FLP 209. Preparing for Exam Resits. Support, Resources & Proficiency Guidance

Kevin: Hello. Thanks for listening to latest updated news about the Finance Leadership Program. It's produced by AICPA and SEMA together as the association of International Certified Professional Accountants. You can find out more at aicpa-cima.com and enrolled@uh ctma.org today we're going to talk about the subject of exam resets with Nishane Rusman, who works as part of the progression team in sema. I know it's a delicate subject for some students who don't like to talk about the reset and obviously the challenges around resetting an exam, but I think it's an important subject, particularly coming up to the February exam window, where some students unfortunately may just have missed the mark in terms of a pass in November and are resetting using the same case again in February. So, again, again, the time this is recorded was January 2026. We're talking generally about the resources that we have today, but, um, this point in time, I think it's important for students who maybe are considering a reset over the next few weeks. So, Nasheen, thanks for joining us again. Could you just remind listeners what you do at the association, please?

Nishane Rusman: Thank you. Kevin Kors so the, uh, study support team, um, they're my team and together we create resources and we run programmes throughout the year to support all of our candidate study journey. Ultimately, it's my aim to get our candidates through their study journey as smoothly

Kevin: as possible as part of that role. Uh, and team that you work in Nishin, these guys are always putting together really, really good resources that again, are available in the SEMA Study Hub and within the lms, within the Finance Leadership Program system itself. So could you tell us about what resources you have and what you offer as a tape to students?

Nishane Rusman: Yes, of course we do. Yeah. And there are so, so many things that we have to offer our students. So the thing is, uh, preparing for an exam, it's. It's such a challenging time. I know that from when I prepared for my exams. I remember it really well and, and it can be a really hard time to maintain your focus, but even to know what to allocate your focus on so that you're making the most of your time that you have. It can be really tricky, especially when you are juggling all the demands and challenges and commitments that every single person does juggle in the daily lives. So when it comes to resetting, this can be even harder. You've already prepared and sat this case study exam and now you've got to do it again. So there's A really big emotional side to this that needs to be addressed as well even before a student can even begin to start preparing for their next attempt. So with what we do, we do indeed have many ways of supporting candidates through a uh, successful and an unsuccessful exam attempt. But what we try to do is we try to take into consideration that every single student has a unique journey. We appreciate that and so we try to cater for all. So we have both structured support and um, flexible support based on everybody's varying needs. So for example Kevin, we have a RESIT guide, we call it Revitalize and it's more of a self study approach. But if some students would like a more structured approach, still flexible, but a little bit more structure and guidance to it, then we have a RESIT program as well. And uh, we run this RESIT program uh between when the results come out and the following sitting. And at any point if anybody wanted information on that program, it's on our website but, but also on the flp, um, platform. But also it does come out when the results come out as well. It comes within the email communications. But in addition to these we also have individual resources as well. And uh, our students I know will have looked at many of these. We can see that from the usage rates. Um, and these resources are what we recommend as part of these programmes and initiatives. Now one of them in particular is called the Proficiency Guide. And uh, I think that it'd be a good one to talk about today really.

Kevin: Kevin, just one thing you mentioned there Nishin, about the recent program, I just thought I'd interject, I'll answer this question. Is that a structured week by week program or series of webinars or what is that?

Nishane Rusman: So with the research program, um, we run it through our new community platform. So we've got a community platform where our students can come, can join, can learn and um, network with peers. So I mean studying can be really isolated for some of our students and this is a perfect space for everybody to come together like minded, same goal in mind. So we run it in a space where we get our students together. And within here my team and I offer some structure so we have guidance on the things that somebody who is resetting should be doing. We provide timely resources based on the weeks that are passing between the results coming out in the exam day. We have some live sessions as well. Within there they are really informal sessions giving students the opportunity to talk to us. I mentioned before it's an emotional time and sometimes it can be hard to voice that emotion. Um, in your daily life at work or even at home with your family and friends. Not everybody understands what you are experiencing in your study journey. Only you know. So we give everybody that opportunity to talk with us and then we offer support to be able to, um, move on, um, build some self awareness, build up that confidence and motivation and then resources to move forward and progress, um, and hopefully pass the next time a student attends the exam.

