5th attempt advice for March exam 2024

You lack knowledge, understanding of PM, and most of all your exam technique is wrong. The actual way you perform on the day.

You may think you know …….but you simply don’t! To get 44 on your 3rd attempt tells me this, I don’t know what your score was in the last attempt?

You stated to me that you had not answered a section C question because you couldn’t! That means you didn’t have a good enough understanding!

I said to you to work on section C, at the time I had identified that you were working on section A style questions.

Section C is worth 40. And each question covers 2 or 3 topic areas
Section B is worth 30 Predominantly covers 2 areas
Section A is worth 30 Covers as much of the syllabus as they can

So first of all…..

Do you know the whole of the syllabus? Or are the areas that you keep skipping hoping that they won’t come up?
For example Fitzgerald & Moon, Balance Scorecard, EMA, Big Data, Lifecycle Costing, Throughput, ABC/ABB, Payoff matrix, Dec Tree to name but a few?

Do you understand what they are? How they are used? How to apply them to a given scenario?

Do you understand the reasoning behind calculations and how these calculations will be useful to management?

Have you revised the syllabus thoroughly? Do you have the knowledge required because the syllabus can be examined in a lot of breadth.

Do you manage your time effectively in the exam and can you identify any easy marks available?
Students who do not manage their time and miss easy marks often fail to pass the exam.

For the CR’s
You must read the question very carefully and identify the instructional verbs used, remember there may be more than one thing to answer within each requirement.
You must use the mark allocation to work out how much depth you need to go into in your answer.

Make sure that you are answering the question set not the one that you would like to answer. This is a common mistake to make. Thinking you have written everything you know about say ABC but not actually answering the question.

Most common mistakes are also:
A lack of ability to interpret the calculations performed with reference to the scenario given
Poor interpretation of data
Poor technical knowledge and failure to closely read the question
Not enough practice of questions-all types

I am trying to help you. Quite a lot of students have a paper that is a mental block for them. They fail it and fail it again through not making the necessary changes, and not having a good understanding of the whole syllabus.

Without stating the obvious…….Have you got enough time in your life to study the paper?
This means ………can you give it the dedication, time, energy, respect and enthusiasm required?
It’s a professional exam that tests your ability to understand and interpret questions, whether you can answer them not write what you know….

Have you spent time thoroughly reviewing your answer to questions after you have completed them to identify if you need to work on any of these areas. This is another area that may help!

I will help you by motivating you and supporting you in your studies
Together we will get you through