| These changes have been made to ensure that the SBL exam continues to remain relevant in the fast-changing world and fully meets the needs of employers. We strongly believe that the changes provide stronger alignment to workplace skills and so will better prepare students for the workplace. With less emphasis on reading in the exam time, students will be better able to demonstrate their strategic thinking and professional skills.
We have been consulting employers and tutors on the pre-seen introduction and have received positive feedback. The primary aim of the pre-seen is to enable students to become familiar with the business activities of the case study organisation and the industry in which it operates. Familiarity with this important contextual information will help students to better understand and apply the further information that will be provided in the exhibits in the SBL exam. The pre-seen is designed to provide background and context only and will purposely not signal areas of the syllabus or tasks to be assessed in the exam. We believe that planning ahead can help students better demonstrate the critical professional skills in the exam and so can support stronger exam performance. Additionally, advanced information included in the pre-seen can help with managing the exhibits released on the exam day as students will already be familiar with the case study organisation. The pre-seen will be released two weeks in advance of the exam, to both students and learning providers at the same time. Students do not need to do further research on the industry or organisation as all the relevant information will be contained either in the pre-seen material, or in the case study exam released on the exam day. Format of the SBL exam
The SBL exam will contain further new information in the form of exhibits, which students should focus on in answering the exam requirements (tasks). The total number of exhibits will be significantly reduced from the current format to reflect the introduction of the pre-seen information. The exhibits in the exam may take a variety of forms including memos, emails, briefing notes, interview extracts, web pages, financial reports, etc. The SBL exam will now have three compulsory tasks, with each task having a varying number of parts and total marks. All five professional skills will continue to be tested and will still be worth 20 marks in total. However, due to the reduced number of tasks and exam time, each professional skill will be tested only once in every exam and will be worth four marks. There will no longer be two- and three-mark professional skills requirements. The SBL exam will no longer be answered as a single requirement in one word processer document. Each task (or part of the task requirement, where appropriate) will be completed as a separate requirement in a separate response option or options. As a result, the exam workspace area will look slightly different in that only one task will be shown at a time, and it will no longer be possible to view all tasks together. Please find the separate guidance document, 'Changes to the SBL exam - structure of tasks', in the Education Hub to find out more about this change. As much of the background information will now be provided in advance, the SBL exam duration will be reduced from four hours to three hours and 15 minutes. What is NOT changing
The changes, detailed above, only affect the structure and format of the SBL exam. The quality, integrity and rigour of the exam remains the same. ACCA will continue to offer an exam that focuses on the application of knowledge and includes strategic thinking, business direction and problem solving to prepare students for the workplace. The SBL exam will continue to be an integrated case study in which all requirements relate to a single case study scenario. Students will continue to be given a role or roles that they will assume as they carry out various tasks in the case study. The content of the syllabus will largely remain the same. There will be small changes to the study guide to provide increased clarity to some individual learning outcomes. The SBL exam will continue to be closed book and will continue to have 80 technical marks and 20 professional skills marks. Using the pre-seen
Students should read the pre-seen to fully understand the activities of the fictitious organisation and the industry in which it operates. Students will need to spend time familiarising themselves with the terms and activities including the products/services, types of customers and suppliers, developments, risks, etc. Students may do some research to better understand the terminologies and activities of the industry. However, there is no expectation that students undertake further research. It is important to emphasise that the SBL exam is based on a fictitious organisation and the exam tasks will relate to this organisation specifically and not to any general research that students may have undertaken independently. Students should ensure that they are very familiar with the content of the pre-seen prior to the exam session. They should know where to find information within the pre-seen, as this will save time in the exam. A draft syllabus and study guide, specimen exams and guidance documents are available on the Education Hub. |
