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Friday, 20 May 2011 13:11

TMF Spring CIM Residential Weekend

Last weekend TMF took 50 delegates studying for their CIM case study module to Reading for their residential weekend. Each CIM level (Professional Certificate / Professional Diploma / Chartered Postgraduate Diploma) is levy to a case study exam and TMF like to do things a little differently, so for the past few years we’ve been delivering the case study modules intensively over a weekend from a hotel outside of London.

In the past we’ve used Norton Park Hotel in the leafy Hampshire countryside near Winchester, however this year we opted for the slightly grittier location of Reading in Berkshire. That’s not to say we scrimped on the hotel…oh no…disco balls, cocktails, zebra throws and a posh games room, were all glamorous additions to the Reading branch of Pentahotels. Whilst delegates did get to enjoy the fun side of the hotel in the evening, they were required to knuckle down during the day to get through all the case study work their tutors had planned for them!

The weekend schedule was fairly intense. Each CIM level had their own training room and spent the best part of Saturday and Sunday getting to grips with their relevant case study, preparing their analysis’ and sharing their ideas. With coffee breaks for much needed sugar hits and a delicious lunch each day, delegates were well fueled to tackle the heavy workload. On Saturday a break from 5pm – 7.30pm afforded delegates some free time to relax, use the gym, shoot some pool or hit the shops, before a lovely 3 course dinner in the ballroom in the evening. Whilst a movie night had been planned, complete with ice cream and popcorn, the draw of Eurovision and the hotel bar proved too much for the majority, who sloped off before ‘The Tourist’ began.

Sunday morning, there were far fewer sore heads than previous residential weekends (!) and certainly less misbehaving after hours – so most delegates were fresh to begin another day in the ring with the CIM case study. 3pm was the planned checkout and by that time everyone was ready to call it a day, having learnt more marketing models than they’d care to remember and dissected their case study to pieces. Whilst some delegates joked about brain ache at the end of the weekend, we think they all found the exercise extremely useful and a great preparatory session for their CIM case study exam in June!

“Thanks to you and Carl for organising the weekend! It was beneficial – well focused and structured.” – CIM Professional Diploma Delegate

Good luck everyone for the exams! We know you’ll rock ‘em!

Published in The Marketer's Forum Blog
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Wednesday, 25 May 2011 11:49

7 Top Tips for Success in CIM Assessments and Exams

Here are SEVEN TOP TIPS for students studying for a CIM Marketing Course. These are mainly based on my teaching experience with the Professional Postgraduate Diploma in Marketing – but the concepts are equally relevant for their other courses.
These are my practical tips, based on some years of teaching experience – they are not (necessarily) endorsed by the CIM. But, I have found that they work.

     

  • Tip One – Read the CIM Course Syllabus

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This document exists for all the CIM qualifications/courses and can be downloaded from the CIM website. In it you will find a description of how marks are awarded, section by section, and the criteria for achieving a given grade.
It tells you what to do to get an ‘A’ – how fab is that?!
For assessments it details exactly what is required to be covered within each section and the number of marks you can gain.
Therefore make sure that the word count and marks are matched – a section worth 20% of the marks should (roughly) contain 20% of the word count. You may be surprised how many students overlook this fact. Don’t be one of them.

     

  • Tip Two – Look out for the Action Verbs and Required Content

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The CIM syllabuses (syllabii?) gives you detailed and helpful advice on how to answer each question, clearly and succinctly.
Follow the advice!
Look out (and even highlight) the ‘action verbs’. If the syllabus says; ‘critically assess’, ‘list’, ‘explain’, ‘compare and contrast’ etc. then do just that.
If the question says ‘List THREE factors affecting the industry, or ‘recommend ONE strategy’ etc. then do just that.
Otherwise you will end up answering questions that have not been asked. This is a bad thing.

     

  • Tip Three – PLAN!

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Whether you are submitting an assessment, or sitting and exam, a major success factor is to PLAN, PLAN and PLAN some more.
This may sound obvious but I am constantly surprised at students who do not. Whether you use a ‘Mind Map’, bullets, or tree approach, you should take the time to plan your answer section by section, or question by question.
In assessments this helps you to get-it-right, first time.
In an exam, spending time at the start to plan out your answer means that you will find it far easier to expand this plan into full answers when answering the questions.
Students who turn over an exam paper and immediately start writing out an answer are likely to waste time, miscalculate the length of the answers needs and may need to rush or rewrite at the end of the exam period.
Better to spend 10 minutes at the start, read the questions, plan the answers make a list of the arguments, the models and the answer content – then go on and write it up from these nortes.

     

  • Tip Four – Make it Easy for the Examiner

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The person marking your script will have a limited time available to review  your work. Therefore make it easy to read.
Use white space.
Use concise sentences. The longest I have found so far in an assessment was 57 words! It nearly made my eyes bleed and by the time I reached the end I had forgotten how it started.
So use….
  • Tables,
  • Bullet points,
  • Indents,
  • Diagrams
…. and make it interesting, easy and appealing for the examiner to read.

     

  • Tip Five – Don’t Just Repeat the Text Book

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CIM qualifications are about practical skills and not just academic theory, By all means use ‘Porter’s 5 Forces’, ‘Ansoff Matrix’, ‘PLC ‘or whatever…. But use them intelligently in the context of the case study, exam question or assessment.
This is especially important at Post Graduate Diploma level.
Simply describing what a model does, as if you were copying out the text book description is not what they’re after.
Use the theories in context!

     

  • Tip Six – Don’t be Bland or Clichéd

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The examiner wants to see you add value and make cogent arguments that actually say something. The Post Graduate Diploma, for example is just that – at a level between a Bachelors and Masters Degree.
Therefore it needs answers that reflect this.
I have seen submissions like:
‘The Internet has caused a seismic shift in the world. This presents many opportunities and challenges to marketers. Companies need to react quickly to seize these new possibilities and use them to grow and develop their businesses and decide which markets they should be in.’

Bland! Boring! Content Free! …. (as well as ending a sentence with a preposition.)
No marks (from me anyway) and a waste of time and word count. It is so boring my blood has ceased to circulate and I may soon enter a coma.

     

  • Tip Seven – Don’t Waste Marks

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Up to 10% of marks are awarded for presentation and ‘admin’. Therefore bag them and you are 1/5 of the way to a pass.
Make sure that you follow all the guidance on ‘admin’ points such as ‘Harvard Referencing’ (where required), font size, spacing, plagiarism statement, student number etc.
Make sure that your submissions are with your study centre on time, in the correct number of paper and soft copies, in the correct formats.
If it’s an assessment spell check and ensure your grammar is correct!

     

  • Finally, don’t panic!

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You have studied hard and revised well.
The final submission of your assessment or sitting the exam is just the last bit that builds on all of this hard work.

     

  • Go for it and Good Luck!

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Peter Rees DipM FCIM FRSA MCIPR, Chartered Marketer
Managing Director,
PR Strategic Marketing Ltd.
www.prstrategic.blogspot.com
Published in The Marketer's Forum Blog
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About TMF

The Marketers’ Forum deliver part time evening and weekend CIM, CAM & MRS courses for marketing professionals.

What we do...

Accredited by the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM)

Market Research Society (MRS)

&

The CAM Foundation (CAM)

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t: 020 7324 6265 l e: info@themarketersforum.co.uk