aca case study july 2021

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The ACA Advanced level Case Study (CS) exam is the final exam sat by ACA candidates. 

The Case Study exam is designed to test all areas developed in previous ACA exams. The exam places the student at the heart of a business and gives students a ‘case’ which students are given around 4 weeks prior to the exam.

The case is a fictional information source which contains background, news articles and some financial information about a fictitious business.

The paper itself is actually not very technically challenging. Instead, the exam assesses how students are able to analyse a specific business scenario and apply accounting concepts to solve problems. The exam itself is intended to be written as if it were a report being produced.

A key difference with this exam is the way that marks are awarded. Rather than having to score a percentage of marks in aggregate over the whole paper, each of the three individual questions must be passed in order to pass the exam.

Method of assessment

The ACA Case Study exam itself is 4 hours and given it forms part of the Advanced level, it can only be sat in one of two exam periods. These are in July and November each year.

As such, in each exam sitting all candidates will be set the same questions.

The exam will consist of three questions, and ethical issues and problems will likely appear in both questions. 

The exam is fully open book and therefore students are permitted to take any written or printed material into the exam – this includes the pre-release.

How to pass ACA Case Study Exam

Without doubt the most difficult element of this exam and the main reason that candidates fail is the time pressure. 

I’m order to pass this exam, you need to be regimented with your time keeping. You need to go into the exam having already worked out how many minutes per mark you are giving yourself, with a plan as to at what time you are going to move on to the next question.

In addition, make sure that the case that you have been given is tabbed up and organised, so you are able to flick to a particular area very quickly. I found a good way of doing this was to create an index which was colour coded. This was the way I found easiest to find pieces of information as I needed them.

Finally, make sure that you practice the first question over and over again. The first question of the paper is virtually the same in every sitting in that you are required to calculate year on year variances against the financial results presented in the pre-release case. This can be an easy way to pick up some marks without using up too much time.

How hard is the ACA Case Study Exam? 

As Case Study is the final exam, many would expect this to be the hardest exam of all. However, especially in terms of content, this is not the case. 

The difficulty here lies in the time pressure and the very specific mark scheme which comes with this exam. As such, timed practice papers are key to passing this exam.

That said, assuming preparation has been thorough, this exam is certainly passable.

I would give this exam a 4 out of 5 for difficulty. 

The pass rate for this exam is 76.83%

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FAR - Full Series

Learn how to ace the aca certificate level exams, financial accounting and reporting (far) , classroom tuition, online tuition.

Having scored 92% in the Case Study exam, and winning the ICAEW prize for the highest score in the world, Kieran now teaches students the analytical skills and exam technique required to emulate this success. Under his guidance, one of our students also went on to win the ICAEW prize for the highest score in the world (score of 90%), whilst several others have won national and regional prizes.

You can watch the course introduction and a  FREE SAMPLE CLASS   below.

OUR PRIZE-WINNING TECHNIQUE

The course begins by teaching you the methodology for tackling the exam, as well as passing on prize-winning tricks and tips. Kieran provides a detailed walk-through of how you should tackle the Case Study exam, from initial AI analysis through to typing your report on exam day. 

The  next class is an exhibit by exhibit walk-through of the July 2024 AI, clearly demonstrating how each piece of information should be used in the exam. This enables you to understand the AI in an exam focused way.

The following classes  debrief our July 2024 mock exams whe re Kieran teaches you exactly how you should have read and interpreted the exam as well as how you should have typed your answer, with reference to his prize-winning model answer. ​  The classes provide detailed advice as to how you should work through each requirement. This enables you to fully understand how to apply the prize-winning technique to your particular Case Study business and the type of points you should include in your report. 

Classes which are based on the July 2024 AI will be added to the course after the AI has been released. T he release dates for the classes can be found on the course structure document below. 

PAYMENT AND ACCESS

You can subscribe to all the classes for £395 and enjoy a viewing period of 12 months.

