TOPCIMA Improve your skills for this final test.

. Top tips from the TOPCIMA Case Writer and Lead Examiner.
What is TOPCIMA? TOPCIMA is a case study scenario for which pre-seen material is available on the CIMA web site around 8 weeks before the exam date. On exam day there is further unseen material relevant to the case, together with one 100 mark question asking you, as the candidate, to analyse the issues in the case material and to make recommendations to the Board of Directors. Before you access the pre-seen material on the CIMA web site, you should improve your chances of success by working through at least 2 past TOPCIMA cases. You would not consider going into any other CIMA exam without working through past papers TOPCIMA is no different there is simply more material to read and understand and more work to be done. It is strongly recommended that 2 past cases are thoroughly worked through BEFORE you start to prepare for the actual TOPCIMA case that you are planning to sit. You can do this by working through past cases that are available on the CIMA website (www.cimaglobal.com). You will need to purchase the case writers answers from Elsevier (www.cimapublishing.com). Alternatively you could work through past cases using the CIMA Learning System, which shows you how to analyse the pre-seen material, what to do on exam day and takes you step-by-step, through past TOPCIMA cases. The CIMA Learning System also contains all of the past TOPCIMA cases and the case writers answers (available from Elsevier on www.cimapublishing.com). You should also read 2 of the past TOPCIMA Post Exam Guides, prepared after each TOPCIMA exam. These are available free on the CIMA website. Learn from others mistakes and do NOT repeat the same mistakes again; also learn from what they did right! The Post Exam Guidance reports will also help you to gain a better understanding of what the examiner is looking for within each of the 9 areas of the assessment matrix. Advice for researching the industry setting To give you a deeper understanding of the problems and challenges facing the company in the case that you are sitting, it is vital to research the industry setting. Some of the advice given in this article is reproduced from the CIMA Learning System written by Heather Barnwell, with the permission of Elsevier (web link as given above). You should gain an understanding of the real world context of the industry, which will help you to provide realistic, commercially viable discussion and recommendations in your answer, and to earn marks by: providing examples of actions and strategies that companies operating in the real world would follow which could be used by the company in the case study material; demonstrating to the reader of your TOPCIMA report (i.e. the CIMA examiner), that you understand the industry and its opportunities and challenges, and therefore that your advice is reliable and realistic; helping your report to look professional by avoiding suggestions of unrealistic ideas that cast doubt on your competence as a management accountant.

By the time you are eligible to sit TOPCIMA you will have passed all of the 3 Strategic level papers. Do NOT forget all of the techniques that you learned for these subjects, you should revise

them and use them in TOPCIMA. You should prepare for your TOPCIMA exam, by applying some or all of the following frameworks to the pre-seen material: 1. SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) framework using the material in the pre-seen material. However, remember that if you provide a SWOT analysis as part of your answer in the exam, you must update it for the new data given in the unseen material. 2. identify industry lifecycle stage and the factors driving it; 3. identify whether any of the five forces are strong or strengthening and the reasons for this; 4. consider the competitive strategies being followed by companies operating in the real world and how they are achieved (e.g. special technologies, use of brands) and whether they could be adopted by the company in the pre-seen; 5. identify real-world issues against the PEST framework 6. the impact of globalisation on the future of the industry and on the company in the pre-seen. The two easiest ways of conducting industry research are: Reading the financial pages of a good newspaper several times each week Setting up an internet news alert using one of the search engines, such as a Google alert. Read widely, as your knowledge of how industry and commerce work can help you to make realistic and achievable recommendations in your report. It is NOT necessary to restrict your reading to the industry setting only, which for November 2006 is the clothing manufacturing industry. It is just as relevant to read the financial pages of any good newspaper so that your knowledge of the business world is enhanced and that you are familiar with many other facets of business life and challenges facing companies generally. Advice on what to do on exam day and analysing the unseen material It is vital that you read, and re-read, the unseen material on the exam day, and analyse all of the new data and that you identify the key issues. You must use some of the 3 hour exam time (in addition to the reading time) to analyse and plan your answer. It is vital that much consideration goes into deciding which the key issues are and what the priorities are. You MUST USE the new material and the information in the unseen material that is given to you on the exam day. It is imperative to your success in the TOPCIMA exam that you read and analyse the unseen material carefully and take note of the changed circumstances that the company in the case may be in. The unseen material will raise a range of important and some not so important issues and factors that affect the company. It is your job on the exam day to: Identify these new issues Decide which are important (prioritising the main issues) Discuss each of the issues (especially the main issues, and if time allows, some of the minor issues should be discussed as well) Prepare well thought out and fully justified recommendations.

Marks for two of the assessment criteria, Judgement and Logic, carry 40% of the marks in the November 2006 exam, this stresses the importance of preparing detailed, well considered recommendations that are commercially viable and realistic. The more details you give, and the reasons for reaching the recommendations, will earn more marks than the actual

recommendation made. Remember there is no right or wrong answer it is your job to recommend to the Board of Directors what courses of action you consider they should take and to persuade them why you are making the recommendation. Report format Your report must be prepared carefully and contain detailed analysis; it may be helpful to use the following suggested report format for your answer. However, it must be stressed that it is the content and not the report format that will earn you marks, although the report format will help you to remember to cover all of the areas where marks will be awarded using the TOPCIMA assessment matrix. Contents page Introduction (brief 5 to 10 lines of background on the company) Terms of reference (brief 5 to 10 lines to set the scene of who you are) Identify and prioritise the main issues facing the company, showing the top 5 items in priority order. You should also provide some justification of why you have ranked the issues in the priority order given. Also remember that all of the top 5 priorities that you have identified MUST be included in your SWOT analysis. The main body of your report should discuss in depth all of the issues you have identified above and should be supported by numerical evaluation of the proposals, which should be shown in appendices. It is recommended that a separate section on Ethical issues, covering at least 3 issues, should be provided. Remember you need to make recommendations on how the ethical dilemmas can be overcome. Recommendations and conclusions. The most important part of the report which should pick up on each of the issues discussed earlier. Each recommendation should be clear and well justified as to why you are recommending a particular course of action. Do NOT recommend that more information needs to be collected before a recommendation can be made. Conclusion (brief 5 to 10 lines for closing comments) Appendices. You should ensure that all data and calculations contained in all of your appendices should be referred to within your report.

Reminder about TOPCIMA exams using pre-seen material that will cover two exam sittings Candidates are reminded that there are now two exam sittings with two different sets of unseen material, both based on the same pre-seen material. The first sitting for the November 2006 exam was in September 2006. You should remember that the two different sets of unseen material will deal with the organisation in the case in different ways. Therefore any familiarity or knowledge of the first unseen material has no bearing or influence whatsoever on the second sitting. Therefore each of the two unseen materials follows directly on from the pre-seen material, and NOT the previous unseen.

