Successfully prepare for the ACCA exams – CBE Testing Format

The way students attempt the strategic professional exams is changing in the UAE from June 2021. Although the exam content is the same, all of the exams will be in CBE format rather than paper-based, so your exam technique needs to be slightly different

The good news at this level is you no longer have to worry about your handwriting, you can copy and paste technical information from scenarios to help plan and form your answers, just like you would write a report at work. Mistakes can be corrected easily and you can change calculations by simply updating a formula.

So what can you do to get ready for strategic professional CBE?

Question practice

Question practice is nothing new but the key going forward will be that you must practice questions in a CBE environment as you approach your exam. Kaplan students benefit from the exclusive virtual learning environment on MyKaplan in addition to the ACCA practice platform available on myACCA to ensure you are aware of the different functions. It’s critical to learn how to use the exam software because Word and Excel are similar but have more functionality than the platform and this won’t give you a full exam experience.

Before the exam day, make sure you have read the instructions on the CBE platform to understand what to do before the exam begins. This will save you time on the day and will increase your confidence with what to expect.

Also, not all papers are identical on the platform, for example, SBL is slightly different from the other strategic professional papers so it’s worth familiarizing yourself again as you move to the next course.

Practice resources

The ACCA provides CBE preparation videos and articles from a wealth of online resources and many of them are linked for you on MyKaplan to make it easy. You can also use ACCA’s specimen exams and the Kaplan mocks to ensure you feel confident on the day of the exam.

We wish you the very best of luck with the upcoming exams.