The Power of a Power Nap!

A surprising idea that will help you pass your exam - have the occasional power nap!

What is it? Well a power nap is a very short and light doze, no longer than 30 minutes. During this time, find a dark room and comfortable place to relax and lie down in, but not a place to snooze. Not sleeping is important because getting up after a few hours of napping just makes you feel sluggish and unproductive, so remember set a timer at the end of the nap to avoid this!

Do you get distracted? I know I do! Four tips to minimise distractions

Don't let distraction lead to CIMA failure! 

Sometimes, the temptation to get distracted and lose focus during CIMA exam periods can be almost irresistible. Going through the same or similar things over and over can be so frustrating that you spend your time staring at a wall, flicking through your phone or doing anything that isn't revising!

To overcome this, I have devised a few useful tips to help you become productive even when things get tough:

Three must read articles on the Wind Consultancy industry!

In my experience, students who dedicate time to researching the CIMA Case Study industry usually perform better. By doing this, it gives them a broader knowledge and the insight to enhance their exam answers and impress the CIMA examiners!

Remember, these are the people marking your scripts so listen to their advice. A good answer is a happy examiner, and a happy examiner equals a pass in the CIMA Case Study exam! 

To demonstrate my point, here is a quote from the latest CIMA Strategic Case Study report: 

"The pre-seen scenario was detailed and well prepared candidates should have been able to give good answers in the context of the industry." 

This shows that a wider understanding of the Wind Consultancy industry will help you when it comes to applying your knowledge in the CIMA August Case Study exam. With this in mind, here are three interesting articles I found to help contribute to your research:

Don't make the same mistakes as past students. Find out what they are...

So there's not much longer until the start of the CIMA Strategic Case Study exams! Are you ready? 

These last few days will be absolutely vital to your CIMA success, so make the most of the limited time available. I thought I would share with you the key points from the latest CIMA Strategic Case Study Examiner's Report as I really feel this is a great source of valuable information for everyone taking the exam in the coming weeks.

What better advice can you receive than from the examiners themselves? After all not only do they write the exam, they also mark it!

I attended a conference in London where examiners fed back on the performance of CIMA students. It's a shame that you were not all in the audience with me as they gave some great advice on how students can perform better in the exams. 

It was interesting to hear in the conference that the examiners were disappointed that many CIMA students did not take the time to read their reports, as the same problems were coming up time and time again. So to overcome this, we've captured the key points across the Examiner's Reports from the most recent sitting:

Must know tips from the SCS examiners!

The May 2016 CIMA Strategic Case Study Examiner's Report has just been released – as always it contains valuable information for students about to take their CIMA exams. 

It amazes me that so many CIMA students don't pay attention to the Examiners' Reports. After all, they are the people you need to impress on the big day!

These reports highlight the same old issues that come up time and time again. They summarise the mistakes students are making in the exams and give important and helpful advice on areas they should improve.

Make sure you don't ignore these! To help you out we've captured the key points from the May report here:

Why starting now can maximise your chances of passing!

It can be tempting to wait until the pre-seen is released, before starting revision for a CIMA Case Study exam.

But are there things you could be doing before-hand? Of course, the answer is always yes!

The earlier you can start your CIMA preparation, the more flexibility you will have with your revision and the more chance you will have of covering all of the required areas.

I know from the experience of working with many CIMA students over the years, that the ones that start early, have the better chance of passing their exam!

With this in mind, here are a few things you could be doing before the pre-seen is released:

50% of students found the exam to be more difficult than they expected. See the results from our survey...

Learning from the experience of past CIMA Strategic Case Study students can be the recipe for success!

So it's been a couple of weeks since we launched our SCS Experience Survey, and the results beginning to emerge are very interesting.

Learning lessons from CIMA students who have been through the exam can really help you to achieve success. Find out below how difficult students found they exam, their most common mistakes, and where they felt they should have spent more time during their revision.

Don't let stress be the reason for failing your CIMA exams!

Stress can be your biggest enemy when it comes to your CIMA exams! In my fifteen years of teaching, I've seen excellent students fail their exams due to an inability to manage their stress levels! This is such a shame as they often work long and hard to achieve success.

Remember, everyone gets nervous in the build up to important events. Whether it's starting a new job, attending an interview or making a wedding speech, it's perfectly natural to feel butterflies in your stomach before the big day.

Sportsmen often say that a little stress is a good thing as it actually improves their performance. Similarly many famous actors suffer from stage fright just before giving outstanding performances on the stage.

Like these successful people, the secret is it to control the stress not let the stress control you!

So, let's think about stress in terms of your CIMA exams. Take a look at these 5 great tips that could be key the to passing:

6 ways to significantly improve your work life balance

Juggling work, revision and home life is the single biggest challenge for many CIMA students.

I was recently counseling a CIMA student who was struggling with getting this balance right. He was a committed rugby player as well as a father of two small children. Combined with a busy job in the finance team of a large multi-national corporation, his CIMA revision seemed like a step too far in his busy schedule. He found that not only was his revision going badly, he was not managing any of the key parts of his life successfully. He was heading for problems!

This reminded me of many conversations I have had with Accountancy students over the 15 years I've been teaching.

Of course there is no simple answer, but there are some steps that can be followed to help students to get the balance right and be successful in their CIMA exams.

Here are my six key tips:

Model, average or disaster Student... Which one are you?

People regularly use the term “The Model Student” within the education industry when describing what the ideal student would do when passing their exams with top marks.

However, the idea of the model student can seem a bit out of reach for some students, as they may think that they will never get to that level.

I wanted to explore the idea of the model student therefore, in order to try and work out what really makes the perfect student within the accountancy world, with the hope of potentially inspiring a few students to reach that little bit further within their own studies to achieve the best that they possibly can.