SBL

Hello Sir, I am having a problem, the thing is that conceptually i have no issue in understanding any topic, when i first study any topic i do sort of thought experiments all the time thinking of problems and creating multiple scenarios, i also read quite a large number of books relating to marketing, management, strategy or finance, i am not satisfied until i am able to understand each and every little thing of what i am studying, i was quite confident that i will pass this March 2019 attempt but i failed , 48 Marks. Now i don’t know where and what went wrong , this was my first failure since i enrolled in ACCA, My intiuition says that there might be a problem in delivering my concepts in actual exam day, may be i did’nt do the required amount practice which was sufficient.
What are your thoughts on this, Please do reply as early as you find convenient
Thanks

Here is most of a reply I wrote to another student who was having difficulty:

I don’t know how many times you have attempted SBL, but anyhow it’s probably safe to say that with 48% you know the technical content pretty well. Therefore, you must concentrate on question and answer technique.

The two essentials are:

1 Look carefully at each piece of information provided in the question and ask yourself why the examiner has put it there. What are its implications for the scenario and requirements. This requires careful reading and rereading of the question but also with the requirements in mind. So if the requirements relate to falling profitability and how to rectify that then you would know to be on the lookout for factors like: new competition, old products, changes in technology, stagnant economy, change in public taste, rise in raw material prices etc.

2 Try to address the requirements with laser-like accuracy looking at all the words and tasks. Tasks are often multiple like “identify an advise”, “explain and persuade”. Both verbs need to be addressed.

Finally, I would say that, although models and frameworks are important, you should try first approaching a task from a common-sense view without worrying about which models or theories to use. This will help you formulate your answers in more practical ways. Having decided what you think should be done, then you can retrofit a framework as necessary to give your answer more respectability , check your conclusions and sometimes spark off new ideas. In this exam it is the application of models that is important not their explanation and the examiners want practical answers such as those you would write to your boss in a real situation.

So, lots of question practice.

HTH