Please click  HERE  to purchase. Once payment has been made, you can view the full course  HERE . ​

Please note that our July 2024  PDF materials are sold separately from the video course .

​ ​ PASS GUARANTEE 

In the unlikely event that you fail your exam, we will extend your access until you pass your exam. This includes access to any additional content we upload in relation to subsequent Case Study businesses.  There will be no extra cost to you. This reflects our commitment to getting you qualified, as well as the confidence we have in Kieran's track record. 

Having failed Case Study TWICE, I had seen this course pop up on YouTube whilst I tried to figure out where I was going wrong. Took the plunge to change resource providers and honestly, there are NO words to express how grateful I am! Kieran and the team guide you with a CLEAR and CONCISE approach which really helped me focus on what I needed to improve on and what I was previously doing wrong.

From past failures of 48 & 36 previously, to now a gratifying pass of 74, I am honestly on TOP of the world!!! Don't hesitate - book before its too late, honestly you won't regret it!!!

(Case Study resit student who passed first time with us)

The Affordable Care Act at 10 Years: Evaluating the Evidence and Navigating an Uncertain Future

Affiliations.

• 1 Department of Surgery, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts; National Clinician Scholars Program at the Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan; Center for Healthcare Outcomes and Policy, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
• 2 Department of Surgery, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts; Center for Surgery and Public Health, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts.
• 3 Center for Healthcare Outcomes and Policy, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan; Department of Surgery, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
• 4 Center for Healthcare Outcomes and Policy, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan; Department of Surgery, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan. Electronic address: [email protected].
• PMID: 33640844
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jss.2020.12.056

The year 2020 marks the 10th anniversary of the signing of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Perhaps the greatest overhaul of the US health care system in the past 50 y, the ACA sought to expand access to care, improve quality, and reduce health care costs. Over the past decade, there have been a number of challenges and changes to the law, which remains in evolution. While the ACA's policies were not intended to specifically target surgical care, surgical patients, surgeons, and the health systems within which they function have all been greatly affected. This article aims to provide a brief overview of the impact of the ACA on surgical patients in reference to its tripartite aim of improving access, improving quality, and reducing costs.

Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Publication types

• Historical Article
• Health Care Costs / legislation & jurisprudence
• Health Care Costs / statistics & numerical data*
• Health Care Costs / trends
• Health Services Accessibility / history
• Health Services Accessibility / legislation & jurisprudence
• Health Services Accessibility / statistics & numerical data*
• Health Services Accessibility / trends
• History, 21st Century
• Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act / economics
• Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act / legislation & jurisprudence
• Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act / statistics & numerical data*
• Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act / trends
• Quality Improvement / economics
• Quality Improvement / legislation & jurisprudence
• Quality Improvement / statistics & numerical data*
• Quality Improvement / trends
• Surgical Procedures, Operative / economics
• Surgical Procedures, Operative / statistics & numerical data*
• Uncertainty
• United States

Advanced Level Case Study advance information

The Advanced Level Case Study exam includes advance information released prior to the exam sitting. This allows you time to become familiar with the information and to undertake any other appropriate research and analysis.

Select the relevant product below, depending on the exam sitting, and proceed to check out to get the product in your ICAEW Bookshelf. You will be able to access this within your exam and see any notes and highlights you’ve made, as well as using the search function.

This document is also available as a standard PDF that you can print and use in your exam sitting.

To access the pdf and for more information on the Case Study exam, please visit https://www.icaew.com/for-current-aca-students/exam-resources/advanced-level/case-study .

