These slides were presented at GLPC 2017 for the new

Strategic Business Leader examination. The slides will look at

the new exam and the approach to teaching and learning.

We will set the scene and profile the curriculum before

exploring the assessment structure, professional skills and the

detail of the content of each section of our new syllabus.

The following is an overview of the new Qualification and

structure to show where SBL fits.

1

This diagram shows the ACCA Qualification and the

progressive broadening and deepening of technical and

professional knowledge and skills.

And what students learn through the Applied Knowledge and

Skills exams all feed forward into the Strategic professional

exams, particularly Strategic Business Leader.

At the highest level – Strategic Professional, the most exciting

changes are the introduction of Strategic Business Leader: an

innovative case study which integrates the technical, ethical

and professional skills required by professional accountants.

This is the focus of our session.

2

You can read the aim for yourselves, with the key features

highlighted in bold.

The aim clearly lays out what the new exam sets out to

achieve, namely to assess leadership skills through a

substantial integrated examination.

3

This diagram sets out the innovative assessment framework of

this new exam; the main capabilities and the technical content

of the syllabus:

The main technical areas are Leadership, governance, strategy,

Risk, Technology and data analytics, Organisational control,

finance and innovation and change management. These are all

vital for the professional accountants of the future. But the

Strategic Business Leader case study will also assess

candidates on their professional skills:

The ones that employers have told us are most in demand in

the accountancy sector are communication, commercial

acumen, analysis, scepticism (particularly important for

auditors) and evaluation. In the integrated case study,

candidates will be marked on both their technical ability and

their professional skills. These will be discussed in more detail

by my colleagues.

In essence the Strategic Business Leader provides for a

combination and separation of theory and synthesis ie the

range of theories taught and embedded act as a tool box for

problem solving rather than each individual theory/tool or model

4

tested in isolation. More on this later.

4

Leadership

Apply excellent leadership and ethical skills to set the ‘tone

from the top’ and

promote a positive culture within the organisation, adopting a

whole organisation

perspective in managing performance and value creation.

5

Governance

Evaluate the effectiveness of the governance and agency

system of an

organisation and recognise the responsibility of the board or

other agents

towards their stakeholders, including the organisation’s social

responsibilities

and the reporting implications.

6

Strategy

Evaluate the strategic position of the organisation against the

external

environment and the availability of internal resources, to identify

feasible

strategic options

7

Risk

Analyse the risk profile of the organisation and of any strategic

options identified,

within a culture of responsible risk management.

8

Technology and Data Analytics

Select and apply appropriate information technologies and data

analytics, to

analyse factors affecting the organisation’s value chain to

identify strategic

opportunities and implement strategic options within a

framework of robust IT

security controls.

9

Organisational Control and Audit

Evaluate management reporting and internal control and audit

systems to ensure

compliance and the achievement of organisation’s objectives

and the

safeguarding of organisational assets

10

Finance in Planning and Decision-making

Apply high level financial techniques from Skills exams in the

planning,

implementation and evaluation of strategic options and actions

11

Innovation, Performance Excellence and Change Management

Enable success through innovative thinking, applying best in

class strategies

and disruptive technologies in the management of change;

initiating, leading and

organising projects, while effectively managing talent and other

business

resources.

12

These will be explored in more depth later. In essence they

seek to…

Apply a range of Professional Skills in addressing requirements

within the Strategic Leader examination and in preparation for,

or to support, current work experience.

13

This section of the presentation is about the professional skills

covered in Strategic Business Leader and how to demonstrate

them.

It will cover the following:

A quick overview of the syllabus, focusing on Section I –

Professional Skills

General principles in demonstrating professionalism in

answering questions or carrying out tasks in Strategic Business

Leader.

A detailed breakdown of the professional skills within Section I

A Task in Specimen exam 1 and the demonstration of one of

the Professional skills, Communication, in the published

Specimen answer

14

Let’s remind ourselves of the main syllabus content and in

particular the five professional skills in the red boxes.

The Strategic Business Leader case study will not only assess

technical skills and knowledge but also professional skills.

