Professional Documents
Culture Documents
tudents preparing for the Business information can be found in the CIMA rescission and damages. Repudiation
should have a clear and logical table of tangible assets and without an established from any previous data and it will be rele-
contents, and that each part of the report record of earnings. There might have been vant to the answer. Senior management
should be clearly headed. other possible issues that could have been would always expect a chartered manage-
The pre-seen scenario is distributed well identified, including some which were not ment accountant to make sensible calcu-
before the exam so that all candidates have taken up in the unseen and the requirement. lations and to provide clear comment
plenty of time to analyse it and no one is dis- Some tutors developed predicted unseens explaining the significance of any figures.
advantaged because of problems such as and questions based on the published pre- l It is sensible to make all preliminary
postal delays or work pressure. This does not seens. While this was enterprising and calculations legible and to ensure that
imply that nearly three months’ work on the potentially beneficial for candidates, in prac- they are well explained. They can then be
scenario is either necessary or sensible. tice it was no more than a qualified success. labelled as a report appendix.
The pre-seen material provides some It helped to develop awareness of the type of l Ensure that all parts of the requirement
general background material, enabling industry and some potential problems, but are answered in some way, even if you
candidates to undertake general research some candidates clearly mixed up the CIMA cannot write all that you may want to
into the industry, the type of firm and its pre-seen information and CIMA unseen write on another part. There is always
potential problems. Identifying the firm information with hypothetical information. scope to write more on some aspects of
which may have been used as a partial model The closer a predicted unseen is to the cases, but you must prioritise.
for the development of the case is not CIMA unseen, the more this will be a prob- l Ensure that your answer is easy to navi-
necessarily helpful as significant changes lem. However, there will often be new finan- gate – that all sections are clearly headed,
will have been made and the exam is dealing cial data in the CIMA unseen, and tutors are and that these headings link up with the
with a hypothetical firm in the scenario, not unlikely to forecast this successfully. concise table of contents.
a real firm. When it comes to the actual exam, the first The case exam also has some distinctive
While the internet provides wonderful thing to remember is that this is still a formal features which should be reflected in all
scope for research, it should not be regarded exam and all the old rules still apply: your answers:
as the only possible route. For the May 2001 l Read, re-read, analyse the requirement, l Marks for knowledge are limited, so a
exam, candidates would have been well pre- and plan an answer to the question asked, detailed description of particular tech-
pared if their background reading included not the answer to the question you would niques, although valid and important, will
the Financial Times, the Economist and have preferred. not earn any more marks than a brief, but
Investors Chronicle in the months before the l Plan the way you use the available time. relevant, comment.
examination. It was noticeable that the Balance the time spent reading the new l Numerical skills are important, but being
candidates who had undertaken good information and the time spent mentally able to comment on the significance of
background reading right up to the exam merging it with the information you figures is even more vital.
were able to quote relevant analyses from already have. Allow time for planning an l Recommendations will always be needed
these publications and scored highly on answer as well as for writing it. and reasons must be stated clearly. In any
business awareness. l Do not assume that the question(s) will be case study, the information provided is
It may be possible to predict techniques largely based on the pre-seen material; limited and may also be ambiguous.
that may be needed in the exam. This this is unlikely. The unseen material, given Nevertheless, recommendations are still
certainly applied in the May 2001 exam. out together with the question, has to be required. They must be developed and
Candidates should have identified the substantial enough to change the overall justified using all the available informa-
obvious problems of extremely high and balance of the situation, so that candi- tion – stating the need for more informa-
possibly unrealistic initial expectations and dates have to answer a question on a situ- tion or commenting on the need for fur-
forecasts, and the problems of cash burn and ation assessed on the day, rather than ther investigation will not suffice. n
difficult refinancing. using answers they planned in advance.
They could also have identified the prob- l Analyse and use any new financial data. John Williams is the facilitator for the
lems of valuing firms without significant This will probably show some change case study at final level