Kevin: So what about the proficiency guide? Tell us a little bit more about that please.

Nishane Rusman: So, yeah, so that's our uh, um, resit program that we run four times a year. The creation of this actually came off the back of social media. We'd seen so many comments from our students who received their case study results. And with their results they'll receive a report. Now this report will state the areas of proficiency that were tested within that exam. And next to each of these areas, this list, there'll be an arrow and the arrows will either be red or they'll be green. And these will indicate whether a, uh, candidate has demonstrated proficiency in that area in their answer script. And that's across the whole exam. Now on social media, uh, the comments from our students were they wanted to know how to then go on to improve their answer based on this proficiency measure that they'd seen in their report. It's such a challenge when you look at it from the point of view of somebody who's just done their examination, got their results, so they feel, I've got my result, I've been unsuccessful, okay, but now how do I improve my performance to turn my overall result into a pass in my next attempt? Where do I start? What do I do? So this particular guide, which is not a programme, it is just a guide and it's uh, something that all our students can access from our website. But what the proficiency guide does is, is it helps a student know how to improve their performance. So what we've done is we've taken real candidate scripts from a real exam sitting, we've included them in the resource so anybody who looks at it can see other real scripts that were submitted in an exam. And then what we've done is for each point made in these answers, we show how it's been marked. So the examiner's thought process has then been annotated onto these scripts. And then we've got some videos within this guide. Are they examiners talking over these scripts and um, showing how to increase and improve proficiency to turn those little red arrows into green ones which can ultimately lead to an overall pass. If somebody has been unsuccessful previously we've got one for each level. So obviously the exam is different, the pre scene is different for each level and uh, the scope of whose viewpoint you answer it from is different for each level. So we have one guide for each level. There's just so much to learn from them. You can see three different candidate answer scripts. One that received an overall fail mark, one that was marginal and one that's a pass. So it makes it really relatable to the user, uh, but also how better to learn than from seeing someone else's script. And um, in addition to that the guidance straight from the examiner of course. So um, it's helpful for candidates sitting for the first time but it's even more vital for those who are resitting because they've been there and they've done the exam and because of that they need really specific guidance on how to improve their answers. And the guide will definitely help with that.

Kevin: Yeah, I mean one of the most difficult things as a human being to do is to self critique your own ability. So the tendency for some people is when they get 78 instead of the pass mark of 80 for example is to say that must be a mistake. I need this remarked. It's only a natural response, you know, you think so there's the injustice of this but unfortunately these, you know, the examination process and the peer reviews, et cetera is quite, quite rigorous and uh, your results final essentially. So as you say, look at best of breed scripts for example and look at how ah, they have articulated their messages, how they've constructed the answers, how they've made it personal to the case, how they've embraced themselves on the role, how they've understood the application of the, the knowledge to this situation, which is key, which a lot of people struggle with because they've maybe been used to taking exams which is a demonstration of knowledge and rather than the application of the knowledge. So yeah, it's great to see other people's scripts because even if you don't remember how you articulated an answer, you'll probably appreciate what you did not do because you off practiced.

Nishane Rusman: Absolutely, absolutely. And um, I think seeing someone else's answer becomes more relatable because we do have the model answers available of course for students to access and have a look at. But the model answers can hold a lot of detail and um, sometimes when you look at a model answer students um, can think I'm never going to write that much in the exam. Whereas that answer, that model answer is covering lots of different things you could write about. So in order to pass that exam, you don't have to write all of it. So when you then see someone's real script where they have written, they have passed and the marker shows you, the examiner shows you. This is why and how we allocated marks to this paragraph. Look what this paragraph does and it does everything you mentioned there, Kevin, about the application and the linking and the adding value and all of that seen demonstrated from another candidate's point of view, another student's point of view makes a huge, big difference.

