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 paper: ethics, groups, your weakest area, revenue, instruments and impairment, then the judgement questions. 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 in SBR every markable question is. 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.
We start here because of a fact worth knowing before you plan another day of revision. Ethics has appeared in every single SBR sitting in the bank — December 2025, June 2025, December 2024, June 2024, December 2023. Always in Question 2. Always worth 10 marks. And in most sittings it carries a further 2 professional marks on top.
That is a twelve-mark block, in the same place, every time. It is the most predictable thing in the paper — and it is the block candidates are least likely to have written out and had read by anybody.
Here is why it goes wrong. Everybody can name the five principles: integrity, objectivity, professional competence and due care, confidentiality, professional behaviour. Naming them is close to worthless. The mark scheme wants the threat identified in this scenario, the principle it threatens, why the pressure exists, and what the accountant should actually do about it. Four moves. Most answers make one.
The professional marks are stricter still, and they are the ones you cannot mark yourself. They are not awarded for knowing more. They are awarded for the relevance of the principles discussed and the actions identified — which is a polite way of saying: did you engage with these facts, or did you paste a paragraph you had ready? You cannot tell that about your own writing. You are too close to it. Somebody has to read it.
On actions: be concrete and escalate in order. Gather the facts. Raise it internally with the person responsible. Escalate to those charged with governance. Document everything contemporaneously. Take advice — from the professional body, then legal. Resign only as a last resort, and say so. A list that jumps straight to "resign" reads as untrained.
When you reveal the model answer tomorrow, look for one thing: how often the company's own name appears. In a good ethics answer it is in almost every sentence. That is the entire difference between 4 marks and 10.
Genuine ACCA past exam · December 2025 · Q2(a) · Tacoco Co
Note the requirement names two people. They are not in the same position — one has authority the other does not, and the right action differs accordingly. An answer that treats them as one person cannot reach full marks.
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.
Control under IFRS 10, and the harder direction the exam actually prefers — proving an entity is NOT controlled despite the shareholding. Plus identifying the real acquirer when the legal form says otherwise.
Genuine ACCA past exam · June 2023 Q1(a) + December 2024 Q1(a) · 18 marks · ⏱ 33 min
Deliberate practice on your weakest area — and the Day 0 diagnostic above decides which: revenue, financial instruments, impairment and held for sale, or judgement and current issues.
Genuine ACCA past exam · your diagnostic's pick · 5–8 marks
The five steps, written out — and the two the examiner actually tests: is it a separate performance obligation, and how is the transaction price allocated? Then the deferred tax tail most candidates stop one paragraph short of.
Genuine ACCA past exam · December 2023 Q3(b)(i) + December 2025 Q2(b) · 18 marks · ⏱ 33 min
Classification by business model and cash flow characteristics, then the impairment judgement that decides most of the marks — including the pre-tax, asset-specific discount rate candidates routinely get wrong.
Genuine ACCA past exam · June 2025 Q2(a) + June 2024 Q3(a) · 17 marks · ⏱ 31 min
The Question 4 slot — short, discursive, no scenario to lean on, and the part candidates prepare for least. Judgements and estimates, business combinations, and the single-versus-double materiality distinction.
Genuine ACCA past exam · June 2024 Q4(a)(i) + Q4(a)(ii) + December 2024 Q4(a)(i) · 8 marks · ⏱ 16 min
The deliberately light final day: what to re-read, what to ignore, and the timing rule that saves SBR papers — 1.95 minutes a mark, and what to do when a number will not come out.
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 SBR 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 SBR until your exam on Thursday 10 September, set up on your aCOWtancy account the same day. That's the entire SBR Ultra bank of 28 genuine past-exam questions, 205 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 SBR? 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 SBR 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