www.TOPCIMA.biz Reed Business School's CIMA T4 Case Study Website
The Requirement, the report and time management
The "Report" requirement - part a (90marks)
The exam requirement consists of two parts. Part a is for 90marks, and reflects the same requirement that there has for all Case Study sittings since its inception. The exact wording has changed slightly, but on recent sittings has been as follows:
“Prepare a report that prioritises, analyses and evaluates the issues facing XXXXX, and makes appropriate recommendations”
I expect this to be the same in your exam, but do make sure you check! In one recent sitting you were specifically asked to focus on cultural issues as part of the requirement as an additional element. You also need to make sure you are preparing your report for the right people. Most commony it is the Board of Directors, but again a recent exam asked for a report to a Regional Director, so do look out for changes and adjust your report accordingly..
You must then:
(1) Prioritise the issues in the unseen - you will need a separare prioritisation section in your report
(2) Analyse these issues (includes advantages and disadvantages of options, alternative options, links to the SWOT, PEST analysis and other appendices)
(3) Evaluate the issues - i.e. do some financial analysis where relevant.
(4) Make recommendations on each issue, explaining your reasoning (again you will need a separate recommendations section in your report).
The format
The examination team have given some clear guidance on the format to be used in the exam. This is their suggested format.
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The "Communications" requirement - Question 2 (10marks)
Since 2010 there has been an additional "communications" element to the exam, for a further 10m, which would relate to one of the issues in the unseen. In the pilot paper this comprised the need to create two presentation slides.
The exact requirement was as follows:
"Prepare two slides for presentation to NDGM which summarise the case from the Northern Division’s point of view for making the investment proposed for power stations N1 and N2. Your slides should contain no more than 5 bullet points on each and include the financial justification for making the investment. "
The exectation is that 4-5 bullets points will be produced per slides. These would be about 1-2 lines in length. Students doing the exam on PC should NOT do these slides in powerpoint.
As an example of what you would be expected to do, here is the examiner's solution for the first slide for the above requirement.
Slide 1:
Case for undertaking investment in power stations N1 and N2:
 Essential that Northern Division is awarded management and operation of wind turbine programme; N1 and N2 will be required as supplementary power generators if Northern Division awarded wind power turbine programme; Carrying out investment will help to persuade Minister to award wind power programme to Northern Division; Investment proposal in power stations N1 and N2 demonstrates Northern Division’s (and EGC’s) commitment to reducing harmful emissions, thus addressing a target of Minister of Energy. An official CIMA student support guide is available for this requirement:
Time management
The times you will find below for each section are based on many years of experience working with students and discussions with the one of the examiners. If you use these timings you should produce a good balanced report highly likely to pass the exam, but if you diverge from them you will write the wrong volume in each section and not have the balance required to pass.
It is vital that you give yourself the full 45 minutes on the recommendations section. The examiner sees this as THE most important section of the exam, earning a total of 20 marks in the logic section, and making a major contribution to the 5 integration marks. It is a key decider for those people near the pass mark as to whether they will pass or fail. You can not afford to get your timings wrong and leave only 10-15 minutes at the end of the exam for this.
For those of you taking the PC exam you may like to adapt these timings. For you it is suggested that you do the analysis of a point followed immediately by your recommendation for that point. That means combining the analysis and recommendations timings. Be very careful though as it does make time management much more difficult.
You must stick to this plan and practise until you can do so. Going over time in any one element will mean losing vital marks in a later section. A reasonable balance between all sections is required, rather than doing a great first half and then running out of time with later sections incomplete. An incomplete report will almost always fail!
Time management is the most important skill you should be mastering in the run up to your exams. Have a time plan and practise sticking to it on a number of occasions using mock exams until you get it mastered!
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Read case and prioritise.