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PREPARING TO PASS PAPER E1 ENTERPRISE OPERATIONS

Introduction

Lord Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell exhorted several generations of young people to “be prepared”. Adopting a similar mantra this article introduces CIMA’s E1 Enterprise Operations paper by explaining something of the underlying approach and thinking and advises on preparation for the exam through understanding the paper, its content, how it is marked and what it takes to succeed.

About the paper

Enterprise Operations is an operational level paper that forms the cornerstone of CIMA’s Enterprise pillar and represents the basis for further study at E2 and E3 level. The title of the paper Enterprise Operations deserves brief consideration. For those familiar with the academic study of entrepreneurship and enterprise the content of this paper may seem curious. That is because the word enterprise is used here as an alternative term to organisation or business entity.

Acknowledging that the finance function is dealt with elsewhere, the majority of this paper looks at other functional areas of business, (specifically information systems, operations, marketing and managing human capital). In the same way that most general management and business programmes (such as an MBA) might give a broad coverage to these areas in order to gain a perspective of the organisation as a whole, this paper deals with relevant tools and techniques and major developments in these functional areas. (This follows a similar orientation to the predecessor paper P4 Organisational Management and Information Systems). In addition, a brand new dimension to the paper is the Global Business Environment: which involves an introduction to the economic, social and political context of international business.

The differences and similarities between E1 and the predecessor paper are summarised in Table 1 below.

Table 1 Summarised coverage of old and new papers

| |Old syllabus |New Syllabus |Comment |

| |P4 OMIS |E1 | |

| |% |% | |

|Operations Management |20 |20 |Broadly similar content |

|Marketing |20 |20 |Broadly similar content |

|Managing Human Capital |30 |20 |Broadly similar content |

|Information Systems |20 |20 |A new orientation away from the “nuts and bolts” |

| | | |of IS & IT to managing systems & technology |

| | | |including the application of web 2.0 |

|The Global Business Environment | |20 |Brand new material |

|Managing Change |10 | |Subject matter now tested as part of E3 |

About the examination

The rubric of the examination is more onerous that the predecessor paper for two reasons; all questions are now compulsory, there are fewer short response questions.

In common with other papers, a three hour written examination is involved. The exam format represents something of a progression from pure knowledge through to understanding and higher level requirements, as described below.

• The first section (Section A) might involve 10 conventional multiple choice sub questions worth 2 marks each (note 1). The basis upon which these sub questions are set is that only one option represents a correct answer. Here candidates either know the answer or can make an educated guess. Although worth 20% of the marks available the time taken over these questions will not absorb 20% of the time available, meaning that time will available for more productive use on the higher scoring questions which require a fuller response.

• Section B (which is worth 30%) requires responses in “bite sized chunks” with 6 sub questions each valued at 5 marks each (note 2).

• Most marks are available in Section C (50%) and the time devoted to this by candidates should reflect its importance. Short scenarios will be involved and the format could be a single question but most likely will be two questions each worth 25 marks. The question requirements probably will consist of two or three manageable sub questions (maybe two sub questions worth 10 marks and one sub question worth 5 marks).

About marking and examining

In terms of the difficulty of the questions asked, CIMA’s Learning Objectives range from lower level Knowledge (level 1) through to the more demanding Evaluation (level 5). For this paper generally the verb requirement will not be beyond level 3, with many at levels I and 2 (Knowledge and Comprehension).

The weightings of the syllabus are reflected in every examination diet, specifically, 20% of the marks on every paper can largely be attributed to each of the five syllabus areas.

The learning outcomes and indicative syllabus content are established and published by CIMA. In order to understand what in detail this might mean, the most obvious starting point is CIMA’s Learning System. This is in effect the Senior Examiner’s interpretation of the syllabus, an interpretation which will also be translated in the content of exam questions.

In the run up to the exam candidates are bound to ponder what they should revise. The answer is straightforward: everything! For a candidate to neglect one aspect of the syllabus would be an extremely high risk strategy particularly as all questions are compulsory.

One policy aim is to test all syllabus learning outcomes. This paper has 38 component learning outcomes and although it may be impossible to test them all in a single exam care is taken to ensure that they are all tested to some degree in as few examination diets as possible.

A second question students might ask is “how much should I write?”. The answer is as much as is possible in 180 minutes! If only “headlines”, bullet points or sketchy half sentences are offered then opportunities for full marks are being denied. The more that is written the greater chance there is pick up marks. The marking scheme is positive and candidates will not be penalised for anything that is written, (however misguided!)

Handwriting varies but as a general rule 5 mark questions or sub questions should attract nothing less than ¾ page of narrative and 10 mark sub questions should involve more than two pages of written responses.

Preparing for the exam

Although familiarity with the subject material is necessary, equally important is the need to practice past examination questions under the same time constraints and other conditions (e.g. a quiet room). Only once students have made a written attempt should they refer to the Examiner’s Answers for comparison. When consulting these answers it is important to bear in mind that these are not meant to be model answers. They are written in a fuller way to aid teaching, study and revision and are more comprehensive than would be expected from a well-prepared candidate.

