ACCA APM December 2026: The Big Data 'Variety' Mistake Costing Marks
If you wrote that "variety" means different types of customer, you've dropped marks. In APM, variety is about the format of the data, not the people it describes.
What the examiner reported
In the June 2025 APM examiner's report, Question 2 tested big data and ethics. Candidates struggled with the four Vs of big data, especially variety. Instead of describing different data formats (text, images, video, social media posts), many wrote about diverse customer details.
That is a definition error, and it is costly because the Vs are usually the first marks on the page. Get them wrong and the rest of your answer is built on sand.
The second finding was in the ethics part. Answers "lacked depth": candidates repeated the scenario back to the examiner instead of analysing the ethical issue. Restating that a company collects customer data earns nothing. Saying who is harmed, why it matters, and what the company should do is where the marks are.
This sits inside a wider pattern in Section B: underdeveloped answers, scenario data not used to justify conclusions, and weak professional skills (analysis, scepticism, commercial acumen). Section B is two 25-mark questions, so one thin answer hurts.
Wrong vs right: "variety"
Wrong: "Variety means the company holds data on many different customers, such as different ages, genders and locations."
Right: "Variety is the range of formats the data arrives in. The company holds structured sales data in its ERP system, but also unstructured data such as customer reviews, photos and video from social media. Different formats need different tools to store and analyse them, which makes it harder to turn the data into useful performance information."
The right answer names formats, ties them to the scenario, and says why it matters. Three moves, not one.
What to do
1. Learn the four Vs as one-line definitions. Volume is the amount, velocity is the speed of generation, variety is the format, veracity is the reliability. Say each in one sentence, then apply it to the company.
2. Use a three-part ethics structure. Identify the issue, say who is affected, then recommend an action. If your paragraph only describes what the scenario says, rewrite it.
3. Quote the scenario in every paragraph. If an answer could be pasted into a different company's question, it is too generic for Section B.
The bottom line
Big data is a gift of a topic: the definitions are short and the marks are available. Learn variety properly, and write the ethics answer like a consultant, not a narrator.