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Today, as a continuation from the last article on gateway exams, I’m going to describe the case studies. I will concentrate mostly on Strategic Case Studies (SCS), but the whole concept of case studies applies to all levels. The only thing that changes is your positioning in the organisation and number of questions to answer.
The aim of the CIMA Strategic Case Study exam is to teach you how to APPLY your knowledge from the three objective test papers in the workplace.
CIMA tries to make all the exam as relevant to the working conditions as possible. All the OT exams tests your knowledge and understanding of the key concepts. You cannot really test how the students can apply the knowledge via OT questions. In OT exams you are tested on your quick thinking, quick analysis, linking facts, but only in the case studies you can truly show how you can apply all that you have learned on the specific level of your CIMA studies. It is a new method and from my working experience, very relevant to the business world.
I have recently watched a CIMA webinar on how to pass a SCS, so most of the information here is taken from there. Here is the link: https://hub.cimaglobal.com/resources/case-study/
Just as a reminder, this is the competency framework:
Below I will input some screenshots from the presentation done by CIMA on case studies. It will show you which competencies you need to present at each exam and also what is your role in the organisation during the different levels of case studies:
The results will be provided 4-5 weeks after you have take your exam. Below you can see a screenshot showing how the SCS results are given to you in My CIMA.
Now I hope it gets a bit clearer with the concept of CIMA verbs hierarchy. You might have heard about it, but to be honest, I didn’t really understand how that could be applied, especially to the strategic level OT exams. But here, it makes sense. Click the button to see how that looks.
Pre-seen material is provided to you via CIMA 7 weeks prior to your exam.
The purpose of the pre-seen is to introduce the scenario and the context of the business you are “working in”.
You must understand:
During the exam, new information will be given to you and you will have to respond to that. It will something like an email from your boss giving you some extra information and asking to respond to it / suggest a course of action etc.
Good luck with your studies!
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