Top tips from the CIMA Case Study markers!

Top tips from the CIMA Case Study markers!

At the recent CIMA conference there were a number of presentations by CIMA markers and case study writers. 

They gave invaluable insights into what they are looking for in the exams – and in particular they highlighted the areas where many students fall short.

This is excellent feedback for students as it 'comes straight from the horses mouth'! They have produced and marked many exams so know exactly what they are talking about!

There feedback reinforces the fact that many students are still getting the basics wrong and how with good preparation and planning many more students could be achieving passes.

Here are their top 10 tips to help you succeed:

1. Plan your answers – don’t launch straight into your answer, think about the key points you want to raise and how your going to structure it before you begin writing.

CIMA News - what you need to know! Introduction to scaled scoring for the OTs + personal calculators permitted

Hi Everyone,

A couple of interesting points were raised at the CIMA conference that we thought we would share with you.

Firstly, CIMA announced the introduction of the 'scaled score' for the Objective Test exams.

From November 1st 2015, Objective Test results will include:

1. Grade (pass or fail)
2. Sectional Performance Feedback
3. Scaled Score

Why scaled scores?

Operational Results Overview 2015

A number of interesting facts and statistics were presented at the 2015 CIMA conference last week.

The conference was attended by key people from CIMA and tuition providers including members of the Astranti team.

We would like to share with you some of the key points raised at the conference.

In this blog I am going to summarise the conference content that focused on the operational level. This included a review on the E1, P1, F1 and Operational Case Study exams. It also covered what went well for students on the previous sittings and key areas that need to be improved for the future.

The information was presented at the conference by Aneeb Farrukh, Learning Support Manager and Sharon Forbes a leading case study writer and marker.

I hope you find this summary useful as it includes some important information that could help you as you progress through your studies.

Lets start with E1…

Mock Exams – Key points from our August student survey

A lot of you will be starting off your revision for the latest set of exams, but perhaps you may be a bit unsure of how to progress and get the most out of your time leading up to the big day. To give you some inspiration, I have assembled a few results from our recent Mock Exam student survey that may be of some interest to you if you are stuck for ideas.

In a recent student survey from August, we asked our students what they felt were the most important factors in helping them pass their exams. One of the common themes among our survey results was the inclusion of mock exams.

Eat, Drink, (Study), Sleep, Repeat!

We all have our own little ways when it comes to exam preparation, and for some of us these techniques have proven to be successful over and over again. Whether that involves religiously scrolling through mountains and mountains of revision notes right up until the exam itself, or whether it’s making sure that we have our lucky exam socks on that haven’t been washed since the miracle success in the chemistry exam of ’98!

However, for the vast amount of us, we still haven’t quite worked out a routine which works best for us individually when it comes to exam preparation. We may have all of the knowledge around the theory that we need, but by the time the exam comes around the corner, and the questions are in front of us, our minds just go blank…

For this reason, I’ve compiled a short set of tips for people who may be unsure of how to physically prepare during the last few days leading up to the exam.

Number 1: Brain Food.

CIMA official pass rates - P1 has the lowest pass rates at Operational level

Hi everyone,

As you are probably aware, yesterday CIMA published the pass rates for the Objective Test exams. These statistics are based on students who have attempted the exams between January and May 2015. 

Audit Reports

Hi everyone,

There are many challenging F1 topics that you will need to understand in order to successfully pass your F1 Objective Test exam. 

Audit Reports is a subject which many students find difficult to grasp at first.

At Astranti we aim to make difficult subjects easy to understand. All of our materials are designed to ensure that our students are given in-depth knowledge of all the key subjects, but in a format allows learn easily and effectively.

5 things you must do to pass the OCS August Exam

Hi Everyone,

We recently asked our OCS students to complete a survey based on their experiences of their May OCS case study exam.

It was great to hear the advice that they would give to August OCS students so we thought we'd share this with you.

Here are 5 lessons learned from our May students. You may want to think about each of these points when revising or completing your real exam:

1. Become an expert in time management  

Completing 4-5 sections with approximately 40 minutes per section can be very difficult, so it's essential you perfect your timings prior to the exam! This can be achieved by learning the best and most effective techniques on how to manage your timings. Advice on this can be found in our course videos.

