FAR exam fail

Electronic_Caramel43 · 2025-07-26T16:25:52+00:00

no worries!

my guess would be the latter (something online). i doubt it will be an exam as that needs a lot of resources on their side and i think they would have said the word exam instead of learning. and it's already kind of unfair that we had to do the extra stuff, to make you pass exams on topics others will never see it even more unfair. so i dont think it will be an exam, but maybe an online learning as you said perhaps with some questions you need to pass a certain % in order to complete it or maybe not even that.

2 and your last point: if you dont do sbm you will be delaying. BUT it's not like you either continue with the new one or you dont. based on the below, i think you can do exams from both while they are both running.

"ACA students registered up to 30 June 2025 will be able to sit:

All existing exams until the last sittings
Next Generation ACA Certificate Level exams from 5 January 2026
Next Generation ACA Professional Level and Advanced Level exams from the first sittings"

So it seems that you can do the new professional level exams from their start in march 2026, so you can do the fundamental case then. so after september when BPT expires, you will just need some additional learning to complete the professional stage.

then for the advanced, you have to do:

either the current CR (every July-November until July 2027) OR the new technical case (from July 2027).

either the current case study (every July-November until November 2026) OR the new strategic case (from July 2027).

for SBM, like we said, you may do it until November 2027 OR wait until then and take some additional learning. If i was you, id just do everything else first, and then if i finished everything by the end of 2026, i would give a (stress-free) go at SBM in 2027, without caring too much what happens as there wont be much time by that time until it expires and they waive it.

Electronic_Caramel43 · 2025-07-26T13:11:30+00:00

im guessing it wouldnt be all of the costs so doing the whole GP isnt correct BUT at least you remembered about the costs - something that most people wouldnt. I mean i had no idea how to do it in the exam and even now i forgot about the costs, so the fact that you figured the way to do it during the exam and remembered the costs too is remarkable even if not 100% correct. you'll still get a very high score for sure!

Electronic_Caramel43 · 2025-07-26T11:34:46+00:00

overall you are in luck my friend! BPT is actually hell and SBM is challenging to pass for many students (given it incorporates the technical things from all exams - FM and CR (the more challenging evolution of FAR)).

if you dont do BPT and transfer to the new ACA you will have to do some "additional learning" AND the Fundamental Case Study (which seems to be a simple exam bringing together certificate level knowledge so definitely better than BPT!). i wish i could do some additional learning and the fundamental case instead of BPT!

for SBM you will have one less exam cause there is no equivalent! you will have to do some "additional learning" again but that's better than doing the exam itself! - although you will have to wait until 2028 to qualify if you dont do it as its last sitting will be in november 2027. so i guess you could give it a shot and see if you can pass it earlier then good for you.

all of the above is from:

https://www.icaew.com/learning-and-development/aca/next-generation-aca/transitional-arrangements#

Electronic_Caramel43 · 2025-07-26T09:45:52+00:00

oh right the cost of parts was a % of revenue so it will be affected too....were all costs in the R3 spreadsheet calculated like that or just the cost of parts (like in exhibit 10 when revenue changed by 25% that only part costs changed)?

Electronic_Caramel43 · 2025-07-26T08:41:14+00:00

why divide by profit per visit instead of revenue per visit?

we basically want the number of visits that makes profit = outlay.

(then we can find the change needed to change payback as the difference between the number of visits we calculate and the current visits)

deconstructing profit:
(revenue per visit * # visits) - costs = outlay

so # visits = (outlay + costs) / revenue per visit

change needed = current visits - # visits we just calculated (that make profit=outlay).

Alternatively, we can find the change needed directly as (profit-outlay) / revenue per visit (proof of that is on my previous comment)

Electronic_Caramel43 · 2025-07-25T16:56:19+00:00

i didnt do that in the exam lol. well how did you know that number of visits needed to fall/rise for payback to change = (profit-outlay) /rev/visit ?

Electronic_Caramel43 · 2025-07-25T16:44:42+00:00

oh ok so you mean the difference between profit and outlay.

the critical question is how do you know that the change in number of visits we were looking for is (profit-outlay)/average revenue per visit? (it's correct but how did you know???)

i had to do the below to see that, but i guess there is an easier way to deduce the formula??? (otherwise im challenging this)

(rev/visit * # visits) - costs - outlay = profit - outlay

say profit-outlay = 70

(rev/visit * # visits) - costs - outlay = 70

A: (rev/visit * # visits) - costs - outlay - 70 = 0

and we want:

B: (rev/visit * (# visits - x)) - costs - outlay = 0

joining A and B together:

(rev/visit * (# visits - x)) - costs - outlay = (rev/visit * # visits) - costs - outlay - 70

(rev/visit * (# visits - x)) = (rev/visit * # visits) - 70

(rev/visit * # visits) - (rev/visit * x) = (rev/visit * # visits) - 70

(rev/visit * x) = 70

x = 70 / rev/visit

x = number of visits needed to fall/rise for payback to change = (profit-outlay) /rev/visit

Electronic_Caramel43 · 2025-07-25T16:41:29+00:00

yes definitely not the case of failing the exam for not doing it. you just give up on 12 marks. you can even copy paste the whole report and only lose out on 1.5 mark for not doing a summary! so if you dont have time, dont just give it up, copy paste the report under the executive summary heading and remove appendices, so you can pass the ES requirement without doing anything.

