Page 2 - OCS Workbook - Day 2 Tasks (May 2018)

CIMA MAY 2018 – OPERATIONAL CASE STUDY

As we've said earlier, typical reasons for failing the Case Study Examination are not finishing your
answer and/or not having sufficient application to the scenario. A major cause of both failings is a
lack of discipline when writing about an issue. Some students feel they have to get all of their
points down rather than selecting the better points, applying them to the specific circumstances
of the company concerned where possible and then moving on. If a task requires you to discuss
three different areas it is vital that you cover all parts adequately.
Often students can reread paragraphs three or more times before they move on to writing the
next part of their report. Instead, try to leave the read through until the final few minutes of the
task and try to correct as many obvious errors as possible. The CIMA marker will be reading and
marking your script on screen and it is harder to read and understand the points you are making if
there are many typing errors.

3 ASSIMILATION OF INFORMATION

One of the most challenging things to deal with in a case study examination is the volume of
information which you have available. This is particularly difficult when you have both pre-seen
and unseen information to manage and draw from. It is important that you refer to relevant pre-
seen information in your responses as well as incorporating the unseen information. The key
things that you need to do to assimilate the information effectively and efficiently are:
• Read about and identify each event
• Consider what the issue is
• Evaluate the impact of the issue. Who is affected, by how much are they affected and what
would happen if no action was taken?
• Determine the most useful and relevant exhibits from the pre-seen

Capturing all of your thoughts and ideas at this stage can be difficult and time consuming. The
chapter in the CIMA Official Case Study Textbook on planning your answer will show you how to
do this effectively without wasting time or effort but we have given some simple guidance below.

4 PLANNING YOUR ANSWERS

To make sure the time spent now is of use to you throughout the task, you will need consider
carefully how best to document your thoughts. You will be provided with an on-screen notes page
(‘scratchpad’) as well as a wipe-clean laminated notes page and marker pen. Any method you
adopt to plan must be concise whilst still allowing you to capture all of your ideas and see the
bigger picture in terms of how the issues interrelate with one another (see additional guidance
below). Furthermore, the method must suit you! Everyone is different and what might work for
one person could be a disaster for another. For example, some people prefer to work with lists,
other with mind maps.

Most people find that some form of central planning sheet (to enable the bigger picture to be
seen) is best. How you prepare the central planning sheet is a matter of personal preference and
we've given illustrations of two different methods below. Practise each one to find out which you
prefer and then tailor it further to settle on something that works for you.

22 KAPLAN PUBLISHING