Exam Day TipsUp to 24 hours prior to the exam…
The day before, collate all the things you need to take with you e.g. your exam docket and ID; a watch/clock (you can’t use your mobile), and your stationery: calculator, ruler, pencils, highlighters and pens. Buy spares if necessary.
Don’t over-study the night before, so you have a clear head on exam day.
Get a good night’s sleep. Avoid alcohol.
Make sure you’ve had some breakfast, even if you don’t feel like it.
Know where the exam hall is and how to get there. Allow extra time in case of travel problems. Research somewhere to park if you are driving, and make sure you have money for the parking fee!
Before the exam, read some light trivial novel or a gossip magazine – it will help you relax.
Don’t talk to anyone about the exam whilst waiting to go into the exam hall – they will only unnerve you about things you suddenly think you don’t know. Chat about anything else!
During the exam
Take a deep breath and exhale slowly.
Stay calm and focus on what you can do.
Use your reading time. Assess the paper, decide on the order to attempt questions (if applicable), annotate the question paper, plan your timings, frame answer plans.
Read the requirements of the questions first before you read the scenarios. This will make your reading more effective.
Answer the question that appears on the exam paper, not the question that you’d like to appear.
Start with the section/question that will build your confidence – the one you think looks easiest.
Go with your first instinct.
Remember the marking guide – this will indicate how many marks each question is worth and consequently what proportion of time you should spend on it and how lengthy an answer is expected.
Watch the clock - make sure you have a time allocation plan and stick to it.
Ensure you attempt all questions.
Layout your answers in a marker friendly way – use white space, headings and underlining. Make sure all answers are clearly numbered.
Reference any workings.
You will score more marks on the first 10 minutes of a new question than you will gain on the last 10 minutes of the one you are currently working on. Move on when you’ve used your time allocation up.
Ask for spare paper well in advance of needing it (keep writing and hold up you other hand!).
Remember your CIMA exam verbs e.g. think about whether the question is asking you to describe or explain, and what that means.
If the requirement includes the word AND, make sure you answer the part of the question before and after the word AND. Easily missed.
At the end of the exam
Take a deep breath and exhale slowly!
Well done – hopefully all your hard work will have paid off.
What to do with your reading time in an exam has been written by Vicky Taylor, one of the award winning tutors at Kaplan Birmingham.
Vicky studied for her ACCA qualification with Kaplan. Not long after qualifying, she decided to move from accountancy to lecturing. Vicky’s unique style has made her one of the most popular tutors in Birmingham, and resulted in her winning the prestigious ‘PQ magazine Tutor of the Year’ award in 2007 after just 2 years of lecturing.
Objective of the reading time
ACCA and CIMA allow all students reading time (ACCA 15 mins/CIMA 20 mins) in which students can familiarise themselves with the paper – maximising the chance that the answer will be structured and relevant, therefore increasing the students chance of passing.
A student’s objective should be to use the time wisely and implement their exam techniques to maximise their results and ensure they pass there exam. Don’t forget, during the reading time you are permitted to annotate your question paper, but not the answer booklet.
How can I use my time wisely?
Firstly, a student must be comfortable in what they do. To do this their techniques must have been practiced before the real exam; ideally through a mock practice. Every student is different and will adopt slightly different approaches, so you must find the one that is right for you.
The following suggestions are just ideas, and you can adopt them all or just the one’s you feel comfortable with.
General comments for all papers
- Objective Testing
- Read the requirements
- Identify the number of points you need to pass each part
- Allocate the appropriate time to each requirement
- Highlight key statements in the scenario
- Decide your order
- Answer plans
Objective testing
If your paper has an objective testing section, then do these first making notes of the answers on your question paper
Read the Requirements.
Carefully read the requirements on all of the questions and break down what specifically is being asked. Underlining, making brief comments and doing your own marking scheme on the face of the exam questions will help you. Understand exactly the VERB that is being asked for!! For example ‘compare and contrast’ are not the same as ‘identify and explain’!
For papers where you have a choice of questions, it will give you a feel of the better questions for you to do.
Identify the number of points you need to pass each part
Certainly for wordy papers, you need to be realistic in what you can do in the given time. If the requirements ask you to ‘identify and explain’ for 10 Marks you need to be aware of the amount of points needed for a pass. For example generally ‘identify’ may be worth ½ a mark and ‘explain’ ½ a mark, so if the requirement is 10 marks you need to identify and explain 5 to get 5 marks out of 10 - a pass. When your allocated time has ran out move on to the next requirement. If you’ve still got time left then continue knowing that you’ve written enough points down, then when your time is up move on to the next requirement.
This is a very challenging discipline to master!
You may be tempted to keep going and write more, but a good student will not use their knowledge alone they will also use exam technique to ensure the pass. If you have any time remaining after you’ve attempted all the requirements, then you can always go back and add more.
Allocate the appropriate time to each requirement
You get 1.8 minutes for each mark allowing you to allocate the time for each part. Some students actually write the actual time they have to move on. For example Q1 might be made up with part a) 12marks b) 8 Marks. In the UK ACCA exams start at 10:00am so part a) should be finished by 10:21 (roughly) (12 x 1.8 +10:00) then part b) Should be finished 10:36 (8 x 1.8 +10:21)
This would be written next to the requirements; you just have to remember to keep an eye on the clock throughout the exam!
