ACCA APM September 2026: The ROCE Mistake Costing Candidates Easy Marks

APM candidates are losing marks on ROCE. Not on beyond budgeting, not on the balanced scorecard — on a ratio you learned in FM. The September/December 2025 examiner's report says so directly, and adds that poor ROCE performance "has been highlighted in previous examiner's reports". It keeps happening.

What the examiner actually found

Question 1 of the Sep/Dec 2025 exam (Neaty, a listed paint manufacturer) opened with five marks for calculating inventory holding days, ROCE, residual income, dividend per share and the current ratio. Five marks. Every number needed was in the appendix.

A significant number of candidates didn't attempt all five. Of those who did, the examiner reports "very basic calculation errors". Two specific ones: ROCE calculated on net assets rather than capital employed, and year-end figures used where opening or average figures were appropriate. Some candidates couldn't produce dividend per share despite the total dividend and the share count both being given.

Worse — some candidates skipped the calculations entirely and instead wrote about how Neaty could improve each ratio. Nobody asked. That earns nothing.

This isn't isolated. In March/June 2025 (Gricey), candidates absorbing overheads used the number of orders as the denominator when the requirement plainly said cost per unit. The examining team's line is blunt: knowledge from underpinning exams is examinable at APM, and it is often essential.

Wrong answer vs right answer

Say the appendix gives you: operating profit $4,350k; opening equity $18,000k and opening long-term loans $7,000k; closing equity $21,000k and closing long-term loans $8,000k. Target ROCE is 18%.

The wrong version: $4,350k ÷ $21,000k closing net assets = 20.7%. You report that the board beat its target.

The right version: capital employed is equity plus non-current liabilities — $18,000k + $7,000k = $25,000k opening. $4,350k ÷ $25,000k = 17.4%. On average capital employed of $27,000k it's 16.1%. Either way, the target was missed.

Same profit figure. Opposite conclusion. And in APM the calculation is only the doorway — every evaluation mark that follows is built on the number you produced. Get the denominator wrong and the commentary you write on top of it is arguing the wrong case.

What to do

1. Spend thirty minutes on ratios before you touch an APM textbook. Take one set of financial statements and calculate ROCE, residual income, inventory days, current ratio and DPS from scratch. That is literally the Sep/Dec 2025 requirement. If any of the five is slow, that's your gap.

2. Label a workings row in the spreadsheet. Write "Capital employed = equity + non-current liabilities" and show the figures feeding it. Candidates who presented clear calculations in the spreadsheet scored the full five marks. A visible method is markable; a naked number isn't.

3. State your basis and stay consistent. If you use opening capital employed, say so in one line and use opening for every year you compare. PBIT on top, all long-term capital underneath — match the numerator to the denominator and don't switch halfway through.

The numbers

APM recorded a 40% pass rate in March 2026 — the lowest of any ACCA paper. Those five ratio marks are 10% of Section A, and they are the most predictable marks in the entire exam.

You don't fail APM because ROCE is hard. You fail it because you decided ROCE was beneath you.