Exam guide: Business Insight and Performance

At a glance

Sitting: on demand
Duration: 2 hours
Format: 32 multiple-choice questions (80%); and one scenario-based question (20%)
Pass mark: 55%

Syllabus weighting:

• Costing and pricing (20%)
• Budgeting and forecasting (20%)
• Performance management/The external environment of business (25%)
• Management decision-making (20%)
• Technology and data analysis (10%)
• Ethics (5%)

Need to know

This exam introduces you to costing and management accounting, which will be developed further in Corporate Financial Strategy and Business and Digital Strategy at Professional Level. It also includes economics, data analysis, and the key themes of technology, sustainability and ethics that underpin the ACA. The importance of these themes is reflected in the learning materials: data analysis is front and centre in the first chapter, followed by the core technology, sustainability and ethics knowledge; these are then illustrated through specific examples in later chapters.

All seven areas of the syllabus will be tested in the exam, so it’s important to have a good grasp of them all. The majority of the exam is multiple-choice, with one long-form question, drawn from four specific areas (see above). This then informs the selection of multiple-choice questions that follow, ensuring balance across all syllabus areas. It’s easy to think of Business Insight and Performance as a numerical exam – and calculations are important – but in practice more than half the questions will require written answers that demonstrate your analytical and professional scepticism skills. 

How to approach it

This exam tests your critical thinking and decision-making skills, as well as your knowledge across a number of complex topics. There are some areas in particular that can be challenging: macroeconomics, investment appraisal, working capital cycle – and especially variance analysis. There’s a roughly one-in-four chance that you’ll get a long question on variances within performance management, so put the time and effort in to make sure you understand it thoroughly. This module has a lot of material to get through, so you’ll need to put in plenty of self-study time and question practise.

Question practice is key to success with all ACA and ICAEW CFAB exams, and Business Insight and Performance is no different. Reading and memorising are not enough – you won’t know you’ve understood something properly until you practise it. There are plenty of practice questions in the learning materials, and they’re a great guide to what you’ll encounter in the real exam, so do as many of them as you can. It’s a good idea to work your way through the workbook a chapter at a time, then practise those questions.

Another potential pitfall is focusing too much on the numerical questions instead of practising the others – up to two-thirds of your answers will be non-numerical, so this should be reflected in your preparation. Read the question very carefully to make sure you understand exactly what it’s asking, particularly with the true-or-false statement type. Last but not least, practise questions to time using the online practice exam software. You’ll need to follow certain rules for entering data in the long-form question, and you don’t want a basic error to trip you up.

Read more about Business Insights and Performance in the ACA Syllabus Handbook.