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 First, a brief update on the new Student Learning Centre, the learning management system where, from 1 February 2008, you will access the interactive learning content for the professional qualification. All the professional level modules have been re-designed to bring you easy to navigate, stimulating and focused learning content, which will help you make the most of your study time.
 As promised, we are holding workshops where participants can have a play on an example module and ask any questions they may have.
The aim is for each workshop to have around 30 participants, mostly students, but some employers as well. As it is not possible to include all students at the workshops, we need to make sure that representation is fair and accurately reflects the student population as a whole. Therefore we would like as many volunteers as possible, so the Market Research team can select according to relevant criteria (gender, employing organisation, study method).
There will be one workshop in London on 26 November and one in Newcastle on 30 November.
Starting at 10am with an introduction from Adrian Pulham, there will be a demonstration of the system, a break out session and the opportunity to ask questions of a panel of CIPFA staff and the educational designers from Pearson (the company that has built the online learning system).
Each workshop will finish at 1pm when a buffet lunch will be provided and participants can ask any further questions of CIPFA and/or Pearson staff.
More information will be sent out to participants nearer the time.
Volunteers will need to live or work within easy travel distance of the venues in London or Newcastle. Once we have selected from volunteers we will ring them to invite them to attend the workshops. Travel costs not covered by any season tickets you may have, will be reimbursed by CIPFA and there’s an MP3 player for each participant!
Students who are interested should forward their name, student contact number and their daytime phone number to Rebecca.bazeley@cipfa.org by Friday 10 November.
Bizpod is here! The exciting new revision tool is live online now, for you to download, listen and learn! More on this to follow soon, but in the meantime – have a look
Exams are difficult, rarely much fun and most of us feel some stress when faced with them. The good news is, with a bit of motivation and work, there are things we can do make the whole process more manageable and improve our chances of success.
Even if your employer ‘sent’ you on the CIPFA programme, somewhere along the line you chose a goal, the achievement of which involves you studying for CIPFA. So, whatever the goal was – keep that keep it in mind!
Enough of the philosophical – what are the practicalities? What do any of us need to do to impress the examiner? This is a brief summary only. More detailed guidance, along with learning activities, can be found in the CIPFA Study Aids: Approaching an Exam and Study and Examination Skills.
Both revising for an exam and sitting an exam require a plan. And this plan will be individual, to suit your particular learning style and needs. There is no one size fits all, so be honest with yourself:
- How much time can you realistically, and usefully, spend on revision?
- Consider what are the genuine learning tools – making your own notes is usually more effective than copying text or simply going through the material with a highlighter.
- Acknowledge your weaker areas – you may enjoy a particular topic, but if you know it pretty well, you may need to bite the bullet and spend more time on a trickier, perhaps less engaging topic.
What to revise? Easy to answer: the whole syllabus – less easy to do. Keep in mind, you only need 50% to pass – you don’t have to score 100% on every question! Question spotting will only restrict you in an exam; avoid it. Look for patterns, but don’t focus all your energies on those two topics that come up every year.
This takes us to the exam paper. Familiarising yourself with the various types of exam questions will help before, and of course, during the exam. This is so often the key to good exam technique, and a far better approach than question spotting!
Each paper will have its own rubric, or set of instructions, on the front of the exam paper. Look at the past papers for examples, or the specimen exam papers in the open learning material. Read it and make sure you know how many questions you must answer, invaluable when planning and managing your exam time.
The next thing is probably the most obvious but also the source of most difficulty.
You need to make sure you know what the examiner wants. You need to understand the language used in the examination question itself. Questions can ask for different things. So be clear about what is required – and then do it! ‘Describing’ is quite different from ‘explaining’.
You will find it useful to go through the Examiner Reports for previous exams. These often indicate areas where students have tended to struggle and will help you to understand the requirements of the examinations.
