Retaking the Management Information exam

Having discovered you were unsuccessful in your attempt at the Management Information exam you now need to think about what to do next. In this article we will attempt to give you some guidance as to how to turn that fail into a pass.

It is worth taking the time to think about what you did in your last attempt at the exam to try to improve the next time.

When you receive your results you will also receive a marks feedback within your online training file. This will show how you performed in the main syllabus areas. It can help you see if you need to revise a particular area of the syllabus in a little more detail?

Try to avoid these common mistakes:

• Lack of time-keeping especially with regards to the scenario-based question. Advice is to leave this until the end keeping at least 18 minutes spare to complete.
• It is easy to get stuck on a particularly tricky question. It may be that the next question is easier so flag the tricky question to come back to at the end and move on!
• Insufficient question practise could have caused a lack of understanding for certain requirements. Part of the lack of understanding can come from looking at the answers before doing the question themselves. As tempting as this is, it may have allowed you to learn but not understand the topic fully.

1. Your first step should be to book your exam. Be realistic about how much study you need to do but try not to leave too much time as you risk forgetting what you have learned. Once you have booked this you have a clear deadline to work towards.
2. Start off by remedying knowledge gaps in your weaker syllabus areas. Go back to your learning materials, work through the relevant chapters and attempt all questions.
3. Use the full exam resources available on the ICAEW website and go to your tutors and fellow student networks for support.
4. Move onto question practise. Try to complete all questions in your question bank starting off with your weaker syllabus areas. Attempt the question before reviewing the answer.
5. Complete the sample exams on the ICAEW website to allow you to work on time allocation and exam technique.