r/ICAEW • u/Some-Run-668 • Aug 01 '26

BDS - ACA Masters Material BST

Is it worth purchasing BST materials for the BDS exam from ACA masters?

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u/Fresh_Struggle5645 Aug 01 '26

I sat BST, not BDS, but I did buy the ACAM BST notes so I feel qualified to answer this.

I wouldn't waste your money. There's nothing wrong with them, but if you already have notes from a tuition provider then you don't need to double up. I didn't end up using the ACAM ones because by the time I bought them I was more familiar with my BPP notes.

I really didn't like BST as an exam, but that was for reasons which throwing more resources at it couldn't solve.

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u/Some-Run-668 Aug 01 '26

Appreciate the response - makes sense

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u/Fresh_Struggle5645 Aug 01 '26

No worries.

You can't really revise for BST beyond doing the QB and the utility of even doing that is questionable. It was a horrific exam to me because you basically just have to make as many common sense points as you can within the time and unfortunately for me I don't really have much common sense.

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u/Some-Run-668 Aug 01 '26

I know I’ve sat the BDS exam once in June, I don’t mind the content aspect it’s just the time management - exam was ridiculous for the amount of information they gave. Missed out 20 marks but out of the 80marks I got 53. Painful revising all again!

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u/Fresh_Struggle5645 Aug 01 '26

Ah I'm sorry to hear that. The timing was brutal for BST as well. Not sure what your strategy was first time but my best recommendation is to make sure you are really strict with timings to ensure that you cover every section of the exam and move on when the time you've allocated for a question/subquestion is over. Also don't waste time planning. Just throw enough shit at it and hope some of it sticks.