The ones that employers have told us are most in demand in

the accountancy sector are communication, commercial

acumen, analysis, scepticism (particularly important for

auditors) and evaluation. In SBL, candidates will be marked on

both their technical ability and their professional skills.

15

We‘ll start by looking at the main features of professionalism

and how to demonstrate it.

Making an impression and showing professionalism is an

‘attitude of mind’ and an approach that should be adopted in the

planning and completing of any task set in the Strategic

Business Leader examination. Being mindful of the general

principles of professionalism can help a candidate adopt a way

of answering that can earn the professional marks available.

However any specific task will be looking for particular aspects

of professionalism, as included within the syllabus and defined

in the question requirements. Candidates should always

remember that they are carrying out a professional task that

has a particular purpose for a defined user or stakeholder, so

the way they prepare answers is important.

16

In a moment we shall discuss the main areas covered by each of the professional skills

highlighted in the syllabus for SBL. First though we will cover general skills that will be

important throughout the exam and may influence the professional skills marks that candidates

obtain under each header.

Looking at the first bullet; a wide number of weaker points could potentially earn all the

technical marks available in a part-requirement, but making the most important points and

giving more emphasis to these is a way of showing professionalism. (In the current exam

marking rubric, candidates can earn all their technical marks while at the same time missing

the most important or crucial points. Professional marking allows this skill to be additionally

recognised and the abler candidates to be more fairly rewarded).

Drawing evidence from a number of sources to make points rather than just making the

obvious points directly obtained from one source of information given in the case is another

way to demonstrate professionalism. (This is slightly different to making the most relevant or

important points. This is about making points which show a greater or deeper understanding of

the issues, through making links between information from different sources, which the less able candidate would not normally have picked up)

Professionals do not include superfluous information or erroneous or unsupported points,

which under the current exam marking structure would not affect performance, apart from

wasting exam time, as there is no negative marking. (While there will be no negative marking in

the new examination, under the new exam format, a candidate who consistently makes valid

points is rewarded additionally for demonstrating their wider credibility).

Professionally competent candidates do not needlessly repeat information or points they have

already made. They may reinforce a previous point, but this is usually made as a development

of a point rather than repetition. Avoiding repetition can help candidates gain professional

marks.

Addressing the requirements as asked is an indication of professionalism. This is certainly not

evident when candidates either make significantly more points than would be required, for the

marks available (showing poor time management), or who deliberately choose to discuss more

issues than asked for in the hope that the marker will select their best answers. This practice is

unprofessional and shows poor judgement. (This is about showing professionalism as

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expected in the work place and commercial awareness, personal effectiveness and integrity.) .

17

Candidates can demonstrate professionalism through presenting the answer

in the way that would be expected of the person being asked to carry it out in

the workplace and having a clear stakeholder focus to the style of answer

given. (This means clearly adopting the style of media and a ‘tone’ of

communication as specified in the requirement, including headings, tables

and figures, if relevant, and presenting figures or quantitative analysis

succinctly and logically.).

Candidates should construct their answers logically, building arguments

progressively rather than using a random or ‘scattergun’ approach to

answering the question. (This is about telling a coherent and compelling

story, not only to gain communication skills marks, but can also be used as a

way of earning other professional skills marks as identified.).

Applying broader knowledge from previous exams and from wider reading,

appropriately, to strengthen arguments and make points more convincing is

a good way to demonstrate professionalism. (This requires candidates to

recall the main relevant content from the Fundamentals Applied Skills level

of the qualification and read more widely.).

Demonstrating professionalism in Strategic Business Leader is not about

linguistic eloquence or having an extensive vocabulary, or even about good

grammatical style. English, for many of our candidates, is not their first

language, so what we are looking for, more specifically, is the ability to

express points clearly, factually and concisely, in a business like manner.

18

The next five slides reproduce Section I of the syllabus, which provides detail

of the ways in which candidates can demonstrate that they have the

appropriate professional skills under each of the five headers. They also sum

up what ACCA will be looking for candidates to show. For communication it

is very much the same as is required at Professional level now. A number of

the general points that we’ve already discussed are clearly particularly

relevant to communication – presenting answers in a professional manner,

making points logically and progressively, avoiding repetition, generally

being clear, factual and concise.