Before you apply the above in a real exam, you will benefit enormously from practice. Get an idea of what to expect from the examiner and yourself by attempting past papers and, if you attend taught courses, mock exams.
The ‘Approaching an Exam’ study aid provides further explanation on some of the following tips for approaching an exam:
- prepare yourself by doing some thinking before the examination. Have a plan, based on past papers, but which can be amended according to the actual exam paper you are faced with on the day.
- keep calm, be detached and concentrate on the job in hand
- if the requirements are not obvious, read the question more closely to understand the problem
- stay focused on the context of the question, make sure you answer the examiner’s question and not your own
- to have a chance of full marks, provide a full answer
Read the whole question before you start your answer. It can be very frustrating and time wasting to start answering, for example, part 1 of a question, then realizing you know little about part 2.
- answer in the requested format for easy marks
Where a question asks for a specific format or style, such as a letter, report or layout of accounts, marks will be awarded for presentation and written communication.
- always comment on your own results
- look for the signposts
- read and follow the instructions for that paper, completing all compulsory elements and the required number of optional elements
If possible, plan to leave a bit of time at the end to read through what you have written. It’s useful to check for clarity, to ensuring diagrams are appropriately labeled and that your answer is legible.
Don’t forget there is a range of technical articles on the website and that many CIPFA course providers offer revision courses, open to all students.
The North East Students' Society (Northern Division) invites all students to its IPDS seminar on Monday 19 November.
The ever popular Paul McMenamin, IPDS assessor, will be taking students through the IPDS portfolio, providing guidance and examples on:
- Planning and Evidence
- Reflection
- General Reflection and Learning Points
- The Assessment Process
The seminar will run from 10am to 3pm. Refreshments will be provided.
These IPDS workshops have proved a great success with students, so get your name down to attend asap! Email richard.martin@nhslts.org.uk to book a place.
It doesn’t seem like a year ago that I was encouraging you to submit nominations for the PQ awards – but apparently it was, because they’re back! Its time to tell PQ about the CIPFA people you think deserve recognition for their achievements in 2007.
Last year, the NSF won ‘Student Body of the Year’ for the second time: can they make it a hat trick this year? What about others in the CIPFA team – your hardworking lecturers and tutors, your colleagues in the accountancy team, even your boss! Maybe there’s a newly-qualified CPFA who has been a particular inspiration, perhaps as a mentor? Nominate them and they’ll be in with a chance to win the NQ of the year award and a £1000 cash prize.
There are 14 categories in all, including:
PQ of the Year
NQ of the year
Student Body of the Year
College of the Year
Public Sector Lecturer of the Year
Private Sector Lecturer of the Year
Lifetime Achievement Award
Personality of the Year
You can submit your nominations either by completing the form in PQ Magazine or by emailing awards@pqmagazine.co.uk
Recent changes at the CIPFA Education & Training Centre (CETC) have seen former South East Course Director, Steve Daniels, promoted to the position of Academic Director and David Henderson, formerly a Senior Trainer, promoted to South East Course Director.
Gary Gilbert, Head of CETC says: “We’re pleased to announce the changes to the CETC management structure which will benefit students and employers alike. In the role of Academic Director, Steve will be focusing on the development, planning, resourcing and quality management of all of CETC’s UK and international courses. Both Steve and David have an excellent track record with CETC already and so it is with great pleasure that I welcome them both to their new roles.”
Steve’s role will also include day to day operational management of courses at CETC Wales, CETC West of England, and CIPFA programmes provided at Leeds in conjunction with the Department for Work and Pensions.
David will be responsible for overseeing CETC South East courses, undertaking client management activities, line management of several trainers and contributing to the operational and strategic management of the Centre. He will also continue teaching on Strategic Business Management courses.
Read more about this story here: http://www.cipfa.org.uk/cetc/news/news34.cfm
More information on all staff at CETC can be seen here: http://www.cipfa.org.uk/cetc/about/staff_contacts.cfm
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