Kevin: Yeah. The other thing I wanted to ask you about and just highlight to the students is all the resources that we offer. So things like coaching, the one to one support, things that students may not be aware of, that your team offers, uh, that may be useful.

Nishane Rusman: Yeah, of course, yes, we have programs and we have individual resources and yes, we have coaching as well. So we run a program for those sitting the case study exam for the first time to support the eight weeks before the exam. We call it the CGMA Case Study Structured Success. And this year's programme will be the class of 26, but then it will be the class of 27 or class of 28, just depending on which year we are in. And we run it every year, twice a year. Uh, each of these programmes covers two sittings a year and the programme has been extremely successful in offering support during those crucial weeks in the build up to the examination. And today we have not had a student who hasn't found it helpful. And so this program is free, of course, and it's in addition to the learning that a student does on the FLP platform. So the technical knowledge and exam skills predominantly are coming from what they have on the FLP platform. But there are other support and other resources we can provide to help with other study challenges. So some people struggle with time management, some people struggle with motivation, some people struggle with certain skills and yes, they've got some support, but they need a bit more support or a bit more practice. Also, sometimes a student may not know what their challenge is. Uh, but the study journey could be quite challenging and we can help identify that by providing different resources that we know will help anyway. But also, uh, as you mentioned, we've got coaching, we've got um, our FLP one to one support service as well, where our students can book, uh, a meeting and speak with a coach and they can offer support and advice, um, or even if they just want to have a little bit of a chat. And I think sometimes just to put a bit of context to it, that can add A lot of value really. As I mentioned, we've got lots and lots of individual resources. They are all on the FLP platform. If you have a look at the study support section, they're broken down based on sort of challenges that you might be facing. But also we have a community as well now they go out in socials quite often and it's called Engage365 and um, there are a variety of communities actually we've got a case study one, we've got one for our resets, uh, we've got one for level learning coming soon. So these communities are geared towards all of our students working towards the same goal globally. Come join, share, learn, network with peers, network with us, get your questions answered from each other, learn from each other and aspire each other. So all of these make up a um, really good support function for our students. Um, we just need our students to come and ask and um, enjoy what we have for them.

Kevin: Really part of the battle is just to get that information out there that these things are available and get people to use them. So anyone that's not aware and listen to this, make sure you use these great resources. As Nishina said, there are links to everything. As an information is available on the study hub, it's also available within the learning management system in flp. So make sure you use these. These are, these are all free, they're all from sema. And let's be honest, your team and yourself had a tremendous amount of work into generating this high quality content. So this get people to use it. I know it's been used quite widely already but there must be someone that can benefit from this just the same. Posting and giving people the information of what's available. Obviously if you're uh, about to reset an exam, make sure you have a look at all this information. I think it'll be really useful for you. And obviously if you are about to set an exam, best of luck. Hopefully it goes well. Thank you Nishin for joining us today again and giving your contributions. Appreciate your taking the time out of your busy day.

Nishane Rusman: No, not at all. Thank you for having me.

Kevin: Obviously we'll have more in the show notes uh, that'll be available. Just click on the Episodes info icon on the podcast app as usual or your smartphone or tablet depending where you get your podcast from. For more information on FLP go to enrol.cgma.org or aicpa sema.com thanks for listening everyone. If you know a friend or colleague who would use this information, obviously feel free to share it with any networks or anyone you think could benefit from it. Sharing buttons are available on the app. That's it for now. We'll have, uh, another series, uh, of episodes coming up where we'll be actually talking to low students who've sat different exam levels and we'll talk about their experience. So that might be useful for our students as well, to hear verbatim what people have thought about and what they did in order to pass their exams. Okay, thanks again for listening everyone, and I wish you good day.

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