete and balanced  report. If you do not do as ICAEW say in this exam you will be punished and you will fail. This really is a grey area , especially as for those marginal scripts there is re-moderation to decide which scripts pass and which fail. It does seem quite harsh as surely getting 50% would be enough but examiners will only want to pass a good quality report. Further marking details can be found here from ICAEW and is definitely worth a read.

ACA Case Study Marking Key

This one box will look as follows (imagine the dashes are diamonds):

If you meet all four diamonds, you will show you are clearly competent and should get 6 marks.

The executive summary is essentially meant to summarise each of the three requirements and provide the conclusion and recommendations. It is at the start of the report so if somebody did not have time to read the full report, they would be able to understand exactly what is covered by reading the ES. The Case Study marking key for the ES is as follows. Note this is very generic and may differ case study to case study:

ICAEW in recent years have been very clear that you cannot simply copy and paste the report into the executive summary. The two must differ otherwise you will not score any marks and this could result in failure! Spot the difference below…

I will keep this much more generic and do all three requirements in one. Through these boxes you will need to demonstrate  that you can: assimilate and use information; structure problems and solutions; apply judgement and form conclusions and recommendations.

If you have not started any mocks yet, this may all look like gibberish to you. Trust me on this one, once you have been through a mock or so, you will be very grateful for the above tables. For the requirements, you essentially get two boxes for the appendices, two for each of the sub-requirements stated in the question and then two for the conclusions and recommendations. Keeping this in mind when you write your report is crucial to doing well.

If your ACA Case Study is marked by somebody else, I would highly recommend going through this yourself afterwards. This will really help you to understand what kind of points scores diamonds and which do not. You can also see where you are perhaps going overboard or not writing enough .

What I think is very beneficial about going through the Case Study marking key is that you will spot where things are in bold. You may have noticed this above. If “and figures” is written in bold, it means you cannot get the diamond without any numbers. Where I slipped up initially is that I was not including figures or sometimes comparative figures that were needed. You also sometimes must write the £ and % change to get a diamond. It really is worth going through this to maximise your diamond potential.

Hopefully this blog has stressed to you the importance of timings . If you get too many NA boxes, you are likely to fail. This means you cannot just miss areas out and move on but you do need to do it all . If you want help with your timings as well as planning sheets and help with requirement 1’s appendix, join my journey. I will be sending these out to you for free within a few days of joining.

Understanding the Case Study marking key is essential to do well in this exam. I can recall going through this for a full morning in college to make sure we really understood the marking key. If you do not have a solid understanding of this, as well as the different ways to fail, you may just do so. Hopefully this blog has been insightful and helped in some way. I would even suggest taking those generic marking keys into the exam with you so you do not miss anything out.

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October 2021

Kieran Doe has some top advice on how to pass the ACA case study exam. And he should know – he scored 92% in it!

The Case Study is unlike most other ACA exams as there is very little technical content to learn. So students who are used to memorising technical concepts and them ‘smashing out the question bank’ will be perplexed when they are presented with over 40 pages of advance information and a case study exam paper seemingly testing very little from their other 14 exams.

However, the Case Study is actually very similar to other ACA exams in that the three exam requirements are always the same, as are the mark schemes. By appreciating the consistency in the exam requirements and the mark schemes, you can develop your exam technique to ensure that you tick all the ‘boxes’ on the mark scheme and complete your ACA qualification in style.

I believe that there are five steps to case study success:

Step 1: Understand how Case Study is marked

The marking process is objective: there is a set marking key for each requirement and if your report includes a point which is on the mark scheme, you will get the mark. While it can be frustrating that making a valid point which is not on the mark scheme does not score a mark, it does mean that the marking process is very transparent and easy to navigate.

Each requirement has 11 boxes and you need to pass six boxes on each requirement.

The Executive Summary has seven boxes and you need to pass four boxes. To pass a box, you need to get three of the points included in that box. You need to pass each requirement and the Executive Summary in isolation. Have a look at some recent mark schemes to see what I mean about boxes and points.

Step 2: Understand what each of the three requirements involve

As explained above, the three requirements are broadly the same in each Case Study exam.