Advice on the TOPCIMA assessment matrix Familiarise yourself with the TOPCIMA assessment matrix. Also, remember that the weighting of marks available for each of the nine criteria may change. Technical Candidates can earn marks for demonstrating knowledge of techniques such as SWOT analyses and discussion on relevant techniques and theories such as PEST analysis, Porters Generic Strategies model, Ansoffs growth vector matrix, the BCG matrix, and so on. Application This criterion carries higher marks than Technical, as the examiner considers that it is application of the knowledge to the case material which is important. Candidates should prepare accurate supporting calculations, such as NPVs, a range of company valuations where acquisitions or divestments are being considered and be able to prepare updated cash flow forecasts. It is also recommended that a detailed SWOT analysis (incorporating data from the unseen material) together with applying other relevant techniques such as PEST, Balanced Scorecard, or Porters Generic Strategies model to the case material. Diversity Marks are available for demonstrating a breadth of technical knowledge and a range of views. I recommend that you read widely on the business setting in which the case is set to enable you to quote examples and to explain how real companies have overcome many of the problems facing the organisation in the case material. Focus The marks available for Focus are for discussion of relevant key data and issues. Generally, this criterion is well attempted. To ensure high marks here it is necessary to identify the relevant key data and issues in the case material (both the pre-seen and the unseen material) and to set up a check list of report headings, to ensure that all of the issues have been discussed. Prioritisation The process of planning your answer, at the start of the exam, is to firstly identify the relevant key issues, then to prioritise them, and then to discuss each of them in depth. It is recommended that the opening section (after an introduction and terms of reference) should identify the key issues facing the organisation and put them in a clear priority order, justifying your choice of priority. Judgement This is a very important criterion and is for the demonstration of alternative solutions and the display of professional judgement. It can also be considered as the link between the discussion of the issues and the recommendations. Marks are awarded on the basis of the level of the candidates evaluation, comments and judgement that has been demonstrated in reaching their recommendations. Integration This criterion rewards candidates for their ability to discuss diverse areas of knowledge and skills and to integrate them effectively in a cohesive report. Logic This crucial criterion rewards candidates for preparing justified, well argued recommendations and for the clear presentation of their report. In any business report, the most important section, is the recommendations section and how clearly and well justified the recommendations have been made. The single over-riding reason why some candidates fail, due to low marks awarded in Integration (as well as in Logic) is for NOT making any clear recommendations. It sounds inconceivable that candidates would not conclude their report with clear recommendations but unfortunately many

simply sit on the fence and state that they need more time, more information, need to consult with the Directors or whoever, etc, and do not make any clear recommendations. Do NOT recommend that more information needs to be collected before a recommendation can be made. Many candidates choose to end each paragraph within the main body of their report, with a recommendations section. This is acceptable for full marks, but generally it would be better if the recommendations are at the end of the report. This is because a recommendation cannot be made until all of the other issues are discussed and assessed, as many are competing for the same scarce resources, manpower and finance. Ethics It is necessary to identify the ethical issues (and there are usually several of them) and then to briefly justify why the issue is considered to have an ethical dimension. Higher marks are then awarded for candidates who offer further realistic advice on how to resolve the ethical issues. To summarise, in order to earn pass marks in this criterion, it is necessary to identify, justify and recommend advice on how to overcome several of the ethical dilemmas included in the case material. What you now need to do in order to gain the necessary skills to pass TOPCIMA The key tasks that will put you in a better position for passing TOPCIMA are: WORK (not simply read) through at least 2 TOPCIMA past cases Read thoroughly 2 past TOPCIMA Post Exam Guidance reports Research thoroughly the business setting for the case that you will be sitting and familiarise yourself totally with the pre-seen material Revise business strategies and suitable techniques and be able to apply them to the case material. Read the article on the CIMA website about the case you are planning to sit. CIMA commission an independent writer to analyse the pre-seen material and this article gives a good insight into the industry and the problems and opportunities it is facing. NOTE an abridged version of the analysis of the November pre-seen material will be available in Study Notes next month. Ensure that your report clearly prioritises the top 5 key issues raised in the unseen material Ensure that your answer covers all nine of the assessment criteria

Remember do your research and prepare for the exam but on the day, ensure that you write a thorough, well reasoned answer that covers the relevant key issues raised in the unseen material and ensure that your answer covers all aspects of the requirement. Practice writing answers for TOPCIMA cases. You should write answers to past TOPCIMA cases and check them yourself against the case writers answers. If you have simply read the case writers answers and you have not sat down for 3 hours to see how comprehensive an answer YOU could write in 3 hours, then you are NOT prepared for this exam.

The key to passing this exam, like most others, is practice, practice and practice. There is no short cut. There is no easy answer. There is no way to prepare for the TOPCIMA exam without investing in hours of work using past TOPCIMA papers and to work on them as if they are the real case that you are going to sit! Remember it is good preparation, and not good luck, that is needed to pass this final test of professional competence - so go and prepare for this final test in order to increase your ability to handle this different and challenging exam. After all, when you are CIMA qualified, you could well be facing a similar situation; only this time it would be for real!