One intense week, on one page. One topic a day, taught right here — then the real past-exam question that goes with it, ready to answer and get marked on. You pick the week. Just show up seven days running.
The week follows the money: hold it, fund it, invest it under risk, then price it. Each day: a short brief that teaches the topic, then genuine past-exam questions, to time. Every one of them is a written question, because those are the FM marks nobody practises. Pick any week before the exam — start on a Monday, or start today. Days 1 to 6 earn the marks; Day 7 is deliberately light, so if you run it as your final week it lands the day before the exam.
Draft in a doc, paste in, keep your draft. There's no save-as-draft, and you'll want your answer again on Day 6.
Next morning, read yesterday's marking before you touch today's topic. It's the cheapest teaching you'll ever get.
Each day tells you the one thing to look for in the model answer. Open it hunting, not browsing.
Day 6, 4pm: your lowest-scoring answer gets its second attempt. That resubmission arrow is the week's proudest number.
Day 1 is open below in full — the other six days unlock with the Sprint.
Five-ish minutes. It follows your mistakes — get one wrong and it digs deeper there — and it decides which area your Day 3 question targets. Answer honestly, tag how sure you were, and it'll tell you the difference between what you don't know and what you don't know you don't know.
Six questions to start — one per Sprint topic — then it follows whatever you get wrong. Ten to fifteen questions at most.
Start with the fact that shapes this whole week. Every markable question in the FM bank is a discussion question, because ACCA marks the calculations by numeric entry and only the written parts need a human. In a typical FM paper those written parts are worth roughly thirty marks. They are the marks candidates practise least and lose most.
Today's topic is the one everybody assumes is free. Why does a company hold cash when cash earns nothing? There are three classic motives — transactions (paying the bills as they fall due), precautionary (a buffer against forecasts being wrong) and speculative (holding funds ready for an opportunity, or for a favourable movement in price or rate). Almost every candidate can name them. Far fewer score full marks, because naming is worth about a third of what is on offer.
The mark scheme wants each motive explained and then applied. A mark rarely comes from the label. It comes from the sentence after it: what that motive means for this company, in this scenario, given what you have just been told about its cash flows. Three labels is three half-marks. Three labels, each explained and pointed at the company, is six.
The second half of today is the models — Baumol and Miller-Orr. You will not be asked to grind the formulas in a written part; you will be asked what they do, what they assume, and when each one is the sensible choice. Baumol treats cash like inventory and suits steady, predictable outflows. Miller-Orr sets an upper and lower limit with a return point and suits cash flows that move unpredictably. The examiner's favourite follow-up is the weakness: Baumol's assumption of constant, known demand is exactly the assumption real businesses break.
When you reveal the model answer tomorrow, look for one thing: count the sentences per mark. The model is not long — it is dense, and almost every sentence contains either a technical term or a fact from the scenario.
Genuine ACCA past exam · December 2024 · Q2(d)
Before you submit: draft in a doc and paste it in — there's no save-as-draft, submitted answers can't be retrieved, and you'll want your first attempt beside the feedback on redo day.
Genuine ACCA past exam · December 2025 · Q1(c) · Constant Co
The eight-mark set piece: conservative versus aggressive financing of working capital, argued as four balanced pairs and landed on the company in front of you. Taught with June 2025's Gro Co.
Genuine ACCA past exam · June 2025 · Q2(b) · 8 marks · ⏱ 14 min
Deliberate practice on your weakest area — and the Day 0 diagnostic above decides which: working capital and treasury, risk techniques, sources of finance or investment appraisal methods.
Genuine ACCA past exam · your diagnostic's pick · 4–6 marks
Risk versus uncertainty — the distinction ACCA has asked for on its own — then the four techniques for dealing with them, each worth two marks only if you say what it tells management.
Genuine ACCA past exam · December 2023 Q1(a) + December 2024 Q1(b) · 11 marks · ⏱ 19 min
Sensitivity against probability analysis, one criterion per paragraph — and then the limitations, which are where half of today's marks actually live.
Genuine ACCA past exam · December 2023 Q3(c) + June 2023 Q4(b)(ii) · 12 marks · ⏱ 22 min
The biggest day of the week: CAPM against the dividend growth model, the problems of high gearing, and the creditor hierarchy that explains why debt is cheaper than equity.
Genuine ACCA past exam · December 2023 Q5(b) + June 2024 Q1(b) + December 2023 Q6(c) · 14 marks · ⏱ 25 min
The deliberately light final day: what to re-read, what to ignore, the timing rule that saves FM written marks — plus one optional stretch on ROCE.
Each day's brief takes ten minutes to read. The question takes the rest of the session. That ratio is the whole method — the marks are earned in the doing, not the reading.
1.8 minutes per mark. Every question above has its timer printed on it. Set it, and when it rings, stop — in the real exam the next question's first marks are the easiest ones left on the paper.
Underline the verb. "Identify and explain" pays twice — the name and the reason. "Discuss" wants a point, an explanation and an application. And quote the scenario: generic answers score generic marks, which is to say almost none.
You cannot mark your own FM answer objectively — everyone gives themselves the benefit of the doubt. Submit each day's answer and let the feedback tell you what an examiner would actually pay for it.
Buy the Sprint and you get this whole week unlocked — all seven days, taught in full — plus full Ultra access on FM until your exam on Friday 11 September, set up on your aCOWtancy account the same day. That's the entire FM Ultra bank of 16 genuine past-exam questions, 84 marks, every one markable, marked seven days a week and back within 48 hours, with two attempts at every question.
Run your sprint any week you like — all seven days are on one page from the moment it opens, so nothing is drip-fed and there is no daily email to wait for. Buy early and you get more runway to resubmit and improve — access lasts until exam day either way. New to aCOWtancy? Use the same email at checkout as your aCOWtancy account (or create your account after buying with the email you paid with).
Get the Sprint — £99Already bought? Your access code is in your confirmation — open the full Sprint.
Already a Premium or Ultra member on FM? Don't buy this — the Sprint week is included for you. Message us in the chat on acowtancy.com and we'll send you a link that opens the whole week straight away.
The FM textbook, past papers and practice questions are on aCOWtancy for every topic in this sprint. From an ACCA Platinum Approved Learning Partner.
Get the Sprint — £99