Top Tips for the night before your exam!

Have you ever felt like time is sometimes going too fast? Even though revision is possibly not the most exciting time of your life, time really does seem to fly by until suddenly you are waking up and it is almost the day of your CIMA exam!

With the big day approaching so fast, what kind of things should you be doing? Here are our top four tips to make stress your new best friend!

TOP tips for the studying during the holidays!

Revising during the holidays can be tricky. If you celebrate Christmas, you may find yourself reading through the CIMA pre-seen between canapés and carols, or practising a CIMA mock exam whilst tucking into a mince pie. But have no fear – there IS a way to study during the holidays and get that all important pass in the New Year!

So, read on to find out how to revise well and still keep that festive spirit!

What does CIMA's Case Study marking system mean for you?

CIMA’s Case Study marking can be tricky to get your head around. I’ve spoken to countless students who found it difficult to understand why they’d failed their case study. Often, students receive a ‘fail’ mark even when their results show they have a reasonably good understanding of all subject areas. 

So, what can you make of your Case Study results? With the August Case Studies coming up, it's a good time to explore what CIMA are looking for in order to grant that allusive ‘pass’!

How have Strategic students been getting on so far this year?

One thing I know is that finding out how other students have handled exams is a great way to help you build your own tailored study plan. Statistics don't lie - if lots of other students struggle to pass an exam, the likelihood is you will also need to study extra hard for it!

As we enter into the final months of 2017, now is the perfect time to look back at how students have performed with CIMA this year . The following Strategic CIMA results can show you how to tailor your own revision patterns to ensure CIMA success at Strategic level...

Use algorithms to transform your CIMA revision!

What is one of the most important inventions of the 20th Century? Computers. It seems that in the modern day the whole world is computerized - your CIMA exams will even need to be sat using a computer! We rely on computerized systems so much because they are infallible, in a way that other human-controlled systems are not.

Sometimes, when work or revision is stressful, we all wish we could perform tasks as well as computers can. But what can we learn from these devices and how can this help your CIMA revision? Read on to find out...

Which type of learner are you - and which CIMA resources should you use?

Everybody is different and we all learn in different ways. Experts agree that there are four main learning groups into which individuals fall - visual learners, audio learners, linguistic learners and physical learners.

Read on to find out more about these different learning groups and how your own learning type could effect which type of study material is best for you!

How to study on the go!

Sometimes it feels as though students' other commitments prevent them from studying as hard as they should. Well, this doesn't have to be the case - not all CIMA revision has to be done at a desk. In fact, you can learn well no matter where you happen to be, as long as you are prepared. 

Here's how to revise when you can't get to your computer... 

In the final stages of revision? Try these top tips!

Have you ever felt like time is sometimes going too fast? Even though revision is possibly not the most exciting time of your life, time really does seem to fly by until suddenly you are waking up and it is almost the day of your CIMA exam!

With the big day approaching so fast, what kind of things should you be doing? Here are our top four tips to make stress your new best friend!

Must-read organisational tips to help you pass your exams!

You can’t be a good accountant if you aren’t organised. Revising for your CIMA exams is the perfect way to prepare yourself for the high levels of organisation and time management that you will need to maintain throughout your career. With this in mind, what changes can you make to help yourself stay organised ahead of your CIMA exams?

Give yourself a break; you can’t learn properly without down time!

Working life can be stressful enough without the burden of CIMA exams. While trying to juggle other responsibilities, it’s incredibly easy for working CIMA students to think ‘I can always do my revision another time’. But can you leave your revision until the last minute and still get the results you want from your CIMA exams?

Want to change your revision forever? Try these tips!

Have you ever walked into the self help section of a book store? If you have, then you may have noticed that there are a good number of books claiming to perform near miracles in a very short amount of time. Become happier in six days? Sounds good! Stop smoking after one session with a hypnotist? Sign me up! Learn how to grow your own money tree? This book comes with free saplings to get you started!

Okay, so maybe some of these aren't exactly the real deal – but it doesn't stop a lot of books from claiming to change your life in under a week. As great (and easy) as it sounds, the effects are unlikely to last long term. In order to see real results, you must keep working on your goals consistently. How can we do this? We have some great tips from one of the most successful self help gurus - no money trees included!

How to prepare for your CIMA OT exams with our handy guide!

Are you preparing for your CIMA OT exam? It can be easy to feel overwhelmed, with so many different topics and possible questions! If you are feeling like you are not sure which route to take, have no fear. I was speaking to an examiner the other day and they told me about a route through the exam that will navigate you towards success!

A trio of materials to combat the CIMA exam!

It's not long until the CIMA pre-seen is released! How is your revision going? Do you feel like your mind is blossoming with knowledge or do you currently feel like a stick in the mud who is feeling a little overwhelmed? Have no fear, we are here to help!

Our very first piece of advice would be to start your revision now. Yes, right now, before you start reading that 900-page book, begin studying origami or planning a walk that will take you as far away from the CIMA exam as possible. But without a pre-seen available from CIMA yet, how can you start revising? Well, we may have the materials just for you! The answer is in our Ethics pack, Course Videos and Study Texts. With these three, we have a trio to combat CIMA!

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:

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: