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| Pass your CIMA Case Study exam using those 5 tips (they do work) - PTA |
Pass your CIMA Case Study exam using those 5 tips (they do work)
Have you ever wondered why the ass rates are rather low for any CIMA Case Study exam? And what can you do in order to increase your chances of passing? Justyna from Practice Tests Academy is sharing with you her 5 tips that you should use in order to increase your chances of passing any Case Study exam.
For the last few sittings Practice Tests Academy has been helping CIMA Students tackle the MCS exam, so we got a lot of insights from the students on what they are struggling with. And I can really relate to that as not so long ago I actually passed my own SCS. Also, since I’m working with many tutors within Practice Tests Academy, I got their insights on where do students fall short and the tips how to fix that. Plus I like to figure the problem out and find an appropriate solution.
Tip # 1: Understand what you are dealing with
Do you know why the Case Studies were introduced? They are supposed to imitate the real life conditions. At a certain time in our career, we all work for someone. We are studying CIMA, we want to become a certified and recognised Management Accountant. We need to have knowledge, but we also need to have the business skills. We need to address requests coming from our superiors and tackle them in the most professional way possible. That is exactly what is expected from you on the Case Study Exam.
Treat the examiner as if he/she was your boss. You now the context of the company (as you are working for it – on different levels depending on the CS level you’re attempting), they give you additional tasks and simply put – you need to satisfy them just like you need to satisfy your boss. At work, if you do well your job, you’ll be recognised and maybe you’ll get a promotions. If you answer examiner’s requests, you’ll pass your Case Study exam.
Have a look at the past papers – the tasks and the model answers. You will quickly find out what the examiners want. How they ask questions and what kind of answers they actually expect.
Tip # 2: Understand what a passing script is.
There are many sources of information you can get in order to understand what each particular Case Study is about. Each one is a bit different as you are a representative of a different level in an organisation. And I’m a very pragmatic person so I don’t like to waste hours on understanding what’s I’m supposed to deal with. Life is complicated as is so why not to look for some shortcuts?
For me, the most meaningful shortcut is to sign up with a quality tuition provider and participate in the masterclasses. Of course, we all have our financial constraints, but I do believe this is money well spent. Let me explain.
Look at the past examiners reports. What are they constantly complaining about? That the students do not answer the questions asked. Within PTA, we have just started a cooperation with a brilliant tutor with over 25 years of experience. Paul Russell is now leading Case Studies’ part. Paul has a very successful track of pass rates, so I wanted to organise something online to allow other students around the world to pick his brains, use his experience and knowledge. So we are organising 2 online Masterclasses. The purpose of the Masterclass 1 will be to kickstart students in your journey towards MCS / SCS success. Masterclass 1 should give you a very good feel, very quickly about:
- what is the case study about,
- how to use the pre-seen material,
- how to approach mock exams,
- how a passing script looks like.
I don’t want to drag about our products too much, you can read more about our masterclasses here: https://www.practicetestsacademy.com/mcs-masterclass/
But in essence, understanding what you’ll dealing with and what is the examiner’s expectation, should be your top priority.
Tip # 3: Analyse the Pre-Seen
The Pre-Seen, obviously, needs to be looked at, but it needs to be looked at in the right way. The better you understand the pre-seen, the better you are able to analyse the specific issues that will come up in the exam. So, an in-depth analysis is absolutely crucial to you. And in my opinion, it is just simpler and much faster (we’ve all heard that expression – time is money) to get that analysis done for you. First of all, it is overwhelming to do it yourself. Personally, I tend to postpone things I do not feel comfortable with and that was the same with the Case Studies – I think I started to analyse the Pre-Seen 3 weeks after it was released. For 3 weeks I was just thinking that I should start analysing, but there were always some other high priorities to fulfil… At the end, I paid for the analysis… So, learn from my mistake, don’t postpone it. You can get the Pre-Seen Analysis together with other crucial materials from our site here.
Tip # 4: Industry analysis and real-life examples
You also need to broadly know the industry that you're operating within because again good business acumen is about providing advice, guidance or analysis that links in with that particular industry. It's important that you understand some of the things that are currently happening in the industry. Remember, examiners also read the same financial newspapers and there is a big likelihood that they will be inspired by the situation or trend happening on the market. The pre-seen itself gives you a good background on the industry. However a little bit broader research will give you that extra knowledge and that broader awareness that could make a difference between FAIL and PASS.
Industry examples should be used in the real exam as often as possible. A good rule of thumb is to try to include a relevant industry example within each section of your script. And relevant means (let’s take the current MCS as an example) - if the task is about expansion, why not to use Ikea as an example?
Tip # 5: Mocks, mocks, mocks
That whole area is at the core of your success. But in my experience and what I hear from students, we tend to shy away from completing them as simply put, it is hard. Mocks should be performed under exam conditions, which means you need to find 3 hours in a busy day to complete them. You will not perform on the exam day if you haven’t practised under pressurised conditions. If you want to use an exam simulator, you can head to our website and sign up for a free MCS or SCS demo (we give you a possibility to practice a past paper under exam conditions for free). Here is the link:
Hope you found my 5 tips that will make you pass your CS exam valuable. Practice Tests Academy is offering a lot of free resources >> here << and also free advice on our blog, website, FB page, Twitter, or YouTube channel. We’ve just started creating a series of short videos (interviews) aiming at helping students pass their CIMA CS exams.