Apart from CIMA’s Learning System and other study aids, occasional articles for “study notes” in the Financial Management magazine offer more detail on key topics. Practical examples, incidents, situations and events identified from working experience or topical news items are also worth noting during the period of study. If such examples are used in purposefully in the exam they could attract a few additional marks and would illustrate a deeper understanding of the subject concepts.

Successful candidates invariably display three attributes:

• detailed knowledge and understanding of the subject matter,

• an ability to apply this knowledge and understanding to the requirements of the question scenario,

• good examination technique.

Taught courses and published literature concentrate on the first of these attributes. It might be helpful to consider in a little more detail the others in the remainder of this article.

Applying subject knowledge and understanding

Candidates should use whatever they know to best effect when addressing questions irrespective of where this knowledge was acquired, and should not be tempted to “pigeonhole” their knowledge or understanding. Management is an integrative activity that does not easily fall into neat, discrete compartments. Just because a technique (like the PESTLE framework) was taught in one part of the syllabus does not mean that it cannot be used when dealing with a question from another syllabus area. Similarly, learning from study outside the module might help address a question more fully. Some students are studying E1 alongside paper E2 Enterprise Management. These students can benefit from a rounded understanding of both study areas when addressing questions in the exam room.

When faced with questions in Section B rather than responding with elegant narrative it is acceptable for candidates to use bullet points, headings, labelled diagrams and tables,etc. so long as brief detail expands a little on each point made.

It is worth saying something about question scenarios which feature prominently in Section C of the paper. Scenarios are not for “padding” a question or irrelevant detail meant to confuse. Scenarios are used in order that the subject matter can be contextualised to organisational life. Candidate responses should reflect this in their answers. Responses containing pure theory will result in only limited marks being gained. What is important is that the theory is understood and applied and this should be reflected in the answers to set questions.

If knowledge gaps are exposed, some candidates attempt to compensate by adopting an “everything I know about…” approach to their answers. Markers call this “brain dumping” and it is unproductive in terms of attracting marks. A better approach for someone struggling for inspiration is to apply basic commonsense to the question requirements by “putting themselves” into the scenario and realistically asking questions like “what would I do in practice if I were this person?” or “what would I do if I worked for this organisation?”, etc.

Exercising good examination technique

It is frustrating when candidates fail to address the question’s requirements as printed and instead answer the question they think is being asked (or the question they wished was asked). Candidates should spend time breaking down and analysing the precise requirements of the questions posed. At the back of the exam paper there will be a list of verbs used in the question requirements and definitions of each. This table might help in decoding what the question is asking and what sort of response might be given.

Every candidate should have thought about an examination strategy well before the day of the exam. It is little use sitting the exam with a head full of facts without deciding beforehand how the available time is going to be spent. Candidates should also be familiar with the type of questions, their weightings and how much time is planned to be spent on each one.

An additional issue is how best to use the 20 minutes reading time before the examination begins to best effect. This time allows candidates to read the question paper and make annotations on it (but not in the answer book). It is important that this time is not wasted and several options are available. Some candidates might, for example, answer the questions in Section A and start to read and make notes on the requirements for section B. Once the 20 minutes has elapsed section A responses can be transferred to the answer book freeing up 36 minutes time (20% x 180 hours). Another approach might involve a candidate concentrating on section C by highlighting key words and phrases in scenarios that need addressing in an answer and making notes on the question requirements and answer points might be generated by using a mind map. Relevant models, techniques or other mnemonic devices could be noted for use when completing the answer. Time should also be available to start to make an answer plan.

Major examination gaffes include running out of time and not doing every part of every question and/or not spending enough time on Section C. Based on past experience candidates are likely to score heavily in terms of Sections A and B but performance is likely to be much weaker under Section C through writing too little, presumably because insufficient time has been spent on these questions. The more that is written, the more points that are made and consequently the chance of picking up marks are enhanced. As time is an issue candidates should decide beforehand how the 3 hours available will be used. Table 2 provides one example.

Table 2 Example of a way of deciding how time should be spent in the exam

| | | |Time available |Time I will |

| | | | |allow myself |

|Section |Likely exam format |% |(minutes) | |

| | | | |(minutes) |

|A |2 marks x 10 sub questions |20 |36 |10 |

|B |5 marks x 6 sub questions |30 |54 |60 |

| |(9 minutes x 6) | | | |

|C | Question 3 (25%) |25 |45 |50 |

|C |Question 4 (25%) |25 |45 |50 |

| |Contingency | | |10 |

| | | |180 |180 |

A final word

Hopefully this article from the Senior Examiner’s perspective and experience will assist both students and tutors, particularly when preparing for the examination. The information here should help when determining learning and teaching approaches to what is an interesting and relevant study module.

References

Perry, B. (2009) Paper E1 Enterprise Operations CIMA Official Learning System. CIMA/Elsevier

Notes

Note 1. Potentially four mark sub questions and a short scenario may be included. This is unlikely for the first few examination diets at least.

Note 2. A short scenario may be given to which some or all questions relate.

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