Available editions:

Rethinking Federalism: ACA as a Case Study

Feb 4, 2019 Jessica Lind Mantel Add a Comment

Jessica Lind Mantel

Although federalism rhetoric has played a central role in debates over the Affordable Care Act (ACA), there has been little research on whether the ACA’s implementation reinforced or stymied federalism values, including state autonomy, cooperation, experimentation, and variation. Professors Abbe Gluck and Nicole Huberfeld fill this void in their article What is Federalism in Healthcare For? . Extrapolating from data on the implementation of ACA’s Medicaid expansion and health insurance exchanges, the authors challenge a longstanding assumption among federalism scholarship—that particular structural arrangements best serve federalism goals and values. They instead argue that federalism goals and values are not dependent on any particular architecture of state-federal separation or entanglement but find expression across a range of governance models.

Traditional theories of federalism view state power as derived from separation from the federal government, with federal authority negating state power. Modern federalism scholars characterize any state activity occurring within federal frameworks as subservient. Gluck and Huberfeld, however, find that the ACA’s implementation supports neither view. Instead, they argue that ACA implementation is a story of states exerting power that checked federal authority from within the statute, not from outside it. Furthermore, this dynamic has resulted in extensive policy variation and experimentation within the ACA’s national framework.

The history of the Medicaid expansion illustrates this point. Although the ACA mandated that all states expand their Medicaid programs to cover low-income adults, the Supreme Court declared this mandate unconstitutional in National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius ( NFIB ), re-interpreting the Medicaid expansion as optional for the states. As detailed in Part IV of the article, the NFIB decision led to dynamic intergovernmental state-federal negotiations. With the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) eager for as many states as possible to opt for expanding their Medicaid program, states acquired leverage that they used to obtain concessions from HHS, such as permission to funnel their expansion population into the ACA insurance exchanges. Gluck and Huberfeld further note that these dynamic, pragmatic negotiations produced significant policy and legal diversity across states.

Implementation of the ACA’s insurance exchanges reveals a similar dynamic. Under the ACA, states could establish their own state-run exchanges or default to federal-run exchanges. Traditional federalism would predict that the federalism values of state autonomy, experimentation and variation would flourish in the state-run exchanges and be absent from the federal-run exchanges. Yet actual implementation tells another story. To accommodate red states’ desire to outwardly show resistance to the ACA while retaining some policy control over their exchanges, HHS quietly allowed states to retain authority over key components of the federally-run exchanges. This cooperative federalism “led to significant variation across states,” both among those operating their own exchanges and those with nationally run exchanges. As Gluck and Huberfeld note, “national” exchanges ultimately did not mean “uniform.” (P. 1731.)

While these “hybrid” national and state-level solutions promoted experimentation and variation, Gluck and Huberfeld found that they also jeopardized transparency. For example, states with federal exchanges could “hide the fact they were getting federal help from their constituents,” (P. 1700) displaying public resistance to the ACA while quietly working with the federal government to retain state control over key policies. This obfuscation of state cooperation muddles accountability, particularly at the local level.

Gluck and Huberfeld also call into question recent federalism scholarship that sees partisan politics as playing out within a nationalist narrative based on national party affiliation. Rather than finding state actors presenting a united front consistent with their national party’s stand on ACA, legislators, governors, and insurance commissioners from the same party frequently held divergent views. Gluck and Huberfeld argue that the resulting intrastate negotiations among these players suggest “that state democracy itself—a key federalism attribute—is strengthened by these acts of differentiation from the national party.” (P. 1751.)

Finally, Gluck and Huberfeld raise important questions about what purposes federalism serves in health policy. Should federalism in health care improve health policy goals such as improved access, higher quality care, and lower costs? Or is the goal to advance political or constitutional values independent of policy ends, such as maintaining a balance of power between states and the federal government in the healthcare policy arena? Gluck and Huberfeld caution that this lack of conceptual clarity makes it difficult to evaluate whether federalism in healthcare serves its ostensible purposes and is worth defending. Policymakers and scholars should be mindful of this difficulty when debating the future of the ACA and possible reforms such as a single-payor system.

