Thursday 10 March 2016

SCS Student Experience Survey- Learn From the Past!

If you have yet to take your Case Study exam, what better preparation than to learn from those who have?

It has been a couple of weeks since we launched a survey for SCS students taking the February sitting of the exam- and there has been some interesting results!

A really useful start to revising for a future exam is to look at what past students have said- to ensure you learn from their mistakes and take tips from their successes.

So with that in mind, here are some of the key themes to come from the February SCS survey results:

Preparation

We asked the students how difficult they found the exam in relation to their expectations:



Much More Difficult: 15%  More Difficult: 15%   As Expected: 42%   Easier: 23%   Much Easier: 0%   Other: 4%

Whilst 40% found the exam to be as difficult as they expected, a third of students found the exam to be more difficult or much more difficult than they anticipated. 

This highlights the importance of good preparation and the need to not get complacent about how ready you think you are for the exam.

There is always more you can be doing! 

Time Management is Key

Time management is often a topic which is deemed low priority. Naturally we all feel the need to learn as much knowledge as we can before an exam.  

Yet you don't get any marks for the knowledge that stays in your head!

Working in an environment which is constrained by time is difficult, and having the ability to manage your time effectively is an important skill. 

It seems from our survey that the respondents had issues with time management. When asked what they struggled with in their exam their answers included:

“Time management and answer planning i.e. how to construct the answer in a structured manner, within the time constraint.”

“Ran out of time to expand paragraphs for further detail”
“I could have done better in time management to include a little more context to the answer”

Learn how to manage your time, to ensure that you get the most out of all that hard work you put in during your revision.

Practice, Practice, Practice

One of the most effective ways of getting ready for an exam is practice- and in particular Mock Exams.

The chance to get used to working under exam conditions using the exam format, often proves invaluable to students. 

It seems like the students who took the February SCS exam are no different. When asked what their advice to future students would be their responses included:

“Mocks mocks and more mocks”

“Practice mock exams under time pressure”
             “Practice, practice, practice and                          take at least nine mocks                                        with marking and feedback”

Learning the lessons 

It's important to be aware of the issues faced by previous students. Here we asked the respondents what they think they should have spent more time on when revising:




The three most popular answers included time management, mock exams and answer planning.

It's important for anyone taking a Strategic Case Study exam in the future, to be aware of these issues which past students have raised and to look to address them. 

Help is on Hand

Rather than letting you deal with these issues on your own, we do offer a number of resources which look to address these specific topics. 

Our Mock exams for the May sitting of the Strategic Case Study exam will be available from the 22nd April and they are designed to simulate the real exam experience. You can find out more about them here.

We also offer a Study Text which focuses on exam preparation and how to get better at time management and answer planning: Study Text Part 1

If you have any other questions or want to find more study tips and guides, go to our CIMA Strategic Facebook page.

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