Tips on how to succeed

Transcription

1 Guide 6 Exams

2 Contents Tips on how to succeed Before the exam Registering with a centre Eligibility Preparing for the exams Practise, practise, practise! Content, context and command words Glossary of exam command words Check out the logistics Your checklist The night before On exam day Nail those nerves! The role of invigilators The exam paper Your answer script Choosing your questions Impressing the examiner What happens next 11 Marking the exam papers 11 About the marking 11 Notification of results 12 Exam feedback 12 Exam resits 12 1

3 Tips on how to succeed This guide is mainly for students taking a CIPD postgraduate-level qualification at a nationally assessed centre (those who take exams set by the CIPD in May and November each year). If you re studying for an internally assessed qualification (such as an MSc/MA in HRM or some postgraduate certificates and diplomas), or the Certificate in Business Awareness and Advanced Professional Study (CBAAPS), your centre will provide administration details about your exams. However, the general information on exam preparation in this guide is relevant for all students. If you re not sure whether your course is assessed nationally or internally, please see Guide 9 or speak to your tutor for more information. Not many people relish the prospect of exams, especially if it s been any length of time since you sat your last one. So this guide is designed to help you with as many tips on preparation and revision as possible, as well as providing information about what you can expect. Its structure is designed to follow a before, during and after the exam timeline. If you ve got any problems or difficulties regarding exams for example, you ve transferred abroad, or you need to defer you ll find guidance on what to do in Guide 9. 2

4 Before the exam It might seem obvious, but you can only sit an exam if you ve enrolled for it. So you ll need an enrolment form (supplied by your tutor) and a place to take the exam, organised by you and your centre. Every year some people have to defer their exams because they fail to meet the CIPD s eligibility criteria or simply forget to enrol by the deadline. See Guide 1 for enrolment dates. Registering with a centre Before you can complete your exam enrolment with the CIPD, you ll need to liaise with your tutor to arrange the exam venue. If you re sitting an exam for the first time, your exam entry form will need to be signed by either your tutor or an exams officer to confirm that you ve passed the required coursework and have been accepted by the centre. If you re resitting an exam, you should contact the exams officer at your preferred centre and register with that centre before returning your completed exam enrolment form to the CIPD. If you re studying with the International Correspondence School (ICS) or MOL whether taking an exam for the first time or resitting you should ask the centre for a list of available exam venues and return the form to them. Your tutor or exams officer will sign the form to confirm that you re registered to sit the exam(s) before sending it to the CIPD. Eligibility To be eligible to sit an exam: make sure you re a current member of the CIPD. If you re in any doubt about your membership status, please contact us on pass all assignments in that subject area complete and return your exam enrolment form to the CIPD. These forms are available from your tutor in January for the May exams, and in July for the November exams. Information on completing the enrolment form, fees and the closing date for enrolments are on the form your form will need to be signed by your tutor to confirm that you ve passed the required assignments and you re registered to sit the exams at that centre. Your tutor will need to submit your results to the CIPD before the relevant exam, so you ll need to allow enough time for this process payment for each exam should accompany your form. These fees must be paid in sterling and are non-refundable. To avoid missing the deadline because of any hold-ups in your organisation s accounts department, we advise you to pay your fees personally and claim them back later. A receipt will be sent to you automatically. 3

5 Tips It s your personal responsibility to make sure that you re enrolled for the national exam(s) and that your form has been submitted on time. Take a few minutes to enter key deadlines in your diary now, so you can be sure you can complete your studies on time. You ll find dates in the back of Guide 1, or at Preparing for the exams Effective preparation and practice are the keys to exam success. You need to have: confidence that you ve got the knowledge needed to answer the questions practice and skills in exam technique. If you ve followed the advice on effective study in Guide 3, by the time you get to the end of your course you ll already be well prepared for the exam. Besides having studied the suggested content for the subject in detail, you ll be fully up to date and capable of using information that has appeared since your textbook was published. You ll have been collecting press cuttings, articles and in-company materials (from other organisations as well as your own), and all of these should be annotated to make revision easy, and filed according to major content themes. Practise, practise, practise! Exam success requires technique. You ve got to manage your time, knowledge and stress to satisfy the examiner s expectations. That means answering the question set and not the one you wished the examiner had set. These skills are separate from acquiring knowledge on a subject. Some very knowledgeable students can fail exams because they ve ignored the development of their exam technique. Your tutors are likely to provide you with plenty of opportunities to practise exam questions, possibly under exam conditions. Take advantage of these, or create the opportunities yourself. 4

6 Tips for exam practice Get to know how papers are structured and questions phrased. You ll find past papers and examiners reports at Download these and get used to the examiner s style and requirements. Get plenty of practice (preparing answer plans can help if you can t devote time to a whole question). Practise against the clock the perception of time is important. Get a feel for how much you can write in the time allowed. If your centre runs mock exams, take advantage of the opportunity to sit them. If you belong to a network group, you could organise your own mock exam and review each other s answers. Content, context and command words An exam question can be analysed by considering the three Cs: Content what are you being asked to write about, and what knowledge do you need to tackle the question? Context this is the angle the examiner is asking you to take in your answer, and will influence the recommendations you make. For example, if a question asks you to devise a strategy for improving staff retention, you ll be expected to answer this differently from the perspective of a small business or a large global corporation, a retailer or a professional services firm. Command words the examiners use these to tell you what they expect you to do you need to be familiar with these words (see page 6 for more details). 5

7 Glossary of exam command words Analyse study, identify and describe the main characteristics in depth. Assess make a judgement on the strengths and weaknesses of the arguments for and against something. Comment state your views on something, supporting them with evidence and/or explanations. Compare emphasise similarities but don t forget to mention differences. Contrast emphasise the differences, but don t forget to mention the similarities. Criticise make a judgement about the merit of the statement. Be specific and give the results of your scrutiny. Describe outline the main features in an ordered way. Evaluate weigh up both sides and make a judgement. Check out the logistics Nearer the exam day, you need to check out the logistics. Where is the exam venue and how will you get there? You should receive confirmation of your allocated exam dates, times and centre 14 days before the exam. If you don t receive these details, contact our Exams Team immediately on Familiarise yourself with the location, and check the time and date. The last thing you want is to get lost, or turn up on the wrong day or at the wrong time. Check out the public transport or where the nearest parking is and give yourself plenty of time in hand. Cutting things too fine will only serve to increase your exam butterflies! Read the exam booklet issued with your enrolment form. This provides details of exam procedures and arrangements. You need to know the CIPD rules of conduct for exams. This booklet is also available online at 6

8 Your checklist Don t leave it to the last minute to organise what you need to take to the exam. You ll need: 3 your exam allocation letter and any other letters or forms you ve received about the exam 3 a valid means of identification that shows your signature and preferably a photograph, such as a passport, driving licence and/or credit card 3 pen, pencil, ruler and eraser. Calculators and dictionaries Calculators are only permitted for Managing Information for Competitive Advantage. You re not allowed to use a dictionary during any CIPD exam. In Managing Information for Competitive Advantage and Employment Law you re allowed to take: Managing Information for Competitive Advantage The standard formulae approved by your tutor, although the CIPD does provide standard formulae to all students in the exam. A silent, non-programmable pocket calculator.* Employment Law A clean, up-to-date copy of the employment law statutes. You must not add any notes to this book. Invigilators will check all books before you enter the exam. Textbooks are not permitted. Speak to your tutor for further guidance. The night before Try to avoid burning the midnight oil the night before the exam. Review your last-minute notes, relax and try to get a good night s sleep. * A programmable calculator is defined as one whereby, with a series of key shifts or operations, a statistic can be obtained without the data being applied to the standard equations. Scientific calculators may be used. Any calculator used must be able to handle large numbers. All major calculations for obtaining an answer using the standard formulae should be shown. Marks will be awarded for showing all major steps in the calculation of statistics using the standard formulae. 7

9 On exam day Nail those nerves! Everyone feels stress when it comes to exams. The adrenaline will help your performance as long as you don t let it escalate into full-blown stage fright. Leave yourself plenty of time. Avoid talking to others about the exam while waiting. Exam nerves are contagious. Use stress management techniques like breathing deeply to help you relax. The role of invigilators In each exam centre, there ll be two or more invigilators responsible to the centre/cipd for the conduct of the exams. Invigilators are instructed to give information to candidates (about time, materials and so on) to ensure the smooth running of the exam. They will not under any circumstances be authorised to accept notes or letters from candidates regarding illness, lateness, disturbance or any other such matter. If you have a problem during the exam, please write to our Exams Team at the CIPD. Your letter must be received within seven days of the exam. The exam paper You ll be given the whole question paper, including the case study, at the beginning of the exam. Check that you ve got the right question paper. Read it carefully for both the instructions and the questions themselves. If you ve got a query on either, ask straight away. During the ten minutes reading time, you re only allowed to make notes on the inside cover of your answer book. At the end of the ten minutes, the invigilator will advise you that you may now start answering questions. 8

10 Your answer script Use your candidate number Your ten-digit candidate number appears on your exam allocation letter. You should use this number (and not your CIPD membership number) on your exam answer booklet. You can answer the questions in any order. You must make a serious attempt to answer all questions. Do not write your name anywhere in your answer booklet. Choosing your questions Part of the art of exam technique lies in question selection. A straightforward topic but set in a challenging context may not be the best choice. Go through the paper and put a tick against all those you re confident about, a cross against those you re not and a question mark against the perhaps questions. Now add up your ticks. If you re lucky (and well prepared) there ll be enough to meet the examiner s requirements. If not, review your question marks. Choose the one(s) you feel happiest about, bearing in mind the context as well as the content of the question. Don t waste time choosing between questions you feel equally confident about mentally toss a coin and get started. There are differences of opinion about whether or not to start with your best question. If you do, take care not to end up spending more than the allocated time on it, but use your answer to build your own confidence and make a good impression on the examiner. Managing your time Time is your scarcest resource so manage it carefully. Give equal time to questions/sections that carry equal weight. Leave a space at the end of each answer in case you have time to go back. If you finish early, don t leave early. Use the time to check your answers against the requirements of the question. 9

11 Impressing the examiner Examiners are surprisingly easy to impress. They clearly state their expectations and their disappointments in their reports, so follow their advice to maximise your chances of passing. Remember, examiners are looking for reasons to award you marks. Plan your answer, establish the main points and list them, or use a mind map. Go back to this plan as you re answering to avoid omitting any important points. This technique will also add logic and structure to the development of your argument. Seize every opportunity to display your knowledge in the exam: by citing authors, sources, your own organisation, other organisations, case study scenarios, benchmark achievements elsewhere, and so forth. It s no good having the knowledge if you keep it to yourself. Structure your answers so that your material is easy to read and to follow. This means underlining subheadings to separate one part of your answer from the next (especially where a question has two or more sections) and differentiating clearly between your Introduction and your Conclusions. If the question calls for recommendations, make sure your answer includes some and make them as specific as possible, preferably accompanied by costings (the accuracy of the figures you produce won t be challenged. What s important is that you show some appreciation of the financial implications of your recommendations). Be business-like in other words, reflect the view that HR is there to make a contribution to strategic goals and objectives. It s not meant to operate as if it were a separate function. Your role is to help managers achieve their purposes, not impede them. You can promote best practice, but only if it s commercially justifiable. Write articulately and legibly. Presentation skills make a real difference. Tip Remind yourself about BACKUP, which represents the characteristics of success, described in Guide 4. 10

12 What happens next Once the exam s over, avoid post-mortems and try not to worry about the results, particularly if you ve got another paper to prepare for. Marking the exam papers While you relax, the examiners will be getting down to the hard task of marking. The CIPD operates a fair and equitable exam assessment process. Question papers are set by the relevant examiner and reviewed by a committee of examiners to ascertain the clarity and focus of questions set. The examiners prepare a marking scheme when setting the papers, which is used by all markers to assess answers. All marks are checked for arithmetical errors. Candidate numbers are used instead of names to ensure equality of treatment by examiners. Mitigating circumstances are taken into account by the examiners when marking papers. Borderline results are moderated at a committee of examiners before final results are communicated to candidates. All results issued are final. There is no appeal against the actual marks. If you want to appeal on the grounds of the way the exam procedures were managed, see Guide 9 or contact the Exams Team on About the marking Each section carries equal weighting. Each question within each section carries equal weighting. Marks are published in the following grades: D (Distinction, equivalent to 70% and above) M (Merit, equivalent to 60 69%) P (Pass, equivalent to 50 59%) MF (Marginal Fail, equivalent to 45 49%) F (Fail, equivalent to 44% and below). The papers of borderline students in the MF category, who have received over 50% in one section and over 40% in the other, are referred to the CIPD s Committee of Examiners, where a number of factors including their assignment mark(s) are taken into account and their papers reviewed. The final result is either P or MF. 11

13 You will fail an exam if: you fail to answer all the required questions and/or you achieve less than 40% in any section. Notification of results You ll be notified of your results by post by the date stated in the exam booklet issued with your enrolment form. You ll also be able to access your results online in the My Profile area of the CIPD website. Exam feedback The examiners provide comprehensive feedback in their examiners reports, which you can download free from our website at Individual feedback is also available for a fee. This identifies your main strengths and weaknesses by commenting on your performance in each section of the paper and on your script as a whole. Where possible, constructive and positive advice is also given for future improvement. Exam resits If you think you need help with a resit, you should contact your tutor. They ll give you advice based on their knowledge of your work during the course and, if necessary, they ll help you find out where to get revision tutoring. 12 Issued: September 2007 Reference: 4215 Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development 2007