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This article discusses the status of case studies in professional examinations. In the context of Association of certified Chartered Accountants (ACCA) examinations a case study can be defined as: A question with a lot of information, not all necessarily relevant; Placing candidates in a problem situation which attempts to simulate a real-life situation and; Covering a variety of issues drawn from several different areas of the syllabus. In its own external examinations, ACCA uses a variety of case study type questions, ranging from mini scenario questions to quite complex mini case studies. The author thinks it would be fairer to say ACCA uses a variety of case problems rather than case studies. But the author emphasizes that not one paper uses a case problem as its sole assessment technique, they vary from questions worth 20 marks out of 100, to paper 5 with a case problem worth 55 marks. Examiners and ACCA want to keep a balance of case studies and more traditional essay/computational questions.