5/25/13 Bouncing back from T4 failure

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Bouncing back from T4 failure

August 2011

After failing his T4 part B first time round, Mark Dallman passed comfortably in his resit. CIMA’s

study support and learning specialist Rebecca McCaffry found out what made the difference.

Mark Dallman sat his T4 part B exam (BZCS case study) for the first time in March 2011 and was disappointed

to fail with 22 credits. Determined to succeed, he sat again in May and passed with 33 credits - a great result.

His preparations for the March paper featured a taught course with BPP Liverpool, which included sitting mock

papers under exam conditions. He also worked through past case study exams and produced draft versions of

business strategy models, as well as a draft introduction for his report.

For the T4 part B exam, students are expected to carry out their own research into the industry detailed in the

preseen. The March and May 2011 exams were based upon the construction industry, so Mark spent time

searching for construction news on the internet, reading company reports and collating around a dozen diversity

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examples, all related to the construction industry.

It is easy to get carried away with research, as Mark found out to his cost. ‘I think I spent too much time reading

company reports, which are very detailed.’

Despite having carried out a lot of preparation, on exam day Mark made the common mistake of spending too

much time on his calculations. ‘Time management had been an issue throughout my strategic exams and the case

study mocks. I felt I needed to nail the calculations before I could understand the issues and prioritise. I believe

that this was a major contributing factor to my failure in March.’

A new approach

Following the disappointment of results day, Mark decided to try a different approach. He attended a resit

course with his tuition provider, which included further mock exam practice, but also used the resources fromcasestudyaide.com, a T4 community website which he had discovered shortly before the March exams.

‘I made much wider use of the case study forums and signed up for extra mock exams,’ he recalls. ‘I also rereadall the mock exams that I had worked on, and compiled a full list of the issues arising, noting their impact and

urgency.’

In the May exam, Mark felt that he had much more conviction over his prioritisation. ‘I accepted that thefinancial impact of a decision was not necessarily the key motivator or influencing factor for prioritisation. The

business strategy and ethos has as much bearing, if not more. Once you have your priorities, stick with them.’

Good time managementMark worked on his time management by practicing business models and calculations to strict time, aiming to

read the unseen material and complete the calculations in the first 35 minutes of exam time. This allowed himplenty of time to write a well structured and balanced report.

While preparing for the May exam, Mark constructed an in depth SWOT analysis for BZCS. ‘This approachwas different to March in that I explained each point rather than simply making a list, and carried this through to

the exam.

‘I also put together a wider list of diversity examples, using the SWOT analysis as the guide for areas toresearch. From the pre-seen we knew that BZCS’s project management system was a weakness, so I looked

for examples of poorly performing IT and its resulting impact on business.’

So how did Mark feel on exam day? ‘Definitely more confident. I was far more prepared for the exam as aresult of exam practice, industry research and general preparation. That is not to say I didn’t still have doubts!’

Top T4 tips

Mark’s advice for T4 success is:

know the preseen, and you’ll understand the companystrong time management is essential

have conviction over your prioritisation – practice on earlier case study scenariosbuild a full SWOT and relevant business models in advance, then update on exam day

make sure you cross reference the relevant appendices into the main report body textcollect plenty of diversity examples – these don’t necessarily need to be from the same industry as the

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pre-seen

practice lots of mock exams.

Visit the T4 support page for free study resources from CIMA.

LinksT4 exam – requirement part (b): the communication document

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