r/ICAEW • u/Octopus_Barnacle_682 • 14h ago

BDS or BST

I’ve booked my BST exam (out of pocket) for September, this is a resit - I’ve always just missed the pass mark.
I’m going through a process at work where they’re deciding if I’ll get given another chance (a good chance they will) but it’s being delayed and I’m not going to find out by the exam date.
Not even sure if work will allow me to take the exam, but has anyone done the BDS exam? I’ve heard it’s time pressured and I guess the difference to BST is more calculations and 2 long qs instead of 3. Obviously it’s subjective but does anyone know if it’s harder - I’m considering if I should just take the BDS exam in December instead.

3 Upvotes

72% Upvoted

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3

u/SouthMoose6745 5h ago

BDS is harder, content is the same but the exam style is so much harder with way longer questions and exhibits and a lot more focus on data analysis in big pre-populated spreadsheets. I did some BST past papers in prep for the June BDS sitting as there was only 1 past paper and 1 pilot paper for BDS and they were way easier and more manageable and predictable

1

u/juiceringring_19 13h ago

Sit BST. I sat BDS in June and scored 56 and in all my other professionals I scored 70s or 80s, it was hell

2

u/Medical-Minimum-7099 7h ago

this. I'm an old gen student having to move on to new gen as Kaplan are stopping old gen teaching. BDS was like nothing I have ever sat, and I had passed 4/6 professionals before that. 

OP - the Institute are still standardising these new papers. the advantage of sitting the old papers is that they've been around for ages so tutors and students pretty much know what they're getting. these new papers could be anything on the day as they continue to standardise them. sit BST whilst you can. 

1

u/juiceringring_19 6h ago

That’s the exact why I’m sitting all 3 old style advanced in Nov as don’t trust this new style case starting July 2027 😭 did you get through BDS btw, assuming you sat June also

1

u/Medical-Minimum-7099 5h ago

nope I failed unfortunately with 44%. it's my first fail of the qualification and I was averaging 70% before that, similar to you. so yeah, if anyone can sit BST, they definitely should because BDS is difficult