The May 2016 CIMA Management Case Study Examiner's Report has just been released – as always it contains valuable information for students about to take their CIMA exams.
It amazes me that so many CIMA students don't pay attention to the Examiners' Reports. After all, they are the people you need to impress on the big day!
These reports highlight the same old issues that come up time and time again. They summarise the mistakes students are making in the exams and give important and helpful advice on areas they should improve.
Make sure you don't ignore these! To help you out we've captured the key points from the May report here:
Getting to the point
The first point made by the examiner is about candidate's getting to the point with their answers:
"Questions give explicit instructions as to what is required and marks will not be awarded for anything that has not been requested. In particular, essays on the theory underlying the problem at hand are unlikely to score well if the question asks for a response to a particular issue arising from a scenario."
"Questions give explicit instructions as to what is required and marks will not be awarded for anything that has not been requested. In particular, essays on the theory underlying the problem at hand are unlikely to score well if the question asks for a response to a particular issue arising from a scenario."
It's important to assess what the question is asking of you and ensure your answer addresses this as directly as possible.
It can be tempting to feel like you need to make your answer as long as possible by embellishing it with extra information. However this will not get you any extra marks, so try to answer exactly what the question is asking of you.
Pre-seen analysis
Success in a case study exam relies on effective analysis of the pre-seen. This is something which cannot be stressed enough and it is a point which the examiners again make:
“Some candidates did not seem to know much about the industry or the
company. Given that the pre-seen material had been available for several weeks prior to the exam, this was disappointing."
The point raised by the examiner is interesting in that it mentions the need to take your pre-seen analysis further. Not only do they recommend you analyse the pre-seen company, but also analyse the industry in which it operates.
This analysis will help with that all important application that the examiners remind us is so important.
Know your Topics
The examiners have always made it clear that they will test you from any area of the syllabus. Therefore you must be prepared to answer a number of different topics.
"Some candidates demonstrated an alarmingly poor understanding of several syllabus areas, including material that is clearly ‘core’, such as the accounting standards, ethics and WACC."
You really will do need to prepare well so that you have covered a lot of the key topics in your revision.
This analysis will help with that all important application that the examiners remind us is so important.
Know your Topics
The examiners have always made it clear that they will test you from any area of the syllabus. Therefore you must be prepared to answer a number of different topics.
"Some candidates demonstrated an alarmingly poor understanding of several syllabus areas, including material that is clearly ‘core’, such as the accounting standards, ethics and WACC."
You really will do need to prepare well so that you have covered a lot of the key topics in your revision.
Materials to help
We have materials which can specifically help to address the issues raised above. Why not take a look through our MCS resources?
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