Case Study

Where the marks are

Percentages are the examinable weighting for each area. Revising in this order puts your time where the marks are.

1. Scenario Requirements

   26%

   Informed business judgement · Social issues · Efficiency, economy and effectiveness · Managing shareholders' and other stakeholders' interests · Globalisation issues · Business sustainability issues, including sustainability reporting · Responsible investments and equator principles · Application of technology strategies, including block chain, artificial intelligence and digital communications · Soft skills, including originality and initiative, creative thinking, critical thinking, integrated thinking, persuasion and negotiation, cognitive flexibility, multiple capitals, leadership, emotional intelligence, social thinking, project management, and technology design, strategy and business modelling · Managerial judgement · Professional skepticism · Professional ethics · Business ethics · Risk assessment · Due diligence · Corporate social responsibility · Governance

2. Analytical Tools

   20%

   Strategic tools: PESTEL, SWOT, Porter's five forces, benchmarking, Porter's value chain analysis, Porter's generic strategies, Porter's diamond, BCG model, Ansoff's matrix, gap analysis, business capacity analysis, resource audit and business process model · Advice on investment proposals appropriate to the objectives of a given business organisation · Performance management tools: critical success factors, key performance indicators, balanced scorecard, value for money and economic value added · Tools to analyse a set of financial statements (profit or loss and other comprehensive income, financial position, cash flows and supporting notes): trend analysis, ratio analysis and common size analysis · Tools used with management information, such as budgets and forecasts · Tools for management short term decisions, such as marginal costing and contribution analysis · Financial engineering assessment tools · Business valuation tools · Analyses and evaluation of key types of business risks and assessment of their implications within a given scenario · Appraisal and evaluation of financial reconstruction proposals in a given scenario

3. Ethical and Professional Skepticism Consideration (not more than 15% of contents)

   15%

   Identification and evaluation of professional and business ethics issues and dimensions in a contextual and broad way · Professional issues, how businesses are conducted and sustainability (environmental, social and governance) impact · Ethics in the context of regulations, regulatory oversight, professional duties, public interest and reputation · Professional skepticism as an underlying requirement in complex scenarios: provenance of information and potential for bias

4. Detailed Contents

   15%

   The single realistic scenario based on a private, public or charitable sector entity: pre-seen segment released two weeks before the examination and unseen segment given on the examination day · Purposes of the paper: demonstrating understanding of specified issues in the scenario, and producing a professional report dealing with the two specific requirements using combined financial and business analyses · Structure of the required output: executive summary, main report and appendices

5. Assessment Procedure

   10%

   Nature of the examination: 4-hour paper, relatively open requirements with no single solution or model, requiring financial and non-financial data analyses rather than detailed computations · Assessment of the report content and in-depth analysis of the scenario: use of case data and appendices, professional tools and knowledge from other subjects, analytical skills, identification of issues and options, professional skepticism and ethical judgement, evaluation of issues and options, conclusions and recommendations · Assessment of the overall report: inclusion of appropriate appendices, structure and presentation, style and language

6. The Case Study Approach

   5%

   Vision of the newly qualified accountant as a well-rounded business professional capable of contributing to real value creation in business management · Vision of the newly qualified accountant as a professional accountant with core values enabling him to act in the public interest as well as the interest of employer and/or client · Integrated and synthesising approach: competences including sound knowledge and higher value technical skills expected of a finance professional, applied to unstructured information requiring familiarisation, analysis, evaluation and communication of judgement

7. Main Competences

   5%

   Core technical knowledge, skills and practical application acquired at the Foundation and Skills levels · Technical, analytical, evaluative and integration skills acquired at the Professional level · Advisory, judgemental and communication skills acquired through practical work experience

8. Prior Knowledge

   5%

   Core technical knowledge and skills and practical application acquired at the Knowledge, Skills and Professional levels · Technical, analytical, evaluative and integration skills from Strategic Business Reporting, Performance Management and Strategic Financial Management · Advisory, judgemental and communication skills from practical work experience undertaken during the training programme

Where candidates lose this paper

The Institute publishes its own past questions. What it cannot give you is an answer to these.

There is not enough time to read the whole study text before the diet.

The official study text condensed and reorganised by examinable weighting, with every claim cited back to the page it came from — so you can check anything you doubt in one click.

You write practice answers for months and never find out whether a single one would have scored.

Write by hand, photograph it, and have it marked against the examiner's own marking guide — with the marks broken down the way the examiner breaks them down, and the reason for each one.

The study text is hundreds of pages and none of it tells you which parts the examiner actually asks about.

Every syllabus topic, ordered by the share of marks it carries, so your revision time follows the marks instead of the page count.

You know the answer but lose marks anyway, and no one ever explains where they went.

The Institute's published solution beside your attempt, with the mark allocation visible — so you can see the marks sitting in the principle and the application, not only the final figure.

You have only ever typed your answers, and the paper is written by hand.

Timed mocks written on paper, under exam conditions, so you discover how long handwriting takes before it costs you a question.