ADVANCED

PERFORMANCE
MANAGEMENT
Cheat Sheet
 APM – Cheat Sheet

Advanced Performance Management

______________________________

Key study techniques to passing your AFM exam:

● Plan your study - make sure you have a detailed study plan and stick to it
● Study regularly - 60-90 a day for 5 days is much better than one long day
● Practice questions - build the knowledge and practice relevant questions as you go
● Complete a mock exam - don’t let the first time you attempt the exam be the day of
your exam - no 2 subjects are the same
● Examiner reports and articles - vital information and guaranteed marks available if
you take the advice on offer

Exam Tips for passing the exam

Critical Assumed Knowledge

Despite spending a lot of time working through APM questions and solutions, if you are
struggling with the basic concepts of Performance Management you will not pass your exam
- no matter how well you think your study is going.

We have identified the major topics from PM that you need to have a good understanding of
and suggested suitable accompanying questions:
- Decision Making Techniques (Heat Co.);
- Divisional Performance Assessment (Brace Co.)
- Ratio Analysis (Jungle Co.).

You have access to every subject as part of your subscription, so spend some time
practicing each of these questions to test your basic understanding. Compare your answer
to our tutor answers and see how you got on – you should target getting at least 70%
correct. If you get above 70% for each topic, you will have gained some valuable revision on
the APM basics and that will make a massive difference in your exam. If your marks are
below 70% then you have identified a major weakness in APM, making you very unlikely to
pass. So, spend a bit more time looking at the videos that accompany the questions above
where the lecturer will explain the solution and the topic.

Planning

The exam is all compulsory questions, therefore planning is vital. From a planning
perspective, I would recommend splitting the requirements into smaller sections, especially
for question 1. Read the question carefully. Take your time in thinking about an approach
and solution. If you start writing too quickly you will miss key points and marks. And
remember, answer the question asked.
 APM – Cheat Sheet

Layout and Structure (incl. professional marks)

The best way to structure your answer to earn professional marks is to assume the role of
the character in the scenario and replicate the deliverable in your answer (i.e if the questions
requires you to prepare briefing notes, this should be the format of your answer). Planning
will enable you to produce logical, well thought out and organised answers that hits all the
key points. It is important to avoid repeating yourself and duplicating prior answers. Your
answer should be concise with value adding statements, and you should not waste time on
lengthy general introductions and conclusions. Also be mindful to try put points in separate
paragraphs so they don’t get lost in a long commentary.

Technical Knowledge

You need to cover the whole syllabus, but make sure you have a strong grasp of the
following topics which are the key areas of the syllabus - and often feature within questions
in the following sections:
● Section A: Examines parts A (strategic planning and control), C (performance
management information systems and developments in technology) and D (strategic
performance measurement) of the syllabus.
● Section B: Includes one question examining part E of the syllabus (performance
evaluation and corporate failure) and another question which can be on any area of
the syllabus.

The examiner is looking for you to be able to define the technical terms to show your
understanding, so you have to have a strong grasp of the different terms and models.

Application to the scenario (incl. Recommendations and conclusions)

The expectation at this stage is synthesis and evaluation. Knowledge will only get you 20-
30% of the marks. To pass APM it is all about application and evaluation. Make sure you are
applying a solution to the scenario. A good way of doing this is you need to ask yourself ‘so
what’ throughout the exam. There is nearly always a reason for something included in the
scenario, you need to discover what it is. Providing evidence and examples will allow the
examiner to see the justification you have for your conclusions. Linking your answers to the
scenario and appendices provided back up the reasons why you made a suggestion or used
a certain calculation increases the reasons why the examiner will give you extra marks.

Time management

APM is a 3-hour 15-min exam with all compulsory questions. Planning and time
management is vital so allocate the first 15 minutes to this without starting to write an exam
answer. This leaves 3 hours (or 180 minutes) for the remainder of the exam, as such you
should allow 1.8 minutes per mark for all questions you attempt (i.e. if completing a 10-mark
question, you should spend 18 minutes). Be strict with your time and don’t allow a negative
impact on one question by spending too long on another.
 APM – Cheat Sheet

Learnsignal resources available to improve exam technique

Here are some resources available for learnsignal members to help you improve your exam
technique:

Tutor Exam Report Debriefs:

Watch our tutor review of the most recent examiner report, which highlights the common
mistakes of students in the last sitting. If you can avoid these, you'll have a much higher
chance of passing your exam.

Study & Exam Support Webinars:

You can attend our weekly study webinar every Friday leading right up to the exam week,
where we provide guidance for your study and answer any questions you have. The webinar
also serves as a forum for students to talk and offer advice to each other. We also run
individual subject webinars with each of our subject tutors during our Webinar Week,
allowing you face to face time to ask technical questions and get feedback on the required
exam approach.

5 Minutes to Pass videos:

Watch our 5-minute to pass video which covers the key topics and required exam approach
for the subject. This video provides concise guidance you should follow to ensure you get
over 50% in the exam.

Exam Bootcamp

It’s never too late to try our Exam Bootcamp, which is a 21 day program for each subject
leading up to exam week, providing you daily with a topic to study, an exam standard
question, a time limit to complete this in, and our tutor solution. This allows you to cover a
large range of exam standard questions to perfect your exam technique before the real
thing.