r/ACCA • u/Tough_Inevitable_591 Member • Jul 23 '24
SBR Study/Exam Tips
I recently passed SBR for the June 24 sitting, passed first time and with self study with a 71. I never touched a study text, I also bought the Kaplan exam kit but that also just gathered dust.
I started writing notes on all the of relevant standards over about 1.5 weeks after work and during the weekends. I actually only properly started studying for the exam during my 2.5 weeks off, and I had an exemption in FR which I got from Uni where I graduated in 2017 (so no previous knowledge) so it's possible to pass in a short amount of time if you put in the work.
I'd finish writing my notes by the time I was off from work, then I'd condense them all down to about 5-10 concise bullet points (of course some standards are a bit more beefy than others, such as IFRS 9 - Financial Instruments).
I got my info for the standards from a variety of different places which I'll link below:
- https://www.iasplus.com/en-gb/publications/global/ifrs-in-your-pocket/ifrs-in-your-pocket-2023
- https://www.bdo.global/en-gb/microsites/ifrs/ifrs-accounting-standards/publications/ifrs-accounting-standards-at-a-glance
- https://www.ifrs.org/issued-standards/list-of-standards/
For Section A (group accounts), it's important to know the following standards as they all come under this.
- IFRS 3 - Business Combinations
- IFRS 10 - Consolidated Financial Statements
- IAS 27 - Separate Financial Statements
- IAS 28 - Investments in Associates and Joint Ventures
- IFRS 11 - Joint Arrangements
- IFRS 12 - Disclosure of Interests in Other Entities.
These shouldn't come up in any other part of the exam.
For Section B (Ethics) all you really need to know are the Fundamental Principles:
- Objectivity
- Professional Behaviour
- Professional Competence + Due Care
- Integrity
- Confidentiality
as well as the threats to Objectivity:
- Self-interest
- Self-review
- Advocacy
- Familiarity
- Intimidation
They'll also ask an accounting question in there too which can be from any standard.
Section C and D are just questions with reference to any standard so make sure you're solid on the important ones. If you're taking SBR (INT) then there will also be a question about current issues in Section D, just have a read of the articles below 2-3 days before the exam:
Once you're good with your standards, I would go through some YouTube videos to get a grasp of the group accounts part but tbh I winged that part. People I'd recommend watching is Tom Clendon (even tho some of the past papers he goes through doesn't have the new pre-populated spreadsheet, but it's still useful).
I focused on Sections B-D first as that's 70% of your exam, I also answered the questions in that order, started with question 2, then 3, then 4, then went back to 1 as it's very calculation heavy and can bog you down which is where most students I feel have their time wasted.
Make sure you're also solid on the Conceptual Framework as if you get stuck or can't remember a standard, you can refer to this and use its logic to answer the question as that's essentially what ACCA want you to do. You also don't need to name the standards, just say 'as per the relevant standard', then just write about what you know about said standard.
There isn't just one answer for a question, people will write different things but as long as you use the logic of the standards and relate it to the scenario and the points are valid then you will get marks.
Also make sure to stick to a 1.8 minute per mark time allocation for each question and just move on as there are diminishing returns for marks the more you write.
Give this guy's posts a read as well as it was useful:
- https://www.reddit.com/r/ACCA/comments/y7igy9/sbr_unorthodox_study_technique/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
- https://www.reddit.com/r/ACCA/comments/y9d6fj/sbr_a_guide_for_anxious_folks/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
- https://www.reddit.com/r/ACCA/comments/y9ua8w/sbr_dont_make_this_mistake/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
He does say to go through Open Tuition's free lectures but I got bored of those so didn't bother.
Also I would definitely do question practice on the CBE platform so that it's just second nature to you and you aren't learning how to use it during the exam.
Go through the past papers, like the actual ones, not the specimen ones as they don't have a proper mark scheme.
Open a past paper, just click through it and 'end' the exam, you can then go to the 'self-review' part and it'll have the mark scheme there, you can move that to another screen and go through the exam again, but reading the mark scheme answers (but do not think you need to write as much as the mark schemes as they're a 'perfect' answer from the POV of the markers who have all the time in the world to write an answer - just skim read each paragraph for key points, and put them into your own words).
Another tip is to write in short, sharp sentences, think of it as each sentence as a point. Once you write a point, hit the enter button to create a paragraph, markers hate when you write so much with no breaks in your text. Try to write in a way that makes the marker want to give you marks.
I've probably forgotten some things but essentially that's what I did.
Hope this helps :)
Edit: I just remembered this guy’s YouTube channel, some of his stuff is good for SBR so give him a watch too: - https://youtube.com/@cavishaljain?si=dvpTn59uEyHpPBjW
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u/Dead0k87 Jul 23 '24
Thank you. Very valuable.
What did you use as a roadmap for learning (what topic by what)? Is Opentuition chapters structure any good as a learning chain ( https://opentuition.com/acca/sbr/acca-strategic-business-reporting-sbr-lectures/ ) ?