2. Complete as many Mock Exams as you can

The best way to prepare yourself for your case study exam is by practising potential exam questions through mocks. In our survey many students said they wished they had completed more mocks prior to their real exam. From information we've recently gathered we know student's that take multiple mocks as part of their revision programme achieve the highest pass rates in their exams.

3. Understand the pre-seen and relate it to the questions

It was highlighted in the official May examiners report published by CIMA, that many students failed to apply the pre-seen effectively when answering the exam questions. In order to ensure you don't do this you must spend significant time working your way through the pre-seen document as gaining an understanding of the fictional company and the industry it's in is critical to passing the exam.

4. Revise all operational theory as any topic could come up

It's important to refresh your mind with the theory that you learnt in the F1, E1 and P1 objective test exams as any of the topics within these subjects can potentially be assessed in the exam. Remember technical skills are 64% of the total score so it's vital you demonstrate you understand the theory!

5. Make sure you answer the question! 

It's surprising how many people unintentionally don't answer the question! To prevent this we recommend you spend time identifying the requirements of questions from past papers and also create a plan for answering each of those requirements. Completing mock exams will also be very helpful in ensuring you answer the question correctly.

These five key learnings are covered in depth within our OCS course. The materials available ensure that our students are fully prepared for the exams and recognises the importance of each of these points

Each area of our OCS course has been designed to give you the best possible chance of achieving a pass in your exams.

OCS August Course 

Astranti Financial Training.

The secret to passing the CIMA OT exams revealed.

Hi Everyone,

Thanks to those of you that completed our survey to find out - What does it take to pass an Objective Test exam?
So far we've had a great response with over 60 students taking part!

We've received responses from students who've passed and failed exams across all CIMA subjects, This means we have good range on which to base our findings.

These findings should definitely help you in your upcoming exams and will surely be beneficial to future students.
Here is an overview of the key points:

The secret to passing is...

Putting in the hours!
We were able to break down the exam pass rate by hours of study and the results were clear.

Hours of study	Number of Passes	Number of Fails
40-60	22	10
Less than 40	40	41

• Students that studied for between 40-60 hours had a pass rate* of 69%
• Students that studied for less than 40 hours had a pass rate of 49%

If you want to increase your chances of success, you should aim to study for 4-6 weeks and put in 10+ hours each week.
*Pass rate= number of passes/total number of attempts

The toughest exam is...

• Based on the survey, students are failing P3 and F3 on more than one occasion before they pass.
• So far P3 had the highest failure rate in our survey proving to be the toughest exam.
• Now that CIMA have changed the pass mark, I would hope that the pass rate in these exams falls into line with the others!

What materials should I be using?

• Study Texts, Mock Exams and Revision Questions were the most popular study materials used by students, with a majority of respondents finding them 'useful' or 'extremely useful'.
• Everybody (that's 100%!) who had passed an exam had used Study Texts as part of their revision and 95% had completed Mock Exams.
• 80% of those people who have used Mock Exams had completed 3 or more.
• More than three quarters of students who had passed exams had used Revision/Practice Questions.
• A combination of study texts, revision questions and mock exams was seen by students as the most useful revision materials.
• By contrast, the use of these materials was much lower for students who failed exams. More than half of the students who had failed, did not use revision/practice questions as part of their preparation for the exams.

Lastly, we were pleased to see that every student in the survey that used our Astranti materials had passed their exams.

You can still take part in the survey by going to the following link. It's totally anonymous and will only take a few minutes - What does it take to pass an Objective Test exam?

Astranti Financial Training.

50% found the OCS exam more difficult than expected - results of our OCS survey

Hi Everyone,

Thanks to those of you that have taken the time to complete our OCS survey. If you took the exam last month but you've not yet completed the survey please do so here: OCS Survey

We've been looking at your feedback very carefully and here is a summary of the key points:

50% of respondents found the exam "more difficult" than they expected.

In the May exam, time management was a big issue and many students emphasised the need for additional mock practise. 

A huge 75% of students concluded that they should have spent more on revision of theory and ensuring they had covered the whole syllabus in-depth. 

In later case study exams (MCS and SCS), technical knowledge is much less important.

More than a third of students would have focused more on analysing the pre-seen and practising through mock exams.

Here are 5 great tips from the survey for future students:

1. Become an expert on time management
2. Complete as many mock exams as you can
3. Understand the pre-seen and relate it to the questions
4. Revise all theory as any topic could come up
5. Make sure you answer the question!

Kind regards,

Nick Best and the Astranti team