How to Deal with the CIMA OCS Exam

Scene Setting Information

  • There will be 3-4 sections in the OCS exam and in each section there will be one or more tasks to complete
  • For each section there will be a brief announcement of a situation or issue that has arisen (which has occurred either just before or on your exam date)
  • This will announcement will normally describe a recent event that has occurred or new information that has come to light
  • Examples of such information could be a news article, minutes from a meeting, a reported conversation with a member of staff, a market announcement from a competitor, or a letter from a stakeholder
  • The issues raised in each section of the exam moves time forward in the context of the case

 Tasks

  • You’ll usually be required to provide a colleague with more information or assistance such as an analysis of figures given or your advice in response to the issues raised in the scene setting
  • Tasks will NOT be structured in the same way as they are in traditional exams – there will be no specific question requirements or direct use of the CIMA verbs.

Time Management

  • Time management is going to be critical in this exam so it’s important that you are familiar with the pre seen material so that you can quickly search and find a relevant piece of information if required.
  • Each section has a strict time allowance
  • You’ll be told the time allowance for each section before the exam begins and you will have a countdown clock in the top right hand corner of your screen – make sure you keep an eye on it regularly
  • The time allocated to each section of the exam takes into account the following activities that you have to perform during the time available:
  1. Read the scene setting information
  2. Identify the task/s (being sure to distinguish the separate components within each task)
  3. Produce an answer plan that covers all the separate requirements
  4. Produce the answer
  5. Check and review your answer

Let’s look at each of these activities in more detail…

1. Reading the scene setting information

This will not be a lengthy task

  • You are given some additional information which moves the case on in time.
  • You will be able to refer back to this information once you have been set your task and you can draw information from it when planning or producing your answer.

2. Indentifying the tasks

  • This should not take more than 3 or 4 minutes
  • This part of the exam requires careful reading as you have to be able to identify ALL separate components within a task

Example:

Section 1 of the OCS practice exam asks for two distinct areas to be covered in an email:

  1. Concerns about the cash position
  2. Business to business marketing

In fact the concerns about the cash position could really be divided in two requirements based on the instructions – firstly, why is the position so bad? Secondly is there anything that we can do to improve the cash position so that the overdraft limit isn’t breached?”)

Therefore, you would need to have identified all of these elements within the task and your answer would need to address each of them to score well.

3. Answer planning

  • This should take up about a third of the time available for each section – i.e. 15 minutes for a 45 minute section
  • In your answer planning time you should:
  1. Read the scene setting information
  2. Identify the tasks in the question
  3. Plan your answer to cover ALL aspects required from the task
  4. Plan your answer to address the competences at this level i.e. application of technical knowledge to the specifics of the case as well as demonstrating people and leadership skills required by a finance officer
  • There are 3 areas on screen where you can create your plan:
  1. The on screen scratch pad (you can try this on the interactive tutorial on the CIMA website)
  2. The wipe clean note pad given to you in the test centre
  3. The space available for presenting your answer (but be careful that this doesn’t remain here and get confused with your final answer)

4. Producing your answer

  • Most of the tasks you will be required to perform will involve producing a document to your fictitious boss.
  • In general, bosses don’t want to read pages and pages of information and so try to keep your answers to the point and focus your analysis on the situation in which your boss is concerned about.
  • Typing speed of about 20 words per minute will be sufficient to produce a good sized answer
  • Remember it is far more important to produce an answer of high quality rather than high quantity
  • Make sure you address all the tasks as per your answer plan
  • Think about the presentation of your answer, including:
  1. Short sentences
  2. Brief paragraphs
  3. Section headings to match each task
  4. Use of appropriate language
  • Remember you are an employee of the company in the case so communicate to your fictitious boss as you would senior management in your real life work place.

5. Checking your answer

  • You will be given a warning when there are 5 minutes left in the section you are on. At this point you should STOP writing and instead read over the answer you have produced so far
  • In your review, you should make sure that your answer includes:
  1. All the points raised in your plan
  2. A logical discussion
  3. A prioritisation of the issues in line with the concerns of the organisation
  • You can cut and paste your paragraphs if you feel it necessary to re order them in terms of priority.
  • You can also add or delete text to any paragraph in order to improve the focus or clarity of your answer.

Finishing a section

  • When the countdown clock reaches 00:00 you will be unable to do anymore work on that section
  • Instead you’ll be moved onto the next section and won’t be able to return to a previous section for any review or amendments.
  • You can move onto the next section before the allocated time is up but you won’t be able to carry any of that saved time forward – therefore it’s recommended that you use any remaining time to review your answer until the time for that section elapses

Back to CIMA Operational Level Home

Share Button