ACCA is also looking for candidates to express themselves persuasively and

to show credibility in what they say and how they say it. To do this

candidates will need to understand what will motivate and interest the

audience that they are preparing material for. This means that they must

have a good understanding of what their audience will regard as important,

what concerns they need to address and the level of understanding the

audience has – both of technical issues and the current situation.

A word on formats. Candidates will be expected to produce material in a

variety of formats and will need to know good practice for each. ACCA will

be producing updated guidance. However candidates must be clear that

much more is involved in good communication than putting the right header

on a memo.

We’ll discuss communication further shortly when we look at an extract from

one of the specimen exams.

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For commercial acumen the stress is on showing awareness of

the wider business environment. Wider reading has been

emphasised as important for a number of exams and it will be

more important for Strategic Business Leader. Judgement is

very important here, ACCA will be looking for candidates to

make recommendations that are founded on sound reasoning

and understanding of the most important implications of the

business’s external environment and internal organisation.

Commercial acumen must always also be linked in with the

context of the scenario. In Specimen 2, for example, Question

3(a) asked candidates to apply commercial acumen in

determining the contribution that a successful Chief Executive

would make, but this had to be done in the context of the

person specification described in the question.

20

At present at Professional level analysis skills are important in

identifying what data in scenarios is significant and why . For

Strategic Business Leader, candidates will be given different sources

of information and will be judged on whether they use appropriate

frameworks to assess the insights from the information they’re given.

As now on various exams, candidates will be expected to use metrics

to analyse quantitative and qualitative data. They will not only need to

use a range of metrics, but also be able to identify which are the

most important metrics and which data is most significant for the

purposes of their analysis. In Question 2 of Specimen exam 2,

candidates needed to balance their time carefully so that they were

able to discuss a number of metrics, and spend sufficient time

comparing the organisation with competitors as well as analysing its

own performance. Their analysis particularly needed to highlight

value for money as this had been an important issue in the customer

survey that had been carried out.

Just as they are required to in current exams, candidates will have to

reflect and comment on what the analysis tells them. They should do

this bearing in mind the purposes of the analysis, examples are listed

in the syllabus – establishing the reasons for problems, confirming or

undermining opinions and, in particular, using analysis as a basis for

21

recommending action.

21

Scepticism is to do with questioning – probe and challenge, the

verbs mentioned in the summary, are strong verbs, so

candidates must not accept what they’re told at face value.

They will have to ask whether the reasons for issues or

problems that they are presented with represent the whole

picture or if they require further data. Candidates need to be

able to identify weaknesses in areas such as control systems

and recommend improvements. They need to be able to

recognise whether data and opinions they are given are

supported by sufficient evidence and question the assumptions

made. This could involves probing the assumptions made in a

financial forecast, such as in Specimen Exam 1 Question 2(b),

or the basis of the comments made by an important individual,

for example the Chief Executive in Specimen Exam 2, Question

2(b).

Candidates will also have to apply several tests – professional,

ethical, organisational and public interest – to determine

whether the information they have is adequate or the decisions

that have been made are sound.

It will not be enough to say that something is questionable or a

weakness – an essential component of scepticism is to provide

22

evidence that will support the challenge being made.

22

Evaluation means firstly being able to make a balanced

assessment of the value or importance of the data provided. If

candidates are to score full professional marks for evaluation,

the evaluation must be carried out in the context required.

Specimen 2 demonstrates this well in that data must be

evaluated in the context of the rail operator being a public

sector company. Another important aspect of context is who the

important stakeholders are. In Specimen 2 customers are

particularly important and in Question 5(a) evaluation marks are

given specifically related to customer relationship management.

As with analysis, evaluation is not being carried out for its own

sake and candidates must also be able to draw from their

evaluation ideas about the financial implications and other

consequences of the situation or proposals that are being

considered. They should be able to use the evaluation as a

basis for forecasting outcomes, and then use this assessment

to support decision-making.

23

This is the title page of the first specimen exam of the two

which are now available on the microsite. Both specimen

examinations are accompanied by comprehensive solutions.

We will now look at a particular task requirement from this

Specimen examination – Q1(c)

wider 24

We shall focus here on the professional skills from Question 1c)

in Specimen 1.

The above task relates to when the consultant to DCS

Company had to prepare slides for the board of directors,

highlighting the benefits and key opportunities presented by big

data analytics.

Note that there are two professional marks to be gained by

producing slides and notes which demonstrate good

communication skills. This means, not only does the marker

look for the candidate to highlight key benefits and identify

opportunities, they are also looking at how the candidate does

this.

25

To help us here, we’ll look again at the communications section

of Section I of the syllabus

The candidate needs to be be aware of these when framing

their answers.

Remember that communication is about providing clear,

concise and objective information to those that need it, but at

the same time being persuasive and compelling in the way that

you communicate and use the information. It is also important

to express points not only in a way that the audience can

clearly understand, but explaining the benefits of complex

issues like data analytics in a way that can motivate and

interest the user – being the board of directors in this case.

26

To help further we can look at the marking grid for the professional mark

component of this question which shows what the marker would be looking for

to award the marks available and how they would discriminate between good

and poor answers as far as professional skills are concerned.

For each professional requirement there will be a set of specific criteria that

markers will use to form an opinion of what a good professional answer would

contain.

To answer this very well and gain both marks, the candidate needs to have

‘appropriately, selected and prioritised the key points about benefits to the

customer (and the business) within a logically flowing bullet list which are

supported by notes which relate closely to the points selected’. Note that

prioritisation and making points in a logical order were among the general

skills discussed earlier.

Poorer answers would either include too many or too few bullet points in the

slides, some of which are either incorrect or so minor as not to be significant,

or which do not clearly link to customer or business benefits. Another

weakness in professionalism would be to omit the most important benefits or

opportunities, meaning that the slides and their content would not be as

compelling or persuasive.

27

Let us now look at the Specimen answer and identify where these criteria

would be met.

27

This shows the first slide showing the benefits of big data

analytics. This slide identifies the most important of these in about

five key bullet points, which are succinct and clear so that there is

not too much to read on the slide to distract from the presenter

and what they will be saying. The notes themselves highlight key

benefits such as for training clients to use this data effectively.

The last part of the notes demonstrates strong persuasive

language such as ‘gaining insight into customer purchasing

patterns’ to help focus their marketing initiatives.

28

Now let’s look at the second slide that was asked for in the Task

requirement.

In this slide the further points are made and restricted to five

bullets. Again the bullet points are succinct and show clear

benefits/opportunities. These relate to development of strategy

and also provide a better basis for decision-making.

The notes accompanying this slide are shown in the next slide.

29

In these notes the professional skills have been identified and

relate to the good use of language to emphasise benefits such

as ‘transparency and accurate and timely information’ , drawing

on qualitative aspects of useful information. The use of the

terms ‘at a fraction of the costs’ and ‘large amounts of data’

help create a persuasive selling argument, comparing this

technology with alternatives. The final part of the notes

continues the persuasive language, highlighting the key

benefits of targeting specific customer needs to ‘unlock more

customer value’ .

You can see that the whole ‘tone’ and style of these notes are

appropriate to use with the board of directors of directors of

DCS Company and should impress them mainly from seeing

that the technology is not only more cost effective than

alternatives, but allows DCS customers to drive real value from

their own customers, which is a great selling point as far as

DCS is concerned.

30

All the above tips for showing professionalism in completing

tasks set in the Strategic Business Leader examination are

helpful in developing good practice. So applying these

behaviours will help with time management and with gaining

more technical and professional marks. Note as in the answer

to Q1c) in Specimen 1 above, the markers will also be using a

set of specific criteria to form an opinion of what a good

professional answer would contain in relation to the specific

professional skills requirement.

While most tutors (and markers) are used to teaching towards

and awarding technical marks, they are probably most

concerned about how to support and reward students in

demonstrating their professionalism.

