the cima student

CIMA released the pre-seen materials for the August 2017 OCS exam – the company in questions is called “Premium Trains”  and you can find the official pre-seen material from CIMA here.

For those interested in the Astranti videos on the Premier Trains OCS pre-seen materials you can find it directly here.

When the pre-seen materials are released I usually take the approach of previewing all of the Astranti pre seen analysis videos but to make things more specific I’d thought I would run the process OCS students should be taking when analysing the pre-seen material.

Make a Study Plan

I cannot emphasise enough the importance of creating a realistic and comprehensive study plan when preparing for the CIMA OCS.

It’s the first step to success and will ensure you have considered all areas you need to cover and how and when to cover them. You might want to dive straight into the pre-seen material but a detailed plan of the next six weeks is crucial.

Here is how my next week of studying is going to look 📝🤓#littlebylittle #CIMA #CIMAstudent #OCS #casestudy #exam #organised #stressed pic.twitter.com/5W55FqsDWp

— Siobhan (@AccountantShiv) June 23, 2017

The above study plan by @accountantshiv is a great example of how to plan your time, you might prefer to look at it week by week rather than day by day but nevertheless, don’t under estimate the power of a good plan!

If you’re looking for a starting point of what to cover then I would recommend looking at the August 2017 OCS Pre-Exam Kit from the CIMA connect site.

Read through the Pre-Seen Materials

Now is the time to get yourself familiar with Premier Trains pre-seen materials that have been released by CIMA. You can find the full pre-seen materials document here.

I’d suggest to read through all of the materials first before making any notes or reading any other resources. It’s easier to digest and believe me, you will be reading it more than once so don’t frantically start making notes just yet.

Make your own notes

Ok, now you have a Study Plan for the CIMA OCS exam and have read through the pre-seen materials. Now is the time to go through each section of the pre-seen materials and make your own notes.

Highlight key information and add comments that links the materials to specific CIMA topics you have covered in E1, P1 and F1.

Also highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the company in question.

• Do they have excessive amount of debt on the balance sheet?
• Are they over reliant on one specific customer?
• Do they need to invest heavily in new equipment/fixed assets?
• Are they potential threats in the market place of new entrants?
• Is the demand decreasing for the product or service?

Watch Analysis on Pre-Seen

The above preview of the pre-seen analysis on Premier Trains from Astranti is an excellent resource to align your notes made against that of a qualified CIMA tutor.

Now you can add more depth to your pre-seen analysis made in the previous step. I’d also recommend in getting the videos on the strategic analysis and top 10 issues. It’ll give the perfect footing when preparing for the OCS exam.

You can find the full set of videos on the August OCS here.

For those interested in the complete Astranti OCS course for Premium Trains you can find it here.

Good Luck to all OCS students!