Exam tips for students taking digital marketing exams

 Some practical tips based on 10+ years of marking exams

I was first involved in setting and marking exams in digital marketing around 2000 for the pioneers taking the Chartered Institute of Marketing E-marketing certificate or award as it was known then. Since then I have marked many exams and assignments and a few years ago I posted this note on my personal blog in response to requests.

Recently, I have had some more requests for tips on taking exams although I'm no longer directly involved with marking since I'm focusing on developing resources for Smart Insights with our team of writers.

You will see that these tips are based on obvious, but nonetheless common failings in approach, it's natural that a logical approach will "go out of the window" under exam pressure, but hopefully these tips may enable you to have some "grace under pressure".

Exam time management

Let's start with a common and relatively easily remedied problem... It is common for students to drop a grade or even fail since they haven't balanced their time between all questions, so one or more is significantly weaker than the others.

Do plan your answer. In a 3 hour exam like the IDM Diploma it's well worth spending 5 minutes on this per question. Use the notes area if you wish to identify 5 or 6 areas to focus your answer. Don't just "braindump" since your main points may not be credited since you haven't emphasised them well.

So:

• Don't over-write on your best answer
• Do remember all questions carry equal marks (in the IDM exams)
• 2 good and 1 unanswered which is not so good will give you a poorer mark than 3 fairly good (in the IDM exams which have 3 questions)
• Don't repeat the question or background on company
• Be efficient in your answer - don't waffle - don't repeat - focus on the questions asked - ask yourself "will I get a mark for this sentence / paragraph against the criteria suggested by question"?

Answering the question

Think about how you check your answer covers what the examiner is looking for.

Ask yourself:

• What are the main requirements of the question? Underline what you are asked to do, e.g. give advantages and disadvantages, review best practices, create a model, identify metrics.
• What is the scope of the question? For example, is it about general digital media, search engine marketing, SEO or PPC - or one aspect of this. Ring the keywords indicating the scope on the paper. Don't go beyond the scope since marks generally won't be available for this.
• Does it apply to a particular type of company or level of issue - strategic or tactical.

Consider this example from 2005:

"Describe the process you think the management team of a newspaper group should use to review the impact of digital media on their business and to develop a digital marketing strategy. Define and explain the different stages you think they should use and indicate key issues for this industry in each stage. Where relevant to the stage of the process, you should refer to examples of emerging digital technologies and digital marketing techniques which are appropriate to this sector".

"Describe the process you think the management team of a newspaper group should use to review the impact of digital media on their business and to develop a digital marketing strategy. Define and explain the different stages you think they should use and indicate key issues for this industry in each stage. Where relevant to the stage of the process, you should refer to examples of emerging digital technologies and digital marketing techniques which are appropriate to this sector".

Formatting and style

My advice is to treat your exam rather like copywriting for an email marketing campaign or direct mail piece where the emphasis is on key messages to communicate!

Examiners will read all your answer, but it helps if you prove the emphasis of your answer and give a clear narrative flow and logic through.

So, you need to highlight your structure and main points. Of course, other examiners of other topics and particularly non-professional exams may well prefer a more narrative style.

Use these techniques in your exam answer:

• Using subheadings to highlight how your answers is structured
• Use formatting  to underline and limited caps e.g. At start of bulleted lists to highlight key points
• Use lists (ordered and unordered) to make your key points not simply a bullet list of 2 or 3 words  but expand on these with a sentence or two
• Increase clarity of handwriting (as examiner I endeavour to read every word, but I would say that for 1 in 10 exam papers this is impossible)
• Avoid colloquialisms and generalisations which sound unprofessional e.g."online, every competitor is a click away" is one I have read recently. A bit lame, I think you'll agree.

Showcasing your knowledge

Your mark will be better if you give a clear, well-structured answer which shows a step-by-step approach to problem solving. You need to substantiate your knowledge through these techniques:

• Show you have a clear framework for your answer
• Use references to specific concepts covered on course or in text books, for example briefly define concepts "Inbound marketing", "Content marketing", "Growth hacking", etc.
• Use frameworks (tables or step-by-step approaches) for developing strategy or identifying appropriate metrics. These can be based on ones from the course or an amalgamation of these. Ask yourself the question “how does my answer differ from someone who hasn't done the course?
• To show your knowledge reference recent similar campaigns or company examples
• Avoid generic answers and be more specific on your recommendations. For examples if asked to describe the principles of SEO don't try to fit each factor into a long sentence listing the factors, whereas it would be best to expand into a bulleted list giving a little explanation on each
• Relate individual answers to specific types of industries or companies where these are referenced in the questions, i.e. again make answers less generic.
• Define assumptions clearly - particularly for budgeting calculation pages where you have made them of if you don't understand question.

Using frameworks in exams

This is a question I was asked recently:

"In an internet marketing strategy plan that uses SOSTAC, would you suggest we should use both the eight decision framework and the 7Ps?"

I thought this was worth repeating here since students answering exam and assignment questions can get carried away in both exams and assignments

Generally speaking, with frameworks exam markers will be flexible.

• You will get credited for using frameworks which show the engagement with course and topic
• Make sure you select a relevant framework
• More than one framework can be good if you blend/combine frameworks
• Don't let the framework(s) get in the way of the answer - it is quite common that students will spend too much time covering every element of the framework even if only some parts are relevant to the question - so don't feel you have to cover them all - state which parts you think are relevant.

Disclaimer: This exam advice is personal to my approach to marking. Although I have previously acted as an examiner of digital marketing exam papers for the Chartered Institute of Marketing and Institute of Direct Marketing I am no longer involved in these roles.

Use these recommendations as a checklist to ask your tutor or examiner of how to tackle the exams you will sit.

Image credit: The Guardian