QA01: Do you have any tips on how to analyse the SCS pre seen material?

cima scs pre seen

Image: Andrew Cheal Photography

This is a new, special blog post that I’ll be publishing every Thursday and it’s all about answering your questions. I wanted to do this because I get a ton of questions from CIMA students and I know that if one person has a question, lots of others will want to know the answer too.

My aim here is to speed up your journey to CIMA qualification, using what I learnt along the same the path as you are following.

It’s also reassuring to know that you don’t have to face the CIMA exams on your own and that there is someone here to listen to what’s on your mind.

Let’s just dive into this week’s question!

“Do you have any tips on how to analyse the SCS pre seen material?”

This is a great question that I get a lot because dealing with the many pages of the pre seen material is very frustrating especially if you haven’t sat a case study exam before, you’re not really sure where to start or what to look out for.  But there are a few things that really helped me to gain an in depth understanding of a case which can then be used to impress the examiner.  Here’s what I recommend:

Option 1: Analysing the Pre seen On your Own

This option requires a lot of hard work but if you have a lot of time on your hands you can get a lot out of it.

Step 1: Obtain the Relevant Pre Seen Material

Download the pre seen from CIMA Connect and print it out

Step 2: Overview

Skim through case quickly a couple of times to get a feel for what the case is about

Step 3: Detailed Pre Seen Analysis

Go through the case in detail – line by line, paragraph by paragraph, taking notes.

This should involve:

  • An E3 review – you’ll want to look out for the main E3 theories such as PEST analysis, Porter’s 5 forces, SWOT, generic strategies and stakeholder analysis.
  • A P3 review – you’ll want to identify the types of risks faced which you learned about in P3 and how they could be managed.
  • An F3 review – you’ll want to analyse the financial statements using key ratios to fully understand the current financial position and performance of the organisation. You’ll also want to consider the company’s cash position to decide if they are in a position to fund new investments or whether they need to raise new funds – If it’s the latter, think about which sources of finance might be best.

Step 4: List your top ten issues most likely to be examined on

At this stage you want to identify the main information needs, problems faced and opportunities that are hinted at in the case and may well come up on your exam day

Examples could be:

  • The threat of strike action that needs to be resolved
  • An opportunity to enter a new market overseas

In the exam you would be given further information on that issue and would be required to use your technical, business, people and leadership skills to deal with the issue.

So list out your top 10 most likely issues that you think will be faced and for each of them do the following:

  • Note down which theories are most likely to be relevant to that issue
  • Note down possible ways for dealing with the issue (sensible options)
  • Note down which of those options you are most likely to recommend

This initial analysis and thinking on each issue should help you be prepared for the real exam if that issue were to arise.

Step 5: Periodic Review

Now and again read over a blank copy of the full pre seen to see if a fresh read through results in anything new springing to mind as important – do further revision of relevant theory and/or amend your top 10 list as appropriate

Top tip: Keep up to date with what is going on in the business news as it may just be the case that a key issue you have identified earlier will be played out in the real world and so you’ll be able to use how they dealt with it (successfully or otherwise) to demonstrate your business skills in your exam.

Option 2: Using Expert Analysis

This is the method that I chose when I passed my final CIMA case study exam and so I know that it works!

Step 1: Obtain the Relevant Pre Seen Material

Download the pre seen from CIMA Connect and print it out

Step 2: Detailed Pre Seen Analysis

Watch Astranti’s pre seen analysis videos.

Here the hard work of deciphering what information is relevant and what is not is done for you plus you are guided through which theory is most applicable to the case.

Added to this you get expert pointers as to the most likely issues to come up in the exam AND how to deal with them to score well, should they come up.

You can pause the videos, rewind them and take notes as you go along meaning that the whole process of dealing with the minefield that is the pre seen is much more manageable.

You also get a blank pro forma of key theoretical models to fill in as you go through the videos to better understand the case.

As a bonus Astranti also give you a free analysis document to add to the knowledge already built up from the videos.

You find out more information here

Step 3:  Summary

Summarise all the key information you have been given into a one page summary and test yourself on this periodically to help retain the key information you want to take into the exam with you

And that’s it!!!

Conclusion

Good knowledge of the SCS pre seen will really help you to produce the sort of answer that will impress the examiner as you’ll be able to produce sound and sensible business advice that scores highly.

However, your time available to study will most likely be scarce so don’t spend too much time on pre seen analyis at the expense of mock exam practice. Ultimately the exam is focused on the unseen material you are given on the day and your ability to think on your feet under time pressure is what is really tested.

If you have questions for me I’d love to hear them. Simply drop me a line in the comments section below or head over to my Facebook page and I’ll do my very best to answer them soon. Thanks.

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