CGMA Management Level Case Study Exam Study Aids

Learn more about the CGMA Management Level Exam

Management Case Study

The focus of Management level is on the medium term and monitoring and implementation of strategy. In the Management/Gateway Case Study exam, your role will be that of a Finance Manager.

The Case Study exam is essentially a virtual business role play. Therefore, students need to understand their role within the case study exam in order to produce a good answer, demonstrating knowledge and applying skills from across the syllabus.

The table below provides an overview of the role students are expected to take on at Management and Gateway Case Study exam, who they will be seeking to influence and examples of the syllabus area they may be tested upon.

Who are you?

At Management/Gateway level, your role will be that of a Finance Manager.

Equivalent job titles in a real organisation might be:

  • Management Accountant
  • Financial Controller
  • Financial Analyst
  • Head of Finance

What is the main focus of your role?

View this PDF for more information on your role in the Management Case Study Exam

Overall focus

Medium term and monitoring and implementation of strategy

You may be involved in:

  • Analysing cost information and advising on product investment decisions
  • Assessing/advising on risk
  • Pricing decisions
  • Performance measurement.
     

You will need to understand

  • The regulatory environment in depth
  • The business environment
  • Performance measures and improvement
  • Change management
  • Options for long term finance. 
Who is your audience/who are you seeking to influence? Your manager (Senior Finance Manager), Financial Director, colleagues within the finance department plus other senior business managers – may be non-financial.
Examples of topic areas and tasks you may be asked to look at in the exam (based on Variant 1 of the Nov 2015 Management Case Study exam)

Your role

You are a Financial Manager in ABC Solutions; ABC is an IT service provider founded in 1996 by 3 friends. The company is in Kayland, an industrialised country in northern Europe with an advanced economy and a sophisticated infrastructure. During the exam you will need to demonstrate:

Technical skills

Conduct value chain analysis

Analyse the impact on Return on Capital Employed, including a discussion on how ROCE could be affected in different years by gains or losses on disposal)

Business skills

Identify the economic substance of a contract

People skills

Evaluate the performance of a departmental head

Leadership skills

Explain the challenges associated with managing business relationships
Competency weightings for your exam

Competency Weighting is the basis of distribution of marks from various sections in the exam. You will have to obtain minimum threshold marks (approximately 1/3) for each competency along with a scaled score of 80 to pass the exam.

Technical skills - 39%

Business skills - 24%

People skills - 21%

Leadership skills - 16%

Note: you will also get a grade for 'Integration'. You can earn up to 6 marks, or points, for integration.

Look at the following materials to understand how the Management Level CGMA exam works:

Information on Pearson Vue Test Centers