Highlight key statements in the scenario
Read through and highlight key phrases in the scenario making brief notes to why you’ve highlighted the points - this will aid in your answer as you will already have a good idea of what is relevant. You can do basic calculations within your reading time but CIMA do state that you cannot use a calculator in this time.
Decide your order
You may also think about the order in which you attempt the questions. Some students start with their strongest question, so you may want to highlight your order. Some people have the mindset that you should attempt all questions with the allocated time so therefore the order doesn’t matter.
Answers plans
I question whether you have enough time to do answer plans in the 15 minutes, but some people do advise you do them if there is a case study to focus your attention on. Remember you have the option to extend your reading time, for example to 30 minutes and only allow 1.5 minutes per mark.
The above techniques are ideas and students must appreciate that each exam is different, when dealing with a heavily computational your reading techniques will be slightly different compared with wordy or case study one’s
Use the allocated reading and planning time at the beginning of the exam:
• Read the questions and examination requirements carefully
• Begin planning your answers
Divide the time you spend on a question in proportion to the marks on offer:
• Spend longer on questions worth marks – simple to do but easy to forget under exam conditions
• Try to allow time at the end of each question to review your answer and address any obvious issues
Whatever happens, always keep your eye on the clock and do not over run on any part of any question!
Spend the last five minutes of the examination:
• Reading through your answers
• Making any additions or corrections
If you get completely stuck with a question
• Leave space in your answer book then return to it later
Stick to the question and tailor your answer to what you are asked.
• Pay particular attention to the verbs in the question.
If you do not understand what a question is asking state your assumptions.
• Even if you do not answer in precisely the way the examiner hoped you should be given some credit if your assumptions are reasonable.
You should do everything you can to make things easy for the marker.
• The marker will find it easier to identify the points you have made if you answers are legible.
Written questions should have:
• A clear structure
• A brief introduction, main section and a conclusion
Be concise: It is better to write a little about a lot of different points, than a great deal about one or two points
Answer the Question!! is a guest post written by Peter Nunn, one of the Kaplan tutors based at Milton Keynes.
When I was an examiner we would spend over two hours at an examiners meeting discussing one word in a question. Tempers would get frayed but we would eventually all agree on that word. The exam would be sat and I as an examiner would sit and mark papers in my study at home.
Do you know the one thing that really got to me?
You would sit and look at a script. The candidate obviously had attended classes, revision, question based day, bought the podcast and probably even the t-shirt, knew the subject inside out, could quote every theory going. But guess what? They didn’t read that one word we argued over – the verb!!
The verb – the ‘doing’ word. What the examiner is asking you to do! Ignore it and you will fail. Understand it and success is in sight.
Different levels in your studies you will get different verbs. Lower levels you will get things like List, State, Define then as you move up you get verbs like Identify, Illustrate Apply. At the highest level you will get Evaluate, Advise, Recommend. My favourite verb and the one students find hardest is – Explain.
When examiners ask candidates to explain something more often than not they would get a description instead. Put it this way, if I asked you do describe a cat, it’s easy: Furry, cute and goes meow. Now explain a cat. Not so easy is it? You can’t explain what a cat is, but you can explain why people keep cats as pets, or how to litter train one. So in the exam if you asked to explain something, use a paragraph. Write a sentence that makes your point and then write another one to explain why the first sentence is so, or the consequences of the first sentence. To make your point even clearer, write a third sentence.
‘CIMA - It’s all in the scenario’ is a guest post written by Peter Nunn, one of the Kaplan tutors based at Milton Keynes.
For my sins (and oh what a sinner I must be) I teach on all the main accountancy courses, CIMA, ACCA and ICAEW. Are there any differences between the exams? Well yes and no. All are quite tough and testing and many of the techniques taught are the same but CIMA exams really rely much more on the scenario type question.
Many subjects have quite a large amount of theory but what often makes CIMA exams challenging is relating this theory to the scenario. And that’s the key to passing many CIMA exams – relate your knowledge to the scenario!
The suggested approach is:
- Start by reading the first paragraph only – this usually sets the scene. Large/small Company. Local/multinational, 1000’s of employees. Listed etc
- Now read the requirements before reading the rest of the question. Play three games - Spot the verb – that’s what the examiner is asking you to do after all. Spot the word ‘AND’ - this ensures you answer all the requirements. Finally play spot the marks – You don’t have to write as much for an eight mark question as you do a sixteen. Obvious I know but you’d be surprised how many students don’t appear to realise this. These requirements should give you the headings for your answer plan and your answer.
- Now read the rest of the question. As you read the question consider how the facts and theories you have learned apply in the scenario given. Wherever you can use definitions. If the question is about let’s say derivatives, define them.
Avoid writing everything you know about a topic. Memory dumps will not score well. Answers should be specific to the issues raised in the question and the scenario.
Most students fail not because they don’t know their stuff but because they don’t read the question!!
http://www.kaplan-exam-tips.com/ 这个上面有11月份考试的重点预测，有KAPLAN帐户的同学可以自己看一下
这个是考前最后一次材料更新…大家可以安心复习了，anyway ,good luck 
我就直接做题看NOTES了，书根本就不看了…