31

32

This section of the presentation is to provide some guidance to

lecturers on the approach to teaching Strategic Business

Leader .

There are 4 key aspects to consider:

1. Recognising the importance of teaching the Technical

knowledge and the professional skills in a integrated way

2. How to approach Professionalism

3. Understanding the role(s) played in the examination, the

variety of contexts and the potential formats presented

4. How to prepare students for success

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Technical

No intention of covering how to teach Technical knowledge

here.

The syllabus is clear – and must be covered thoroughly, as any

syllabus area can be covered in any exam.

It is important to stress that the syllabus is about the role of a

STRATEGIC LEADER. We will expect strategic thinking and

understanding.

Professional

The technical knowledge covered above needs to be

approached and presented within the context of a

PROFESSIONAL leader, demonstrating clear professional skills

to support this technical knowledge

Knowing the syllabus is not enough.

That knowledge must be framed, presented and demonstrated

using a range of professional skills/ competences.

These will be integrated together within each question

34

Knowledge demonstration is currently awarded some marks

It could be in Strategic Business Leader, if it is appropriate in

the context of what is being asked as a professional.

For example, students may be asked to communicate

something effectively which may require the explanation of a

concept.

However, in other cases, depending on what is being asked and

by who and for what purpose, then this may not be required

and would show poor professional skills to do so. Students

need to understand and discriminate.

PROFESSIONALISM

About understanding the role being played and the skill required

for each question asked

Therefore technical skills need to be taught in the context of

how to answer a question on any particular syllabus area with

professionalism, by understanding clearly what the professional

competences are.

A sound answer must be technically correct and show sound

professional skills.

35

It will be very important for candidates to clearly understanding

the key requirements of the 5 professional skills in the syllabus.

These were covered in the previous section of this

presentation.

Students need to practice these as much as possible before the

exam.

Attempt to look at practice questions from a range of

professional skills i.e how could they be tested professionally

Integration whilst learning the technical knowledge must be

done

36

Specimen 2 – a quick overview of the variety of ways in which

professional skills can be examined

37

Key areas for students to focus on to enable them to be more

professional in their answers:

Clear / correct/ concise/ convincing/ credible – all important in

all professional skills

38

Role

The candidates will always play a role so it is important to get

them used to this in the classroom.

Old style essay answers no longer appropriate – they must take

on the role and practice answering questions like this

As part of the role students must understand why the task is

being asked this will likely drive the professionalism skill tested

Also – by who? Again, really important as it will likely drive the

professionalism skill tested

Context

Strategic level – senior management/ directors/ strategic

decisions being made/ advice at a strategic level so must be

framed within this contextual level of the organisation

39

Formats

A wide range which students must be familiar with – real life!

Similarly – students will have to answer in a wide range of

styles – again make sure they are familiar with as many as

possible

Again – this will play an important part in assessing the

students’ professional skills.

Briefly highlight specimen 2 – range of formats and range of

roles played.

40

Relevance – this is a key professional skill – make sure

students understand that they must only write what is relevant.

They must not write everything they know on a topic – only

what the recipient of their answer NEEDS to know.

This is critical in demonstrating judgement and communication

skills.

It is also likely that the exhibits will overlap and link – students

must ensure that they do not become over-focused on only one

exhibit per answer. Again, this will be part of assessing their

ability to analyse and evaluate

They must avoid repetition – key to good communication

As stated above – answer what is asked – not what they wish

had been asked – this shows commercial acumen and sound

communication

Markers will look for progression and prioritisation in answers.

Only the most relevant and important points should be

presented.

Senior managers/ Boards don’t have time to waste on non

relevant data.

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PRACTICE!!!

Professionally presented answers in a variety of formats at a

strategic level

When looking at technical questions think about how they could

be examined from a range of potential professional skills

Role play – answers must be ‘in character’

Using multiple exhibits to find information to answer one

question professionally and comprehensively

This exam will be time pressured and require good time

management – like real life! They must practice this in terms of

both reading lots of information, digesting and understanding

this, then writing concise, relevant, professional answers.

