FAR - Full Series
FAR - Full Series
Learn how to Ace the ACA Certificate Level exams
Financial Accounting and Reporting (FAR)

Strategic Business Management
Strategic Business Management (SBM)
All of our SBM tuition options teach the essential brought forward content as well as the frequently examined advanced technical areas (overseas investment appraisal, financial reconstruction, statistics, hedge accounting). Tuition is extremely exam focused and once a technical subject has been taught, we will develop your technique by teaching you exactly how to read, interpret and analyse the exam paper, before showing you the specific technique you should use when generating points and typing your answer for each SBM exam question. The exam techniques you will be taught are those which enabled your tutor to win several prestigious ICAEW prizes and this tuition approach has resulted in several of our students also winning prizes.
Tuition Options
To get you through your SBM exam, we offer:
SBM VIDEO COURSE
(2023)
Our prize-winning Senior ACA Tutor Kieran Doe has recorded our SBM video course. Each class focuses on a frequently examined topic and teaches the key technical concepts in a simplified way, before demonstrating the optimal exam technique by working through recent past exam questions in full. Kieran will teach you the most efficient way to read, interpret and analyse the exam paper and most importantly, the specific technique you should use when generating points and typing your answer in the exam. This includes advice on how to make effective use of the open book notes.
Having understood the technical content and how you should be approaching a particular type of SBM exam question, you can then go and attempt similar past exam questions to put these prize-winning exam technique skills to the test and watch your marks drastically improve - hopefully you will join our growing list of prize winners! Our SBM Master Plan (see below) categorises all the past exam questions by topic to make it easy for you to practice similar questions after each class. This enables you to conquer SBM by mastering one area at a time.
The final classes work through recent exam questions in full. This provides practical demonstration on how to identify the separate sub-requirements, allocate your time to each sub-requirement and work through the question from start to finish.
The course is structured so that it covers each examinable area and each type of SBM exam question. As there is a substantial amount of assumed knowledge for most SBM topics, we have included our FM, FAR and BST tutorials as part of the course. We suggest that you watch the classes in the order set out below. However, if you are already comfortable on a particular topic then you may want to skip the revision class.
You can watch the course introduction and a free sample class below.
COURSE STRUCTURE
Data Analysis Questions - How to Analyse the Financial Performance and Position of a Business: BST recap - Performance and Position Analysis: SBM exam questions - Performance and Position Analysis: Pre-Populated Spreadsheet Questions - Variance Analysis: SBM exam questions - Project Appraisal and Cash Flow Forecasts: SBM exam questions - Statistics: SBM exam questions - Additional SBM Questions on Data Analysis and Statistics
Business Strategy Questions - Business Strategy: SBM exam questions - Additional SBM Questions on Data Analysis and Business Strategy
FM-Based Questions - Investment Appraisal: FM recap - Investment Appraisal: additional SBM content and SBM exam questions - Finance: Source of Finance and WACC: FM recap - Finance: Gearing: FM recap - Finance: Adjusted Present Value: FM recap - Finance: Ungearing and Regearing Beta Equities: FM recap - Finance: Bond Valuation: FM recap - Finance: additional SBM content and SBM exam questions - Business and Equity Valuation: FM recap - Business and Equity Valuation: additional SBM content and SBM exam questions - Hedging Basics and Hedging Interest Rate Risk: FM recap - Hedging Foreign Exchange Risk: FM recap - Hedging: additional SBM content and SBM exam questions
FR-Based Questions - Financial Instruments: FAR and CR recap - Financial Instruments: SBM perspective and SBM exam questions - Hedging: CR recap - Hedging: SBM perspective and SBM exam questions - Additional SBM questions on Financial Instruments and Hedging (FM and FR) - Leases: FAR and CR recap - Leases: SBM perspective and SBM exam questions - Financial Instruments and Leases Questions: Exam Software Functions - Assets: FAR and CR recap - Assets: SBM perspective and SBM exam questions - Groups: FAR and CR recap - Groups: SBM perspective and SBM exam questions
Assurance and Ethics - Assurance: SBM content and SBM exam questions - Additional SBM questions on Assurance and Ethics
Full Exam Questions - July 2022 Q1 (available from April 2023) - July 2022 Q2 (available from April 2023) - November 2020 Q1 - November 2020 Q2 - July 2019 Q1 - July 2019 Q2
Management Information Revision - Costing - Variance Analysis - Break Even Analysis
PAYMENT AND ACCESS
You can watch the course introduction and one of our classes from 2022 for free below.
You can subscribe to all the classes for £395 and enjoy a viewing period of 12 months.
Please click here to purchase. Once payment has been made, you can view the full course here.
Please note that our study materials are sold separately - see below.
PASS GUARANTEE
In the unlikely event that you fail your exam, we will extend your access until you pass your exam. This includes access to any additional content we upload to the course as a result of syllabus changes. There will be no extra cost to you. This reflects our commitment to getting you qualified, as well as the confidence we have in Kieran's track record.
STUDY MATERIALS AND OPEN BOOK NOTES
(2023)
Our prize-winning ACA tutor Kieran Doe has developed our unique SBM materials which include technical notes specifically designed for use in the exam, master plans and exam technique guidance.
Technical Notes
Our SBM technical notes concisely summarise the technical content so that you can quickly look up the information you need in the exam. The notes include:
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easy-to-use financial management, financial reporting, data analysis, business strategy and assurance notes for each subject area
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reminders of points to consider including in your answers
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calculation proformas
A small sample can be found at the bottom of this page. Student feedback can be found at the top of this page.
SBM Master Plans
To ensure that you use your study time as effectively as possible, we have broken the syllabus down into examinable topics so that you can allocate your time to specific examinable topics. For each topic, we have listed the past exam questions which examined the topic. There is also a reference to how frequently the topic is examined, the extent to which it is examined and the SBM video class which demonstrates the exact exam technique to use for that type of question.
Exam Technique Guidance
We have included our valuable exam technique guidance which contains detailed advice on how you should approach each type of SBM exam question in order to score top marks. This includes detailed guidance on how to answer each type of SBM exam question: financial management; financial reporting; data analysis; business strategy; assurance; and ethics.
Model Answer
Kieran has worked through the November 2020 exam in full so you see exactly what you can realistically produce within the time limit and under exam conditions. The ICAEW Question Bank answers are not what students are expected to produce. You can watch Kieran work through the exam in the sample class from the video course (above).
PAYMENT AND DELIVERY
The price for the full package of our SBM materials is £45. You can purchase using a credit or debit card below.
You will receive an email containing a link to download the PDF document within 5 minutes of placing your order.
Please ensure that you check your junk mail in case your email settings divert our emails to junk.
ONE-TO-ONE TUITION
Please note that due to exceptionally high levels of student demand for our services following well-publicised success, we do not have any availability for live SBM tuition in 2023. Instead, we have added substantial amounts of new content to the SBM Video Course (please see section above).
If you are struggling with a particular area, then one-to-one tuition is also available. We suggest that one-to-one tuition is used to supplement the tuition provided by the online classes to address any specific areas where you require intensive support.
Tuition fees are £120 p/hour.
Please contact us here if you wish to book.