Exam Essay Writing Skills

It’s CIPS exam week and, once again, we are excited to support all our learners through the final preparations for their ‘big’ day! This year we have introduced an additional “CIPS Exam Essay Writing Skills” workshop to support first-time CIPS students with the skills and techniques to write great essay answers during their Constructed Response (CR) exams.

Writing essays requires a special skill. It’s rarely required in business and many of us haven’t had to write a full blown essay since school or college days. So, it is hardly surprising that many learners struggle to get the same level of exam mark with these longer and more open-ended assessments.

Given this, Cordie is now offering an intensive 3-hour essay writing skills workshop to all of our learners. If you are one of our apprentices, this is already written and embedded as a core element of our curriculum free of charge. However, as of the May 2024 exams, we will be widening these out to any of our CIPS study centre open programme students who are also looking for additional essay writing guidance.

What’s included?

  • A review of typical CIPS Level 4 exam question styles

  • Guidelines and indicators of what and how much to write

  • Common pitfalls

  • Taking a CIPS Examiner’s perspective on marking

  • Critical success factors

  • How to create a winning essay structure

  • Optional homework and individualised tutor feedback.

These workshops will be held four times a year in the lead-up to the CIPS CR exam week and facilitated by one of our specialist lead tutors with extensive experience working directly with the CIPS assessment team in an examiner capacity. We will give you the “inside track” on how CIPS examiners work and the things they look for. Our workshop is also complemented with a 1-hour “CR Exam Techniques” eLearning module.


Many people think passing exams is just about learning and regurgitating technical content, but this isn’t true. There is no substitute for good exam technique. Over the years, I have seen many CIPS students lift their average marks by as much as +20% just by applying best practice exam technique. There is a knack to writing exam essays and we will help you to unlock these secrets to success!
— Ian Thompson FCIPS, Director, Cordie Ltd

For anyone who is daunted by the prospect of a 3-hour essay-based exam, we strongly recommend you consider signing up to join one of these workshops! You can book online via our virtual study centre page here: