CIMA has taken a totally different approach towards Case Studies (CS) as opposed to Objective Tests (OT) papers. I assume you know the differences since you are reading this article, but just to cover everything, let me just quickly give you an overview of how the exam is structured and what it consists of.
The aim of the CIMA Management Case Study (MCS) is to apply the knowledge you have gathered across the whole management level. In OT tests, you demonstrate what you know, but here, in MCS, you show how to apply what you know. Case Studies assess everything that cannot be assessed via an OT exam. That’s why CIMA introduced the core activities, so they could check the application of your knowledge against a real-life business case scenario.
It simulates what management accountants do in the workplace.
CIMA has taken a totally different approach towards Case Studies (CS) as opposed to Objective Tests (OT) papers. I assume you know the differences since you are reading this article, but just to cover everything, let me just quickly give you an overview of how the exam is structured and what it consists of.
The aim of the CIMA Management Case Study (MCS) is to apply the knowledge you have gathered across the whole management level. In OT tests, you demonstrate what you know, but here, in MCS, you show how to apply what you know. Case Studies assess everything that cannot be assessed via an OT exam. That’s why CIMA introduced the core activities, so they could check the application of your knowledge against a real-life business case scenario.
It simulates what management accountants do in the workplace.
Management Level:
Within each CIMA Management Case Study examination, five core activities will be assessed. These core activities represent the tasks that are most frequent, critical and important to the Entry level finance professional role.
The 5 core activities are linked to associated assessment outcomes expressed in terms of ‘I Can’ statements that speak directly to the skills and competencies that drive the employability of successful learners.
Here are the famous “I Can” statements from above-mentioned Activities. We’ve added the OT papers where those statements are coming from.
Do you have a realistic (for you) study plan? Have you figured out how much time you need for preparation?
Have a look at what Steven Scullion, 8th in the world for SCS, said about preparing your study plan:
Founder and CEO
Personally, I think it all depends on different factors, such as when the last time you took an exam, were you exempted from any of the management level OTs? Or perhaps this is the first CIMA exam you attempted (Gateway route).
What do you need to include in your study plan?
Now that you know what needs to be covered, let’s figure out how to do it.
The way I see it, you have 3 options:
My suggestion is – don’t do it alone!
A Case Study is a totally different type of exam and if you have sat OCS before, you know what I’m talking about.
Let’s compare it with starting a new job – you feel a bit lost, simple tasks take you ages to fullfill and still there is big room for improvement. In these moments, haven’t you thought – “if only I could ask my boss how to do that” or “if only there was someone who could show me how to do it better and faster”? I know I myself had those questions. With years of experience, I’ve learnt that there is no point in reinventing the wheel, there are so many other things I could be doing. It is just more efficient to use someone else’s knowledge and experience to get your results faster.
I believe that signing up with a proper tuition provider can cut your study time at least in half. Just think about it, that’s all I’m suggesting. I just don’t want you to be frustrated and underprepared for your exam.
I think now is the right time to show you the video that I made about How to Prepare for Your Cima Management Case Study exam. It shows you how you should approach your preparations for MCS, what are the most important steps that you should include in your study plan and how we – Practice Tests Academy – can help you with that.
The 1st step was all about planning, realising what the Case Study is about, what is the magnitude of the work you need to put in and deciding on your study option.
I can help you – we partnered with brilliant tutors, all recommended to us by CIMA, with whom we prepared the necessary materials, helping you succeed in your next MCS exam.
Pete has prepared the first bit, where he aims at providing you the goal of Case Studies why they were created in the first place, what is their objective, what is expected of you and how you can excel at your role.
In case you are interested in seeing for yourself how great his approach is and why he has been so successful in preparing students for Case Study exams, have a look at our MCS offer.
To sum it up – by now you should have chosen how you want to study (or with whom) and you’ve made some kind of a realistic plan.
Let’s get back to our list of what should be included in the study plan. My suggestion is to make sure you are done with the 1st revision of the 3 pillars by the time the Pre-Seen is released. We have used our expertise to prepare a set of revision videos for you.
In case this is something that might interest you, here is the link: Get your MCS Practice Material Personally, I think that sometimes you need that extra push, that structure that the revision course provides. Anyway, it’s up to you, I’m just saying you have an option not to do it on your own or attend highly expensive classes. You can do it online for a fraction of the price. Again, the link is >>here<<.
If you have taken OT exams from the management level, then I hope you kept your notes since they are going to be useful now. Remember, no calculations will be necessary at this point, you just need to interpret the numbers you are given. So if you (for e.g.) had issues with calculating WACC, but you understand why companies should be using it, you are more less fine.
If you took the Gateway route, well, I would roll my sleeves up and go through the study books.
