You have spent years building the academic knowledge and competence required for the CA(SA) journey.
Now comes a different challenge:
Can you access, integrate and apply what you know when the pressure is high?
IAC READY is a practical, positive psychology-informed Coaching Lab developed specifically for candidates preparing for the January 2027 Initial Assessment of Competence (IAC).
Why IAC READY?
The IAC is not simply a test of how much technical knowledge you can remember.
SAICA describes the IAC as a standard-setting assessment of core competence at the completion of the academic programme.
It assesses technical competence together with Professional Values and Attitudes — particularly ethics — and enabling competencies such as communication, critical thinking, computational thinking, decision-making and business acumen.
A key feature of the IAC is natural integration: candidates are expected to bring together technical competencies, professional values, attitudes and acumens when responding to realistic professional scenarios.
The assessment therefore goes beyond theoretical knowledge. It requires candidates to think critically, connect information, solve problems and apply accountancy principles in context.
And all of that has to happen under pressure.
That is the space in which IAC READY works.
The particular challenge of IAC
The IAC consists of three professional papers, written on three consecutive days.
That means candidates do not only need to prepare for one difficult assessment.
A difficult requirement on Day 1 does not have to determine what happens during the rest of Day 1.
And a difficult Paper 1 should not be allowed to write Paper 2.
What will we work on during the Lab?
The two-hour Coaching Lab is built around four performance capacities:
1. Accesss: Access what you know when pressure, uncertainty or self-doubt interfere with your thinking.
2. Integrate: Move beyond isolated “subject-box” thinking and consider the wider problem, stakeholders and professional context
3. Adapt (Flow): Respond constructively when the question, scenario or requirement does not look the way you expected.
4. Recover: Protect your resources and reset after difficult moments — and especially between the three professional papers.
Candidates will explore their own pressure patterns rather than being given generic advice about “managing stress”.
We will ask questions such as:
The IAC PACE Tool
Candidates will be introduced to a practical performance tool specifically developed for the IAC READY Lab:
The PACE tool does not replace technical knowledge or exam technique.
It creates a brief psychological pause that can help candidates regain enough clarity to access and apply what they already know.
Positive psychology meets IAC performance
The coaching lab draws on practical principles from positive psychology, coaching, psychological capital and resilience.
Candidates will explore how:
One Paper Must Not Write the Next One
One of the distinctive parts of IAC READY focuses on the three-day nature of the assessment.
Candidates will develop a practical between-paper recovery strategy designed to help them:
close the previous paper psychologically, reduce unhelpful post-exam analysis and comparison, decompress physically and mentally, protect sleep and recovery, and return their attention to the next day's opportunity.
This is not about pretending that a difficult paper did not happen.
It is about learning to say:
“That paper is finished. My next performance still deserves access to my best available resources.”
What will candidates leave with?
Candidates will leave the Coaching Lab with:
IAC READY is designed for candidates preparing to write the January 2027 Initial Assessment of Competence.
It is particularly relevant if you find yourself thinking:
