AQA 7138 SMART Objectives: Accountable, Not Achievable
In AQA 7138 the A stands for Accountable, not Achievable. One page that explains it with the specification quoted, and a three objective exercise with full answers for the teacher.
The specification lists the characteristics of effective objectives as Specific, Measurable, Accountable, Realistic, Time specific. Most textbooks and most of the internet use Achievable or Attainable. Those versions are widely used and they are not errors, but they are a different version of the mnemonic, and an answer written for AQA 7138 should use Accountable.
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A-Level-Business-AQA-7138-SMART-Accountable-Not-Achievable.pdf
What is inside
- The five characteristics quoted from the specification, with the section and page number beside them
- Why your textbook says Achievable, and why that is a different version rather than a mistake
- One sentence to say to the class, written out so you can read it straight off the page
- Where our own classroom gloss on Accountable ends and AQA’s wording begins, marked as ours
- Three objectives for students to diagnose, one missing Accountable and one missing Realistic
- A rewrite task, and the full answers for the teacher below a cut line on the same sheet
How this one was checked
The one exam board claim in this sheet, the five characteristics and their order, was read out of AQA’s own specification for 7137 and 7138, version 1.1, November 2025, section 3.1.1. That reference is printed on the page beside the quotation, so you can open the PDF and land on it. The one thing that is ours, reading Accountable as a named owner, is labelled on the page as ours and not as an AQA definition.
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