The Wisdom Way….
Wisdom Business Academy - the specialist in CIMA education sets the stage for the final hurdle of the CIMA Syllabus - TOPCIMA. It is like no other exam faced at previous levels, as it demands a whole new approach in order to pass. It provides an integrated test of syllabus content that is mainly included within the three strategic level papers and six managerial level papers. As such, it requires students to deal with material in a less structured situation that they had encountered at former levels and does integrate a variety of tools in arriving at a recommended solution.

Direction by Masters at TOPCIMA….
Known for its challenging professional ardour, TOPCIMA remains still, by far the ultimate test of professional competence and entails thorough professional insight and contextualisation. As an error-proof methodology in preparation for it, Wisdom presents two of its popular lecture personalities - Channa Gunawardana and Tharindu Ameresekere. "Tackling the subject with the direction and guidance of individuals with the proper qualifications and industry insight ensures success at it", explains Chinthaka Wijayararatne, Operations Manager of the Wisdom Business Academy. "This time around we are extremely excited about the collaboration of our two lecturers on TOPCIMA. Both of them have been appointed to take up this subject because of their proven records in delivering passes and also for the fact that they are regarded as the best in their field," he enthused. He also elaborated that the change in the assessment of TOPCIMA entails a greater requirement to convince the examiner that the thinking lines of a management professional has been achieved and these two lecturers are certain to deliver the success recipe to the TOPCIMA batch this time.

TOPCIMA approach - The easy way….
Channa Gunawardana will take on the subject of Risk & Control and outline the requirement of the Assessment Matrix. A double accountant by profession, he will draw upon his reserves of experience and industry insight as well as his 14 years of lecturing experience in guiding candidates as to how to analyse the pre-seen case study. "Many things happen in the real world scenario," he commented. "There are constantly pressing issues on an operational level at any organisation but what students are expected to demonstrate is to write a report to the Board of Directors of the simulated setting, identifying the five most critical issues for that organisation during the exam", he reiterated.

Tharindu Ameresekere, with experience in both management consulting and IT disciplines will cover the areas of industry analysis, report writing, practical application of Business models and keywords to watch out for. "Sri Lankan students, although cleaver at financials are extremely poor in expression skills", he observes. "Those that possess a flair for writing manage a pass somehow, even if they are rather weak in financials but the opposite is most definitely not true. I will be also focusing on report writing and English so that students will be able to present their answers to successfully communicate with the examiner", he added. Ameresekere also contends that students ought to face the case with the mentality of a management consultant and that their priority is to steer their thinking patterns along those lines.

Both lecturers cautioned that the changing syllabus is not about including all 10 factors of the Assessment Matrix to every answer, but now concentrates judgment on how to apply what factor, within the context of the case. Practical knowledge therefore is the foundation for success, they asserted. Both the lecturers will be conducting Mock exams during the session where a one-to-one review will be given to students with improvement suggestions.

TOPCIMA Lecturer Profiles
Channa Gunawardane has been invited to conduct the TOPCIMA (P10) and Risk & Control Strategy (P03) Revision programme for November 2009 by CIMA Hong Kong division and he was the lecturer for Risk & Control Strategy (P03) Revision programme at CIMA Sri Lanka division as well as CIMA Hong Kong division for May 2009 session. He is a part-time lecturer for MBA programme at PIM. An Ex-Country Manager for Ernst & Young - Maldives, he is at present the Chief Financial Officer for the Woven Cluster Hirdaramani Group. With his wide experience and knowledge he can provide a great mixture of theory and application for TOPCIMA.

Tharindu Ameresekere continues to prove his mettle in coaching students for CIMA, as he completes five years of lecturing. A Research Analyst by profession at a U.S. based strategy consulting firm, he brings in the experience of handling case studies for CMA and Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka. His finesse as a lecturer was further highlighted when he trained students to analyse a case over a period of two and a half months, as preparation for 'Wisdom Business Star' where they presented their report to a panel comprising top industry experts.

Student forum
As previously, a student forum will be open through the Wisdom website where students can post in their questions during the course of their preparation. For those that prefer to meet with the lecturers separately to clear out doubts, they may do so is by prior appointment.

Background
Wisdom Business Academy is an accredited CIMA (UK) Learning Quality Partner with an ISO 9001:2000 accreditation. Wisdom is the Largest CIMA institute operating in Sri Lanka and the Second Largest CIMA Institute in the world. It was founded in 2002 on the principle of grooming tomorrow's management accountants with financial expertise and strategic ability to take them closer towards career goals and success. In its focus to function as the breeding ground of employable management accountants, the Wisdom Business Academy is confident that the TOPCIMA programme this session will make a huge change in the CIMA history.