42

Imagine if you could help your students in the exam hall when they are actually sitting the SBL exam,

what would you say to them if you were looking over their shoulder?

43

• The structure of this part of the presentation is to cover the main skills that students must take into

the exam hall in order to succeed on the day.

• Obviously, it should be taken as read that the student will have acquired the necessary syllabus

knowledge and practised sufficiently to master the professional skills tested in the Strategic

Business Leader exam.

• The focus is on some of the more generic exam hall skills that need to be grasped if they are to do

well in this long exam. We shall cover four of these in turn.

• We will be using Specimen Exam 2 throughout this presentation, which you will be able to refer to

later when you decide how best to convey these important messages to your students

44

Firstly, let us sort out the critical issue of time management

• Strategic Business Leader is the longest exam that students are likely to ever face. However the 4

hours, or more accurately the 240 minutes, available will fly by.

• Time is the limiting factor, so the student must take charge of the clock. Should they lose control of

time they will lose control of the exam itself, and this could prove to be disastrous.

• They need to allocate all of the time carefully to all activities and tasks to be completed during the

240 minutes, if they are going to effectively manage their time.

• The four stages that must be completed in the following order are:

• Reading the tasks to be completed, more about that later

• Read the supporting scenario information very carefully, as all answers will need to use

this.

• Plan a suitable structure for their answer, again more shortly

• Then finally each task should be answered in turn

45

Now let us look at the marking scheme for Specimen Paper 2

• The first thing to note is that straight away 40 minutes will be taken up reading and planning. This

should not be rushed as it is critical to success in the exam, however for the first few times it is

practiced I suspect it will take a great deal longer.

• The remaining 200 minutes are to be used to target all 100 marks on the paper.

• This allows 2 minutes to produce one mark’s worth of answer.

• Therefore the time should be strictly apportioned to the marks allocated by individual task.

For example Task 1 a) is worth 10 marks – so 20 minutes are available to produce a

suitable answer.

• Disciplined time management is essential for success, and the more the students practice this key

skill the better they will perform on the day, and the more marks they can score in the exam.

46

• It is a common myth that students run out of time at the end of the exam. The fact is that unless

time is managed throughout the exam it starts to run out from the very start.

• However there are professional marks allocated to each sub task, and the 2 for Task 1 a) are worth

4 minutes of time. This time should be used to demonstrated the professional skills specifically

associated with the task.

• Students should always aim for to score all 100 marks as it provides them with the best margin of

safety, as the pass mark is 50.

47

Now let us move on to the second stage of the exam process, which is to analyse and thoroughly

understand all of the requirements.

• The Strategic Business Leader syllabus comprises a great deal of the content of current P1 and P3

syllabuses, and much more, so there is a great deal for the students to learn before sitting the

exam. This will be the raw material that students must use to demonstrate that they have the

required knowledge to pass this exam.

• However as this is a Professional level exam students should not expect to be hand held on how to

answer each task. They will not be told to use specific theories, models, methods or even

approaches to follow.

• Students are expected to draw from their newly acquired Strategic Business Leader syllabus

knowledge, and their earlier studies from the Knowledge and Skills exams. This will be selectively

and carefully applied to produce a suitable answer worthy of the mark.

However, application of knowledge is just one aspect part of the exam; to produce a good answer it is

necessary to understand what each task specifically entails.

Let us now look at Task 2 a) from Specimen Exam 2.

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Before we get to the Task itself

• Role of assistant auditor to Alex Reed,

• Strategic Business Leader is a role play exam

• Roles will vary between tasks

• Prepare a report

• Specific answer format is required

• Many different formats may appear in the exam, so must be practiced

• Possible professional marks.

• The target audience for your report; the board of the company.

• The tone and content must be suited to strategic decision makers and pitched at an

appropriate level.

• Possible professional marks

• Avoid unnecessary jargon

• Diverse board members would be unfamiliar with

• Not too simplistic or in any way condescending.

