* March 2023 ACCA SBL Exam Results * Instant Poll and Comments

Congratulations! Please any study tips? What did you use to study?

Passed with a 53 second attempt! I had a 49 at my first attempt which I thought went well. This March 2023 was a tough one in my opinion because I was blank all through the exam was just typing with common sense. I did not use any model but I ensured I completed the work and made an extra effort to score the professional marks as I was unsure if I was answering the questions correctly.

Summary-

Do your best and leave it all to God.

82 first time, with self study! Congrats to everyone passing their final exam! I have just 1 left to go!!

Failed with a 42%, thought i had it, still wondering where i got it wrong, rewriting June , please any tip would be appreciated.

Passed with 55% my second attempt and finally got this through after my last attempt 41% in December 2022, congrats to those who have passed!

I did not memorise everything and just apply your basic knowledge, also remember the way the examiners want you to write such as sub heading, format, tone for professional skills etc to make your paragraph clear for marker to mark. Get the higher chance to score more in addition of your technical answer written in exam.

The tips is knew the exam technique as well as the examiner report provided by ACCA and practice as hard as you can, so that you know what your weakness is before the actual exam.

By learning my past mistake, this time it made a big difference to me as a self study student. A small tip is go through the debrief webinar provided by ACCA every sitting for SBL. You should also understand the latest technical articles updated in ACCA website, this could help you out in SBL exam. If you struggle for this exam, please don’t give up and just keep going and prepare your exam confidently in next exam sitting, trust me you will do it!!:))

Passed with 53%, finally an affiliate yay!!!!

fail… 43, second attempt 🙁

not sure, for now I booked re-sit in June and I think I will focus on practicing past papers only. there is a few weeks to the re-sit

I’ll be dead honest with you, those who are planning to sit with the rev kit, STOP.
1. Revise the theory, get an idea of the topics and models. Remember the models are used for STRUCTURING your answers into paras only, they are not part of the actual answer. If a model can be used, use it (for this exam I didn’t need to use any).

2. Practice case studies (like actual question papers), initially without time but then under strict time conditions. Practice as many questions as possible.

3. Do not underestimate the professional skills and read technical articles.
In this exam,
Evaluation skill asked us to compare 2 proposals OBJECTIVELY so have an equal/almost equal balance of points for both proposals. Its ok if you have chosen proposal 1 or 2 as long as you have justified the reason for choosing whichever. I recommended selling the flagship store simply because it had a foreseeable future, company would get a high return which was an estimate but assumably would be kinda high anyway if you’re selling the lead store and most importantly because the other option has no foreseeable future and would result in a complete loss of competitive position since I’m selling to a direct rival company. If its the second one you have chosen, that’s completely fine as long as you specified WHY.

Commercial acumen skills is something I always struggled with, honestly, whatever comes to your mind in a practically possible situation, put it down. Here its the benefits of AI in operations of bookshop and warehouse. I think the technical articles helped here. I used info from them such as the use of a biometrics system, alarm system, loyalty cards, self scanning machines and put it as individual points which I elaborated.

Professional skepticism I answered the best in my opinion, you’re speaking to the CEO and trying to explain corporate governance so explain the theory but pay attention to the tone cause he’s your superior and you can’t offend him lol. Don’t use strong words like you’re wrong and you’re opinion is dumb lmao. Say it “may not necessarily be true or invalid”.

Analysis here did not have any figures so it was a breeze since it did not have to be detailed in that way but explain why the deficiency arose and give a logical recommendation. You can’t hire a lot of security personnel here because they had a cost issue and low profits so find a good replacement for that person, not bring in more people that the company has to give salary to, and thereby increase costs.

Communication skill I could barely complete. The assurance mapping basically asked for an explanation of the 4 lines of defence because they had mentioned in the exhibit that they did not have knowledge of it. I was already pushing for time so all I could explain there what they were and a slight elaboration into the first 2 lines. The last task which included qualifications a leader should possess I couldn’t attempt at all. But basically you need to sound convincing to the party you’re addressing.

MAKE SURE YOU FOLLOW THE FORMATS FOR EVERYTHING AND SPLIT IT INTO PARAS CONTAINING 3 OR 4 LINES.

MY TUTOR TOLD ME TO FOLLOW ONE IMPORTANT ASPECT SINCE IT IS NOT POSSIBLE TO WRITE EVERY SINGLE POINT. FOR EXAMPLE, A 22 POINTS FOR A 22 MARKER IS PRACTICALLY IMPOSSIBLE AND YOU’RE ASKING TO FAIL BY NOT HAVING TIME. SO MAKE SURE YOU HAVE SAY POINTS WHICH ARE AT LEAST HALF THE MARKS (SO 11 POINTS) AND IT SHOULD BE WELL EXPLAINED AND NON-REPITITIVE.

Just remember that some things are not practically possible in a workplace environment that we learn theoretically due to the ongoing internal and external situations so get a good idea of the industry as well. If we’re talking service sector, then we know that customer satisfaction is super important and the entire paper would revolve on that. Bookshops are somewhat the same since they do depend on the customer sales for survival but internal factors like low profits or selling the flagship stores, external factors like break ins impact the company and its customers.

Relate the answer to the exhibits as much as you can so that you’re answers do not seem super theoretical.

I did 2 mocks, so remember to do it diligently and get it evaluated because you need experts to tell you the professional marks aspect since you can’t assume that.

YOU WILL FEEL SUPER DISSATISFIED AND LESS CONFIDENT ONCE YOU WRITE IT (I FELT IT BIG TIME) BUT THAT’S PART OF THE SBL PACKAGE SINCE ITS SUPER BROAD.

ALL THE BEST!! Y’ALL WILL ACE IT!!!

Keep going ya..I knew your feeling as I experienced this disapointment feeling when I really wanna give up 2 years back bcoz I have failed for same paper for three times (but only pass 1 at that time) for my beginning of my ACCA journey..and then I decided to give up on taking any ACCA exams for around 6 months.

Now I just left 1 more paper to go bcoz I finally decide to go on after making my decision..just rmb you will be success one day although sometimes you may feel disappointment just like how I feel at that time. But everytime I failed for each exam, I just tell myself not to give up bcoz ACCA is worth it at last. You will smile when it comes to last exam pass!!

Good luck to you, but still work life balance is important, keep yourself motivated, cheers!!

66 – first attempt

Used BPP textbook and revision kit. I did LOADS of past papers – some I did twice (timed conditions). It’s so important to adopt the mindset of the role which the question tells you to be (e.g. consultant) to provide an adequate answer. I also watched a few YT videos for guidance on technique. Also read examiner articles/reports to clarify what some questions wanted us to answer.

I scored 45 in my first sitting.
Didn’t touch the exam kit and text.
Just followed Hasan sir’s advice.
His notes and drafted answers.
Personally, even after not getting a pass,
I do not feel there is a need to pick up the ACCA books.
The SBL paper is such that it tests you generally in so many ways.

I guess there are many in our group who did not touch the ACCA books and got good marks in 50s and 60s.

So, may be it’s more about working on your application and exam technique.

Anyone would want to say ?

All the best to everyone who cleared and to the ones who did not, I hope you all clear in the next sitting.
Hopefully, I can too pass in the next sitting.