For years, we have trained talented, hard-working students at the Chartered Accountants Academy (CAA). Yet, too often, we have watched them stumble in the exam room, not because they lacked knowledge, but because they lacked the ability to apply it. As a lecturer in Management Accounting and Finance, I have seen firsthand the gap between what students know and what they can do under pressure. Our recent analysis of exam performance reveals a consistent and troubling pattern: students are increasingly adept at recalling information but increasingly unprepared to solve novel, integrated, and context-rich problems. This is not a failure of effort. It is a failure of method.