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How to Master the ICAEW ACA Case Study Marking Key

Four blogs into the ACA Case Study and you might just start to think that I am slightly obsessed with this exam. The ACA Case Study is so different to any other of the 15 ACA exams that I feel there is so much to discuss for this exam. I was not planning to go into detail about the Case Study marking key. However, I have recently realised many who are independently studying or who are taught by different providers may not have all these details or the same level of understanding. In order to pass the ACA Case Study, you do really need to understand how it is marked . Today this is exactly what I will delve into.

You may also want to refer to the other three ICAEW ACA Case Study blogs:  ICAEW Case Study Made Easy ,  ICAEW Software Testing  and How Much Preparation is Enough? .

Table of Contents

Aca case study marking key terms, maximum marks and marking, different ways to fail the icaew aca case study, overall assessment criteria, executive summary (es), requirements – generic aca case study marking key, marking yourself, aca case study wrap up.

If you are unaware of the exam structure for the ACA Case Study exam, I would recommend reading the Made Easy blog before reading details about the Case Study marking key. You essentially need to know the report you are required to produce is split into an executive summary and three equally weighted requirements .

This will overlap with the ICAEW Case Study Made Easy blog where I have briefly touched on the marking key. The ACA Case Study marking key can be explained using the following terms: “ boxes ” and “ diamonds “, where boxes are skills assessment boxes (SABs). The meaning of these will get clearer as we go on but to give a quick explanation, the Case Study marking key is split into 40 boxes :

• The executive summary has 6 boxes (2 for each requirement)
• Each requirement (r1, r2 and r3) has 11 boxes
• There is one final box for the overall assessment criteria

Within each box, there are diamonds /bullet points that you need to hit to get marks. The maximum mark for each box is 6 marks . Each box will have up to six “diamonds” that are up for grabs from your answer. For example, one diamond could be met by stating revenue increased by x amount/(y %) based on the case study numbers. This will make more sense once you start looking at mock exams for the ICAEW ACA Case Study.

The Case Study marking key is not completely straight forward. It is not one mark per one diamond. Here is how it works:

From the table above you can see you do not benefit from getting more than four diamonds as you will be capped at 6 marks . You may be in fact wasting time and time is definitely of the essence in the ACA Case Study even if it is 4 hours . However, it is difficult to know whether a point you make is a valid diamond or not so it is perhaps best to aim for 5 diamonds at most in each box of the Case Study marking key. 

What makes the ACA Case Study very different from the other exams is that there are  no predetermined correct answers . I have been told only after assessing the first say 100 papers are the diamonds and the marking key put together. You need to write what everyone else writes so state the obvious and work together when preparing beforehand! This ACA Advanced Level Telegram group (essentially WhatsApp without phone numbers) where you can connect with other students may help.

The maximum marks for the ACA Case Study is 240 marks . Remember, there are 40 boxes and the maximum mark is 6 per box. You may think as the ICAEW ACA Case study exam is 50% to pass , you just need 120 marks to pass. Again, the Case Study really is not that straightforward. 120 marks across the whole paper will not cut it. You actually need 50% in each requirement (including the executive summary) to pass. Getting 66 marks in requirement 1 but 20 marks in requirement 3 is a no go. However, this is not the only way to fail the ACA Case Study…

The below ways to fail which I will touch upon are less black and white than the 50% in each requirement criteria. This is a very grey area and is not nice for anybody in this position. I have come across candidates who have achieved 50% in each requirement and still failed. Below outline the other potential reasons why one could fail the ACA Case Study exam:

• As mentioned, achieving  less than the overall 50%  pass mark.
• Achieving  less than 50% in each individual requirement  and being deemed incompetent often. You really need to show you can produce a strong report to be on the safe side. In each requirement, you should ideally be getting over 50% competent grades (CC or SC) which means six or more boxes. Five SCs (30 marks) and the remaining ID/IC grades (6 marks) would get you above 50% in the requirement (33 marks) but may not be enough to pass.
• Missing out parts  of the report. If you score above 50% in all requirements but have missed out 4-5 skills assessment boxes, you are likely to fail. There cannot be gaps in the report. A fail could also be for writing poor conclusions and recommendations throughout.
• This exam is all about balance . If you have too many NA and ID grades, this could also be a factor of failure.