Founder and CEO of PTA
When the Pre-Seen is released, read it. Don’t postpone it. I know it is a bit scary because reading will mean that you have to start preparing. I know how trivial that sounds. I made that mistake – I always found more important things to do and postponed reading the Pre-Seen until “tomorrow”… and that tomorrow lasted for 2 weeks… And then I was rushing through it in panic. Let me tell you – it is not worth it. Better to read a bit each day.
What actually put me off was the size – usually Pre-Seen material is 20-30 pages long. There are plenty of pictures and charts, tables, so in fact, it is not really that long.
For your convenience, I have added here a link to the latest MCS May-Aug’25 Pre-Seen from the CIMA Planner site:
Since you reviewed the knowledge from the E2, P2 and F2 papers, you should be able to note the following:
4th in the world in SCS
I’ve reviewed most of the online providers’ materials and the majority of them focus additionally on Most Likely Issues coming from the Pre-Seen and Industry Analysis of the business that the company operates in.
Here at PTA, we have a slightly different view.
All the industry information you need for the exam is included in the preseen. That is why the preseen is released beforehand – so you can familiarise yourself with the environment of the company. Having more information about the company’s industry (in our current case – Traynner – an educational course provider) will not land you extra marks, BUT it will help you round up your answers better AND will boost your confidence. Why? You will feel that you know more about the company you’re supposed to work for. and we all know what a confidence boost can do in your exam 🙂
That is why we’ve included extra examples of similar companies in our MCS Essential package. You should know what are their current struggles and that should help you to approach answering actual exam questions in a better, more comprehensive way. We do it in a concise way.
Let me explain – I really stress the word “concise” as I’ve watched industry analysis coming from other online tuition providers and they were just too lengthy without providing additional value. You see I can sit for 4 hours watching something, but I need to be confident that it is adding value to my study time. I read the examiners report and it is clearly stated there that all the information on the industry is given to you in the Preseen and that you will not be given any additional marks for showing that you know a few additional names of the top competitors. Therefore the concise version of the industry analysis is beneficial and will not waste your time.
Also, let me touch upon the most likely issues likely to be examined. It is a good indication to open your mind to possible problems that the company may face. We’re projecting what are the most possible issues that the examiner may touch upon, but not limited to them. I remember when I sat my CS, I was still surprised at how the examiners twisted the unseen materials and found a way to utilise big data. There was no mention of that in the Preseen! (I sat my SCS under the 2015 syllabus, which feels like ages ago, but still, 2015 is not that different from the 2019 syllabus). So just don’t think of that as a definite list. They are likely issues, but there are 5 variants of the exam (if each variance has 4 sections, we are talking about 20 sections to be written). Examiners are going to be creative, that’s for sure.
In our MCS Preparation Packages, we will delve into identifying potential P2, then E2 and finally F2 threats and opportunities. You will have a complete analysis from each OT paper POV, that covers the core activities and therefore the famous “I can” statements And to reinforce all that knowledge and information, we will kick off the writing process here. We’ve prepared 5 tasks for each paper, based on the current preseen. We want you to avoid the common mistake that most students make while preparing for their Case Study. They start doing mocks far too late, and sometimes not even under exam conditions. We believe that if you start practising your writing from the get-go, as if you were in an exam environment, and then go on to complete your mocks, you’ll find that preparing the structure of your answers and then developing your points will become second nature to you. Obviously, properly developed solutions to those tasks are included in the package.
By now, you should have:
Now, let’s focus on the exam itself.
My suggested way around it is:
If, however, you are more interested in practicing current mocks, we have 3 full mocks for the current Pre-Seen. These also come with an exam simulator and instant solutions. You can find there here.
Mocks are manually marked. You can do all the preparation, you can plan your answers, but then it will be another person assessing how well you did. What you think was the gist may not be the case. You would be surprised how many students do not read the questions asked properly! Just have a look at any examiners’ reports from the exams! Read the answer, pause for 3 seconds, read it again! And only then start planning your answers.
I think it is good to get a perspective from another person. It is not obligatory, but it is nice to have. Get your mocks marked so you can review the feedback. Ideally, you will get expert feedback on your mock exams as this will give you a knowledgeable and experienced point of view on your level of performance to tell you how well you are getting on. You can review your own script if you fully understand the marking scheme of the exam and note any key lessons learned ready for your next mock exam attempt, but I find this very rarely works as we are not very good judges of our own performance. If you do mocks with us, we give you the possibility to get your mocks checked and receive feedback and some tips on how to improve your performance.
The key to passing is therefore being able to demonstrate your application skills as well as the business, people and leadership areas being tested. You don’t need to be a prize winner, you don’t need to get 150 marks, you just need to pass. Overall, what you learn in that exam will help you tremendously in your work life later on, so in my opinion, CIMA has done a good job in structuring those exams in such a way.
I believe you can do it! Be positive, keep on practicing and you will get there.
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