Back to blog

PM Examiner’s report June 17 - Section B

Richard Clarke

PM Examiner’s report June 17 - Section B

Section B tests students’ knowledge on a topic in more detail than section A

Section B consists of:

  • 3 scenarios with 5 questions each

  • Each question is worth 2 marks

  • Therefore, you can get 30 marks in Section B

The range of topics covered in the June 2017 examination was:

  1. Costing

  2.  Pricing

  3.  Risk

  4.  Cost-volume-profit (CVP) analysis

  5.  Learning curves

  6.  Variance analysis

  7.  Limiting factors

  8. Budgeting

Examiner's recommendations:

  • Read the requirement very carefully

    Any objective test question is ‘all or nothing’ – if you misread the requirement and get the answer incorrect you score zero for that question.

  • Graphs are still important!

    Although you won’t be asked to draw graphs any more, you can and will be asked to interpret them. 

    e.g. CVP graphs, linear programming graphs, decision trees etc.

  • Cover the whole syllabus

    It is essential to have a broad knowledge of the F5 Syllabus.

    If, for example, a section B case covering Risk comes up and you haven’t covered this in your studies, the 10 marks available are left to chance.

  • Apply knowledge of theories to the scenario

    Be able to apply your knowledge of theories/techniques to the scenario given