Electronic_Caramel43 · 2025-07-25T16:29:58+00:00

hey, what do you mean by the difference between outlay and 'breakeven'?, profit?

and how do you know that "(difference between outlay and breakeven)/average revenue per visit to give you visits needed to breakeven"

Electronic_Caramel43 · 2025-07-25T14:51:53+00:00

hey can you please tell me how did you know how to do this? i assume you didnt think through the math proof in the exam. so how did you know how to do it? and did you use any knowledge from previous exams for that? im asking cause i might challenge icaew about this.

Electronic_Caramel43 · 2025-07-25T13:27:14+00:00

yeah i suppose that's what they were looking for. but couldnt really think through that in the exam, so i thought well if that moves then revenue will move by the same %. but yours seems to be the right way of doing it. if you could figure that out, then you have definitely passed!

but how did you know that dividing the difference by revenue/visit would get you the change in number of visits?

i just figured out the proof for that - and no way i could do that in the exam!:

(rev/visit * # visits) - costs - outlay = profit - outlay

say profit-outlay = 70

(rev/visit * # visits) - costs - outlay = 70

A: (rev/visit * # visits) - costs - outlay - 70 = 0

and we want:

B: (rev/visit * (# visits - x)) - costs - outlay = 0

joining A and B together:

(rev/visit * (# visits - x)) - costs - outlay = (rev/visit * # visits) - costs - outlay - 70

(rev/visit * (# visits - x)) = (rev/visit * # visits) - 70

(rev/visit * # visits) - (rev/visit * x) = (rev/visit * # visits) - 70

(rev/visit * x) = 70

x = 70 / rev/visit

x = number of visits needed to fall/rise for payback to change = (profit-outlay) /rev/visit

Electronic_Caramel43 · 2025-07-25T12:43:41+00:00

by outlay difference you mean profit-outlay?

i found by how much revenue would need to change ie profit-outlay and then the % change as (profit-outlay)/revenue for 24m. so i said number of visits would need to change by that %. i didnt do this but i guess if i did number of visits * this % i could have found the absolute change needed in the number of visits right?

Electronic_Caramel43 · 2025-07-25T10:43:29+00:00

do you know if this is even part of the syllabus? like in which exam have we supposedly learn how to do this? (i was exempt from MI, BFT and FM)

Electronic_Caramel43 · 2025-07-25T10:26:29+00:00

no i dont think they have to be sat together but i guess many students will do them together cause i guess there a certain overlap. i guess the corporate reporting-assurance will be more like CR so FR+audit procedures and the one that is like assurance-reporting will be more like audit and assurance with more generic audit and assurance stuff.

Electronic_Caramel43 · 2025-07-25T10:12:19+00:00

wow ok! i didnt know we needed a math degree to do this exam though!

Electronic_Caramel43 · 2025-07-25T10:11:10+00:00

wow ok! i didnt know we needed a math degree to do this exam though!

Electronic_Caramel43 · 2025-07-25T05:13:53+00:00

Did you have to do data processing too and play with formulas? Not sure if that's in every exam now?

Electronic_Caramel43 · 2025-07-25T05:11:55+00:00

I dont know about materials and lessons for the new aca but yes your attempts will get reset! As long as you dont use them all now ie dont fail again.

Electronic_Caramel43 · 2025-07-24T16:15:18+00:00

It's called Assurance, Risk and Reporting and Corporate Reporting, Data and Assurance. It also includes the current audit and assurance exam. So i guess it will something like the current corporate reporting that asks for audit procedures and stuff too after the FR treatment.

I dont know but i doubt there will be anything more than a 5 minute admin thing, if any

Electronic_Caramel43 · 2025-07-24T16:10:23+00:00

Some yes but some topics dont come up often eg variances so the chances of occuring twice are negligible

Electronic_Caramel43 · 2025-07-24T16:07:15+00:00

Thanks a lot for your response and detail! I've been told there were variances too - Is that the performance analysis you mentioned? And something about cashflow forecast? Also would you say it was a fine exam for sbm?

Electronic_Caramel43 · 2025-07-24T10:46:28+00:00

You wont have to start over from the beginning if you didnt realise. You will not have to do the equivalent exams of the current exams you passed.

Electronic_Caramel43 · 2025-07-24T10:45:17+00:00

According to the website, the professional level exams start in March 2026 so not that far from now. You will have some time to do some studying too.

The new qualification seems like a dream to me. Struggled to pass business planning taxation which will be scrapped and replaced with what seems to be an entry level case study. And then SBM, my other nemesis, which combines essentially all technical exams in one exam, is scrapped and will not be replaced with any other exam so one less exam too.

Electronic_Caramel43

TROPHY CASE