Advanced Level exams are the pinnacle of the ACA qualification. Ahead of the new Advanced Level exams launching in July 2027, we explain what students should expect from them and how the syllabus supports ICAEW Chartered Accountants in careers across both business and practice.
What to expect for the Advanced Level exams
While the two new Advanced Level exams will be available to sit in July 2027, there’s plenty you can do now to feel prepared and confident.
In addition to the core subjects of financial reporting and auditing, the Advanced Level exams will include a greater emphasis on areas increasingly relevant to accountants and undergoing huge change – including the key themes of sustainability, ethics and technology.
There are two Advanced Level exams; Technical Case Study (TCS) will focus on financial reporting and auditing with an auditor role in mind. Meanwhile, the Strategic Case Study (SCS) focuses on business finance issues, with some financial reporting and assurance.
Both exams have the embedded competences of technology, sustainability and ethics that run through the Professional Level exams, and carry into Advanced Level exams.
Technical Case Study exam (TCS)
The Technical Case Study (TCS) is a mixture of financial reporting (50-65%) and auditing (35-50%), underpinned by the embedded competencies of ethics, technology and sustainability. It’s based on the idea that the nature of the business can affect audit risk. The student’s role would normally always be the auditor.
The focus is not simply on audit procedures but more generally how you identify risk and respond to the risk and audit evidence. The exam uses pre-populated spreadsheets for students to work from.
“The objective is to reflect the workplace and modern audit practice,” an ICAEW examiner explains. “ISAs are important because they're the regulation that we're monitored by, but we’re blending that with modern audit practice where things like internal controls are really important.”
The exam is typically split into two or three tasks (each allocated a certain number of marks). Under each task there might be four or five requirements which set out to reflect the kinds of things a line manager/audit manager would ask you to do. “We're trying to reflect the real world and the reality of being a chartered accountant in that workplace.”
Strategic Case Study exam (SCS)
To prepare students for career opportunities, this exam looks at issues from the perspective of an external advisor, or an employee of the company offering business and finance advice internally with the supporting act of financial reporting and maybe assurance,” the examiner explains.
The main thrust of the exam is business and digital strategy and business management (30-40%) and financial strategy (25-35%) alongside corporate reporting (15-25%) and assurance (10-15%). The SCS is about business problem solving – identifying the problem the client or employer has got, finding the best solution and then giving reasoned advice.
Outside of the statutory audit, assurance in its various guises is important – whether that’s due diligence, sustainability assurance, or providing assurance to external parties, for example finance providers such as banks or those involved in corporate transactions. Similar to the Technical Case Study, the Strategic Case Study uses pre-populated spreadsheets for data analysis.
Advance information
Advance information will be available for both Advanced Level exams. This will be released eight weeks before the exams, to reflect a real time scenario. The advance information will be the same company for both exams, but with different roles for the students - one as an auditor and one giving business advice.