• Requirement 1: Analyse the financial performance of the company.
• Requirement 2: Evaluate a financial proposal.
• Requirement 3: Evaluate an opportunity or issue.

The mark scheme for each requirement is also the same. This makes the exam predictable and by having a look at recent past papers, you will soon start to see the consistency in the requirements and build an understanding of what each requirement involves.

Step 3: Understand what information is provided in the AI and what is provided in the exam

In addition to the exam requirements and mark schemes being in the same format every time, the AI is also in the same format every time (albeit a different business with different issues).

By working through past case study exams, you will soon start to see that the AI always has the same exhibits with very similar types of information; industry background ; prior year accounts; customers; suppliers; strategic goals and risks. Likewise, the exams include the same exhibits with very similar types of information.

Having completed an exam, it is important to mark it and reflect on what information came from the AI and what came from the exam exhibits. You will soon start to see that most mark scoring points come from the exam exhibits rather than the AI. You will also learn which types of points tend to be rewarded in each box.

Step 4: Learn the Case Study exam technique which ensures that you hit all the boxes on the mark scheme

Having understood what the exam requirements are and how they are marked, you need to develop an exam technique which ensures that your report includes the points which are included on the mark scheme.

Fortunately for you, we have developed an exam technique which does this and it has resulted in two students wining the prize for the highest mark in the world (90% and 92%), another winning a prize for the highest mark in their region (88%) and another achieving the highest mark in their firm (81%).

Given the practical nature of the exam technique, it is not possible to explain this in text so click the link for a tutorial showing you exactly how to ace Requirement 1 and get a prize-winning mark – https://youtu.be/unvyelEwv6y

Step 5: Practice mock exams to master your exam technique

By this stage in your ACA journey, you will already know that question practice is key to success. Having learn the prize-winning technique, you then need to practice mock exams on your case study business under exam conditions so that you master the technique and sign off your ACA in style.

• Kieran Doe is a Senior ACA tutor at ACA Masters

Copyright © 2024 PQ Publishing.

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The inside take on grad life in a big 4 firm

The ACA Advanced level Case Study (CS) exam is the final exam sat by ACA candidates. 

The Case Study exam is designed to test all areas developed in previous ACA exams. The exam places the student at the heart of a business and gives students a ‘case’ which students are given around 4 weeks prior to the exam.

The case is a fictional information source which contains background, news articles and some financial information about a fictitious business.

The paper itself is actually not very technically challenging. Instead, the exam assesses how students are able to analyse a specific business scenario and apply accounting concepts to solve problems. The exam itself is intended to be written as if it were a report being produced.

A key difference with this exam is the way that marks are awarded. Rather than having to score a percentage of marks in aggregate over the whole paper, each of the three individual questions must be passed in order to pass the exam.

Method of assessment

The ACA Case Study exam itself is 4 hours and given it forms part of the Advanced level, it can only be sat in one of two exam periods. These are in July and November each year.

As such, in each exam sitting all candidates will be set the same questions.

The exam will consist of three questions, and ethical issues and problems will likely appear in both questions. 

The exam is fully open book and therefore students are permitted to take any written or printed material into the exam – this includes the pre-release.

How to pass ACA Case Study Exam

Without doubt the most difficult element of this exam and the main reason that candidates fail is the time pressure. 

I’m order to pass this exam, you need to be regimented with your time keeping. You need to go into the exam having already worked out how many minutes per mark you are giving yourself, with a plan as to at what time you are going to move on to the next question.

In addition, make sure that the case that you have been given is tabbed up and organised, so you are able to flick to a particular area very quickly. I found a good way of doing this was to create an index which was colour coded. This was the way I found easiest to find pieces of information as I needed them.

Finally, make sure that you practice the first question over and over again. The first question of the paper is virtually the same in every sitting in that you are required to calculate year on year variances against the financial results presented in the pre-release case. This can be an easy way to pick up some marks without using up too much time.

How hard is the ACA Case Study Exam? 

As Case Study is the final exam, many would expect this to be the hardest exam of all. However, especially in terms of content, this is not the case. 