Now to the requirement

,

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• The question verb here is “evaluate”

• which has several definitions depending on the context of the question,

• Here it could mean: judge or determine the significance, worth or quality of the passenger

survey results.

• Candidates should realise that there are around 10 regular question verbs that could be

used in the exam The inclusion of the word “and” indicates to you that there are two

separate sub-tasks to complete.

• The second sub-task is to review the performance of the company over a defined time period,

• it would be easy for a candidate to forget this if they do not take great care when reading

the question.

• Total technical marks allocated are 12

• As there two sub-requirements it would be sensible to allocate each 6 marks

• An condidate might choose to skew the mark allocation slightly in favour of one sub-

requirement over the other,

• Under exam pressure it is advisable to keep your approach to mark allocation simple and

consistent.

• An additional two professional marks for demonstrating analysis skills.

• These extra marks are not awarded for additional content,

• But for how the candidate approaches the question and present their answer.

• Competently investigating, enquiring and considering the information provided in the

passenger survey to produce an answer that demonstrates the analytical skills expected

from a professional accountant will earn both marks.

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• Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance - students should avoid the temptation to start

answering the question as soon as they can.

• Without a credible structure, students are quite likely to deviate from the point and start to waffle.

There is enough time to construct an answer worth all of the marks, but not if the students goes off

on a tangent. The plan offers a disciplined structure to follow that accurately reflects the stated

requirements.

• The actual requirements, or associated professional marks, may suggest a format to be adopted. If

this is the case, then the plan should adopt this format as there are easy marks to be earned.

• The method each candidate should adopt in planning is the one which suits them best, and may

involve making notes or an answer plan on the answer booklet beforehand. Whatever is the most

logical approach for a particular student is the one that they should adopt and practice.

• Planning allows students to organise their thoughts into a coherent approach that addresses the

specific requirements set. So, let us return to Task 2 a) from Specimen Exam 2

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• The Task 2 a) was for a report, so this should be the basic format used - with an introduction, then

the findings followed by conclusions and recommendations if required.

• So the principal headings should be added, with the necessary subheadings also included.

• Under each sub-heading a range of bullet points could be added identifying the main issues to be

covered. These will be drawn from the analysis undertaken, using suitable supporting information

from the scenario and its exhibits, and after the application of relevant syllabus knowledge.

52

• In the Strategic Business Leader exam there are two aspects students need to bear in mind when

constructing their answer

• the technical content that used to develop the points made. However students should avoid

any temptation to make any irrelevant points, repeat parts the question or pad out their

answer in any way.

• the professional skills that need to be demonstrated, which may not involve writing more

but using a particular style or tone.

• The exam is not an exercise in volume, but it assesses the quality of the answer produced. In fact

the ability to write concise but accurate and complete answers is a skill that should be practiced, as

it will save time on the day of the exam and result in far better quality answers and a higher mark.

However this does not mean answers should be short and superficial, instead students should

attempt to write as much as they can but using as few words as possible.

• Obviously if a prescribed format, such as a report or email is required, then this should be used as

a layout. Students should practice all possible formats in the run up to the exam

• Sentences should be short and to the point, with between two and four sentences in a paragraph

to develop each point you wish to make in sufficient depth. This will be enough content to

demonstrate and apply relevant syllabus knowledge, using the information contained within the

scenario, and should secure you around 2 marks per point. Always leave space between the

paragraphs as it makes the answer easier to read, and mark. And students should want to keep

the marker happy!!

• Additionally, if some supporting numerical analysis is required, such as that in Task 2 a), then this

should be in the form of a separate appendix and its content referred to in the body of the answer,

expanded appropriately.

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• Obviously, it is essential that a course of study is undertaken to ensure that the students have all

the knowledge necessary to answer any question posed in the Strategic Business Leader exam.

• Once they are confident of this, it is time to practice exam standard questions, mastering the

techniques that have been covered in this brief presentation:

• time management;

• effective reading;

• clear planning;

• concise business writing; and

• Professional skills

• The Strategic Business Leader exam is not going to be an easy challenge for any student, but with

time and effort and the mastery of good examination technique, they should be confident that it can

be passed well.

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