Essentially, the examiner wants to see that you can write a  complete and balanced  report. If you do not do as ICAEW say in this exam you will be punished and you will fail. This really is a grey area , especially as for those marginal scripts there is re-moderation to decide which scripts pass and which fail. It does seem quite harsh as surely getting 50% would be enough but examiners will only want to pass a good quality report. Further marking details can be found here from ICAEW and is definitely worth a read.

ACA Case Study Marking Key

This one box will look as follows (imagine the dashes are diamonds):

If you meet all four diamonds, you will show you are clearly competent and should get 6 marks.

The executive summary is essentially meant to summarise each of the three requirements and provide the conclusion and recommendations. It is at the start of the report so if somebody did not have time to read the full report, they would be able to understand exactly what is covered by reading the ES. The Case Study marking key for the ES is as follows. Note this is very generic and may differ case study to case study:

ICAEW in recent years have been very clear that you cannot simply copy and paste the report into the executive summary. The two must differ otherwise you will not score any marks and this could result in failure! Spot the difference below…

I will keep this much more generic and do all three requirements in one. Through these boxes you will need to demonstrate  that you can: assimilate and use information; structure problems and solutions; apply judgement and form conclusions and recommendations.

If you have not started any mocks yet, this may all look like gibberish to you. Trust me on this one, once you have been through a mock or so, you will be very grateful for the above tables. For the requirements, you essentially get two boxes for the appendices, two for each of the sub-requirements stated in the question and then two for the conclusions and recommendations. Keeping this in mind when you write your report is crucial to doing well.

If your ACA Case Study is marked by somebody else, I would highly recommend going through this yourself afterwards. This will really help you to understand what kind of points scores diamonds and which do not. You can also see where you are perhaps going overboard or not writing enough .

What I think is very beneficial about going through the Case Study marking key is that you will spot where things are in bold. You may have noticed this above. If “and figures” is written in bold, it means you cannot get the diamond without any numbers. Where I slipped up initially is that I was not including figures or sometimes comparative figures that were needed. You also sometimes must write the £ and % change to get a diamond. It really is worth going through this to maximise your diamond potential.

Hopefully this blog has stressed to you the importance of timings . If you get too many NA boxes, you are likely to fail. This means you cannot just miss areas out and move on but you do need to do it all . If you want help with your timings as well as planning sheets and help with requirement 1’s appendix, join my journey. I will be sending these out to you for free within a few days of joining.

Understanding the Case Study marking key is essential to do well in this exam. I can recall going through this for a full morning in college to make sure we really understood the marking key. If you do not have a solid understanding of this, as well as the different ways to fail, you may just do so. Hopefully this blog has been insightful and helped in some way. I would even suggest taking those generic marking keys into the exam with you so you do not miss anything out.

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Corporate governance is the system by which companies are directed and controlled. Find out more about corporate governance principles, codes and reports, Board subcommittees, roles and responsibilities and shareholder relations. Corporate governance involves balancing the interests of a company’s many stakeholders, such as shareholders, employees, management, customers, suppliers, financiers and the community. Getting governance right is essential to build public trust in companies.

Corporate reporting

View a range of practical resources on UK GAAP, IFRS, UK regulation for company accounts and non-financial reporting. Plus find out more about the ICAEW Corporate Reporting Faculty.

Expert analysis on the latest national and international economic issues and trends, and interviews with prominent voices across the finance industry, alongside data on the state of the economy.

• Financial Services

View articles and resources on the financial services sector.

• Practice resources

For ICAEW's members in practice, this area brings together the most up-to-date thought leadership, technical resources and professional guidance to help you in your professional life.

