Three themes to come out of the recent OCS survey

It's been a week since our OCS Experience Survey went live!

We've had even more responses over the last few days and it appears that three key themes are emerging.

Overall, students have said that their exam experience went pretty well. Most students felt comfortable with the topics that were assessed and I'm pleased to say they said there were no real surprises!

So, here are the three main themes to come out of the survey:

1. Topics assessed were as expected
The good news is that the subjects that came up in the exam were alligned to the expectations of many students. Here are some of the comments we received:


"I managed to finish all the questions. I also understood what I had to do for all the questions and felt I mostly had the knowledge to answer them. I knew the pre seen and the industry really well as I got the whole case study pre seen analysis videos and documents"

"The topics examined were very familiar"

"Most questions predicted came out of my exam"

"Generally the exam was based around my stronger subjects.  I used all the time available for each section"

2. Time Management proved to be an issue

As always time management was raised as a significant issue for many students. We see this time and time again in most sittings which stresses the importance of effective answer planning and mock exam practise.

"My time management was poor. This could of certainly been better"

"Time management could have been better"

"Time consuming to see pre view material and questions"

3. P1 was heavily assessed

Many students said in hindsight they would have ensured they had a more in-depth understanding of P1 prior to the exam. On reflection they would have spent more time revising this critical area.

"In my exam p1 seemed to over-weigh other modules, which i found weird comparing with my previous ocs exam".

"P1 drives the paper so know your costings extremely well, variances, risks and uncertainty also"

Learn from these experiences

These three themes are a valuable insight into the experience of students in the November sitting. It's a great opportunity to learn from these to help you pass your exam.

If you are planning to take the OCS exam in February and waiting for the pre-seen to be released, why not check out Study Text Part 1 to perfect your time management skills and Study Text 2 to ensure you know the theory inside out?

This is the ideal time to make progress on thess areas as your attention will soon be on the pre-seen materials.

Find out more details on our Study Texts