Thursday 10 May 2012

T4B 'revision'

CAUTION - THIS POST RELATES TO THE CIMA 2010 SYLLABUS, SO IS NO LONGER VALID


Thanks to Kugesh for his comment on the 'last minute revision' post, regarding preparation for the T4B Case Study.

By far the best preparation for the Case Study is to practise lots of mock exams. The problem is, you really need feedback in order to improve. It's very difficult to see how to improve your answers if all you can do is compare your answer to a suggested answer. This is just one of those exams where you need help from a (good) tutor.

I know that many of you don't have access to a college, but there are several websites where you can get feedback on your mock exams. I know they charge you, but getting feedback is much more effective than just ploughing on doing your own thing (and, maybe, not really improving).

Kugesh asked for advice on some specific aspects of Case Study:

Answer planning: Having a good plan is the key to producing a good report. Your planning (including doing your calculations, as you need them in order to complete your planning process) should take you about an hour in total. This is the stage at which you decide the issues to deal with, prioritise, identify options to resolve each issue, evaluate the options, and decide on your recommendations. All this should be done in note form, of course, so you don't spend too long on the planning.

Discussion: You shouldn't spend too long discussing the issues - the emphasis of your report should be on the recommendations (and justifying them), as this gets 40% of the marks.

Prioritisation: Look at the urgency of resolving each issue. In the unseen material it often says when a decision needs to be made. Use this as the basis for your prioritisation.

Recommendation: This is key, as it gets so many marks. Say, very clearly, WHAT you think they should do. Your justification should also be good, so explain (in detail) WHY you think they should do this. Then clarify WHO should do exactly what, and BY WHEN. The recommendations section should be at least 1/3 of your report.

I hope this helps, Kugesh (and the rest of you).