Public Sector

Many ICAEW members work in or with the public sector to deliver public priorities and strong public finances. ICAEW acts in the public interest to support strong financial leadership and better financial management across the public sector – featuring transparency, accountability, governance and ethics – to ensure that public money is spent wisely and that public finances are sustainable.

Sustainability and climate change

Sustainability describes a world that does not live by eating into its capital, whether natural, economic or social. Members in practice, in business and private individuals all have a role to play if sustainability goals are to be met. The work being undertaken by ICAEW in this area is to change behaviour to drive sustainable outcomes.

The Tax area has information and guidance on technical and practical tax matters. There are links to events, the latest tax news and the Tax Faculty’s publications, including helpsheets, webinars and Tax representations.

Keep up-to-date with tech issues and developments, including artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, big data, and cyber security.

Trust & Ethics

Guidance and resources on key issues, including economic crime, business law, better regulation and ethics. Read through ICAEW’s Code of Ethics and supporting information.

Communities

ICAEW Communities

Information, guidance and networking opportunities on industry sectors, professional specialisms and at various stages throughout your career. Free for ICAEW members and students.

• Discover a new community

ICAEW Faculties

The accountancy profession is facing change and uncertainty. The ICAEW Faculties can help by providing you with timely and relevant support.

• Choose to join any of the faculties

UK groups and societies

We have teams on the ground in: East of England, the Midlands, London and South East, Northern, South West, Yorkshire and Humberside, Wales and Scotland.

• Access your UK region
• Worldwide support and services

Support and services we offer our members in Africa, America, Canada, the Caribbean, Europe, Greater China, the Middle East, Oceania and South East Asia.

• Discover our services

ICAEW Faculties are 'centres of technical excellence', strongly committed to enhancing your professional development and helping you to meet your CPD requirements every year. They offer exclusive content, events and webinars, customised for your sector - which you should be able to easily record, when the time comes for the completion of your CPD declaration. Our offering isn't exclusive to Institute members. As a faculty member, the same resources are available to you to ensure you stay ahead of the competition.

Communities by industry / sector

Communities by life stage and workplace, communities by professional specialism, local groups and societies.

We aim to support you wherever in the world you work. Our regional offices and network of volunteers run events and provide access to local accounting updates in major finance centres around the globe.

• Ukraine crisis: central resource hub

Learn about the actions that ICAEW members are taking to ensure that their clients comply with sanctions imposed by different countries and jurisdictions, and read about the support available from ICAEW.

Insights pulls together the best opinion, analysis, interviews, videos and podcasts on the key issues affecting accountancy and business.

• See the latest insights
• Making COP count

This series looks at the role the accountancy profession can play in addressing the climate crisis and building a sustainable economy.

• Read more on COP28

Professional development and skills

With new requirements on ICAEW members for continuing professional development, we bring together resources to support you through the changes and look at the skills accountants need for the future.

• Visit the hub

When Chartered Accountants Save The World

Find out how chartered accountants are helping to tackle some of the most urgent social challenges within the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and explore how the profession could do even more.

• Read our major series

Insights specials

A listing of one-off Insights specials that focus on a particular subject, interviewing the key people, identifying developing trends and examining the underlying issues.

Top podcasts

Insights by topic.

ICAEW Regulation

• Regulatory News

View the latest regulatory updates and guidance and subscribe to our monthly newsletter, Regulatory & Conduct News.

• Regulatory Consultations

Strengthening trust in the profession

Our role as a world-leading improvement regulator is to strengthen trust and protect the public. We do this by enabling, evaluating and enforcing the highest standards in the profession. 

Regulatory applications

Find out how you can become authorised by ICAEW as a regulated firm. 

ICAEW codes and regulations

Professional conduct and complaints, statutory regulated services overseen by icaew, regulations for icaew practice members and firms, additional guidance and support, popular search results.

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• 10 Feb 2022

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