We recently asked a group of our CIPS Level 5 students what they thought were the keys to success when sitting an online CIPS “Objective Response” multiple-choice exam. Here are six top tips from what they recommended.
Tip 1: Lip synch when reading the exam question
Errol says: “The question stems can be long, often 3 or 4 sentences each, and so it easy to end up skim-reading or missing out clues and critical information embedded in the question. The recommendation to “lip synch” while reading each question is similar to reading a question out aloud silently. This simple act (while feeling a bit strange) will help you to read more slowly and not skip over key content. It allows your brain to process the information more carefully, despite exam pressures, and so you end up understanding the question better.”
Tip 2: Don’t over-think or overprocess any of the questions
Alice says: “Don’t get hung up on the way some of the questions are worded. Some of them have clearly been through a committee and are unnecessarily complicated. Avoid over-thinking your answer by instinctively going for the answer that feels right first time. You can always come back to a question later on. If you over-think then you can end up wasting a lot of time unnecessarily - and this can have other detrimental effects like inducing anxiety or uncertainty.”
Tip 3: Eliminate wrong answers and avoid absolutes
Morgan says: “The first thing you need to do with any question is to eliminate the answers that are obviously wrong. This immediately whittles out at least a couple of potential answers and makes your life easier. Look out for words such as ‘always’ or ‘never’. These words are absolute and it’s worth thinking through whether the answer is always or never that way. It’s rare that an answer is always or never, and so I tend to treat these responses with suspicion.”
Tip 4: Go for the “most right” answer
Becky says: “Many of the CIPS questions have potential answers that are written in similar and potentially misleading ways. Sometimes you are left with none of the answers seeming to be correct, while other times you think that two or three of the answers are correct. In these situations, there is no point hunting for the absolute perfect answer. It’s unlikely CIPS has written this into the exam question or else the correct answer would be too obvious. So, go for the answer that appears to be the “most right” or least more correct than any of the others. This trick always always works for me.”
Tip 5: Use the flag system
Carisha says: “Make the use of the tools within the exam platform. There is a flagging tool that allows you to place a red cursor flag on any question that you wish to highlight to yourself. It works just like flagging an email in your inbox and it’s not seen by CIPS once you submit your answers. You can then flag any question that you want to come back to at the end of the exam. I use it for any questions I’m unsure about. It’s often the case that the same subject-matter is tested in another question later on in the exam and so this allows me to go back and have a second look at anything I’ve flagged.”
Tip 6: Swap out the names in the question
Charlotte says: “I tend to get confused with the names of fictitious people and organisations in some of the questions. It makes it hard for me to understand the context of the question. So to overcome this, I swap out the names and insert people and organisations that I know. I often use my own suppliers or other employers I’ve worked for. As soon as I do this, the question seems less overwhelming and a lot easier to understand. I can judge for myself what the right answer is for a situation that I understand.”
We hope you’ve found this article useful. We are always sharing new ideas and advice to all our CIPS learners, especially during our classes. If you would like to know more about what we offer for our CIPS teaching and/or our apprenticeship programmes then do please get in touch using the Contact Form at the bottom of this page.