Work experience and Strategic Level

Anonymous (don't be shy!) said:

I would like to know if practical work experience is essential in passing Strategic Level.


No. It helps, of course, if you've been working for a couple of years as you will have a better understanding of how business works and loads of good 'higher' skills that you've developed at work. However, I know loads of students who've passed Strategic Level with little or no practical experience. You just need to understand the skills being tested at that level, and work hard (in the right way) to develop those skills. There's loads of stuff in earlier posts about the skills being tested at Strategic Level.

The T4 Case Study, though, is a different matter...

Is it knowledge, or exam techniques, that let me down?

Anonymous said:

"Well failed E3 by 3 marks - gutted - dont know best way forward as I came out of exam thinking I'd done ok. Just purchased your book Pass First Time to see if that helps. It possibly could be exam technique as I felt as if I knew enough about the subjects examined. Waiting for the post exam guide now to see if that helps. Any advice on what to do now."

In my experience, a student with good knowledge and poor exam technique may either pass or fail, but a student with mediocre knowledge and good exam technique will probably pass comfortably. Enough said? Read the book, check out the post-exam guide, then post again if you need more specific advice...

Been to Sri Lanka, results...

Hi all. Well, the results are out so congratulations to those of you who passed, and commiserations to the rest.

I've just come back from a week in Sri Lanka (work, not holiday) and I met some great people, both students and tutors. Thanks to everyone there for making my stay pleasurable and interesting. Hopefully, some of my new Sri Lankan friends will be along soon, to add to this community. Off to Malaysia next month, then back to Africa in October.

New September resit opportunity

You may, or may not, be aware that CIMA have introduced an extra exam sitting in September. This will ONLY be for resits of Strategic Level, and Papers P1 and P2.

The 'extra' sitting of Strategic Level will only be available through Quality Partner colleges, and will be sat on PC (like the Case Study) using Word and Excel.

The 'extra' sitting of P1 and P2 will also be for resits only, but on paper.

Your thoughts?

...and the answer is

Not a lot! Most of you who responded to my questions about the Strategic Level pre-seen material, confirmed that you didn't really refer to it much at all. In fact, while most of you said 'the odd paragraph here and there', several of you said 'not at all'. Let's see what the PEGs say.