The difficulty here lies in the time pressure and the very specific mark scheme which comes with this exam. As such, timed practice papers are key to passing this exam.

That said, assuming preparation has been thorough, this exam is certainly passable.

I would give this exam a 4 out of 5 for difficulty. 

The pass rate for this exam is 76.83%

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• Introduction to the Case Study exam

Published: 10 Sep 2021 Update History

What is the Case Study exam?

What is unique about the case study exam, time management, professional skills, tips for success.

In this guide we will introduce you to the Case Study exam, and will cover what the Case Study exam is and why it is unique, the importance of time management, the professional skills examined as well as tips for success.

This series of Case Study exam resources will cover everything you need to know to prepare for the Case Study exam. This includes:

• How to approach the advance information
• Using the advance information during the Case Study exam
• A guide on Requirements one, two and three
• An overview of the Executive Summary
• How to prepare to retake the Case Study exam

Case Study is designed to reproduce a typical situation in which ICAEW Chartered Accountants find themselves. It puts you in the position of a final year trainee, reporting directly to a Partner. You will be required to draft a formal business report on the current position of a client firm, advising the client on the way forward.

The Case Study exam is very different to any other exam you will have sat during your ACA studies to date. The major points of difference include:

• There is no syllabus.
• You will access a detailed pack of advance information six weeks before exam.
• There is a prescribed format for your answer.
• There are explicit marks for ethics and business trust analysis.
• It is marked using a matrix, with a total of 240 marks available.
• Always try and attempt all questions and requirements and answer them fully to give you the best chance of exam success. 

When you practise your first Case Study you will immediately become aware of the unique time pressure of this exam. Some students are of course able to think, plan and type very quickly, and will be able to produce their answers within the four hours permitted. However, most students will find time management the single greatest challenge in passing their Case Study exam.

The timings suggested below may support you to manage your timings during the exam:

• Reading and planning - 1 hour
• Calculations - 1 hour
• Drafting your report - 2 hours

Across the mark key matrix you will see four columns, each referring to the skills that an ICAEW Chartered Accountant acting as a business adviser is expected to have. The Case Study exam requires you to demonstrate competence across ALL of these skills:

• Assimilating and Using Information (AUI) - using basics facts to support your analysis, identifying how to use data in calculations.
• Structuring Problems and Solutions (SPS) - using data to perform meaningful analysis, identifying commercial and ethical aspects of business scenarios.
• Applying Judgement (AJ) - interpretation of data analysis, explaining the impact of commercial issues, recommending how to deal with ethics and business trust issues.
• Drawing conclusions and making recommendations - summarising your analysis, identifying practical ways to implement commercially-driven advice.

The key steps in the Case Study exam preparation include:

• Be familiar with your advance information. You must imagine that you are in the workplace, reporting to an actual client. Your analysis and advice must be relevant and impactful, and this only comes with client-specific knowledge.
• Be strict with your time management. It is better to submit a complete report that feels a little 'thin' in places, than a report that is very detailed but incomplete.
• Plan your calculations before starting them. There will always be more numbers in the advance information and the exam than you need, therefore, you must think about the most concise way to deliver the numerical analysis you need. Failing to plan can lead to excessively detailed financial appendices that add little value, and crucially wasting your precious time.
• Plan on paper – it may help to take blank marking keys into the exam with you, and in the early stages of planning Requirements one, two and three, fill in the mark box headings, then complete your bullet points before drafting your report. This will help you produce a coherent and concise report.
• Use headings from the marking key in your answer. If your report headings correspond with those in the exam marking key this will ensure the relevance of your answer and make it easier for the marker to award you credit.
• You must complete your report . The importance of completing your exam means that if you are overrunning in any section of the report you must switch focus to writing up the Executive Summary section for that section, then move onto the next requirement. Remember an incomplete report, or a report lacking an Executive Summary section will likely lead to a failed result.
• Practise, Practise, Practise, Practise . You are advised to attempt at least four past Case Study exams before your advance information is released. This will help you build the skills and time management techniques you need to pass.

Watch the webinar

View this short webinar for an introduction to the Case Study exam.

How to use the advance information during the Case Study exam

Overview of the Executive Summary

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