Syllabus coverage in the CIPS Study Guides

Profex is of course a significant competitor of CIPS in the field of publishing (needless to say, our books are just much better!) Despite that, we won’t usually get involved in anything critical or confrontational. This first post, though, is an exception.

It is provoked by a comment on a Facebook Level 4 discussion group, in which someone signing in as ‘CIPS Africa’ states that the CIPS Study Guides are more closely aligned to the exam syllabus than the Profex Study Packs. This casual assertion is so very far from the truth that we could not let it pass unanswered.

But don’t take our word for it: for an impartial view on this, see these articles from the owner/director of a UK Centre of Excellence:

Buying a Study Guide? Caveat Emptor! (Part 1)

Buying a Study Guide? Caveat Emptor (Part 2)

We at Profex may not always get it right, but as you can see, we do at least make the effort!

CIPS should come clean on this:

  • Are the Study Guides a standalone exam aid, so we don’t have to read any other books and we can be sure that all exam questions are covered? That’s what Profex aim for, however imperfectly.
  • Or are the official guides not intended to cover all examinable topics?

CIPS students are professional procurement specialists and they are entitled to honest product information before they make their purchasing decisions.

 

Bookmark the permalink.

One Comment

  1. 100% agree on this. The CIPS text books are so un user friendly, I purchased Profex book for my L4M4 and thoroughly enjoyed reading and learning from the book as opposed to CIPS text book.

    Regarding exam questions, there were some duplicate questions ( yes, in the actual exam), some questions which were seemingly wrong English or copied and pasted wrongly. Disagree with the comment that the exam questions are closer to CIPS text book. I believe they have changed the syllabus but the exam question setters themselves have not necessarily gone through the new text books themselves.

    I am a PRINCE 2 practitioner and if I compare CIPS with other professional bodies, I am very disappointed.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *