Printed: 29 July 2010 at 15:38:11

Past Delegates' Experience

Hi, I am Shafaq Sadiq and I come from Pakistan. A few years ago, I decided to embark on the next stage of my education and do the CIM's Postgraduate Diploma in Marketing via distance learning. Choosing a study centre is the most important decision to make when you are a long distance away so I spent my whole energy delving into the information I gathered about study centres. Cambridge Marketing College (CMC) proved to be my best option. It was a most uplifting experience in terms of excellent tutor support whenever you need it, professional study materials, and the valuable online webinars as if you are physically in the classroom. This combination is fundamental for a distance learning student. I was also greatly benefited by going through past exam papers again through the very useful online resource of CMC.

After the culmination of one and a half years of hard work I completed my Postgraduate Diploma, and I never had a dull moment in my marketing role at Johnson & Johnson, Pakistan. The concepts I learned from my course were all so real I could apply them straightaway to my actual work. I developed good analytical skills which helped me to contribute to the development of marketing strategies, channel and pricing options and most important of all I developed the ability to be able to think about new growth platforms for any business that I may work for.
The Postgraduate Diploma in Marketing also plays an important role if you are looking to improve your qualifications and this fact is validated by the fact that it not only helps you to fulfil the entry requirements to get into a masters degree programme but also to be able to cope with the intensity of the course. I am starting my MBA this year and the professional focus and approach that I have developed through my Diploma is going to help me a lot.

I was very nervous about finding a photo that showed my enthusiasm, optimism and ambitious nature!! And you can see I failed.

Hi I'm Lois Barrett and I work full time as a Marketing Advisor for the Learning and Skills Council.  I'm currently studying for the Professional Diploma in Marketing.

I joined the LSC in April 2007 and quickly found that working for an organisation that inspires individuals to develop their skills made me think about my own personal development.  Although I've had several years experience in marketing I don't hold any marketing qualifications.  Whilst attending university as a teenager wasn't the right choice for me at the time, I've always wanted to achieve a degree level qualification.

As I'm working full time and have several interests outside work, I knew it would be difficult to attend evening classes at college, so distance learning has proved the perfect solution for me as I can fit my studies around my other commitments.  The studying does involve quite a bit of juggling of time, priorities and social activities, however I have found that through undertaking the assignments I've completed so far, I've really got a much deeper insight into Marketing & Communications at my organisation which has meant I've already benefited in my job role.  My employer has backed me 100% since my initial enquires about enrolling on the course and has said it is desirable for employees in my area of work to hold a CIM qualification.

I'm pleased to say Cambridge Marketing College is very helpful and supportive and has been able to address any concerns I've had along the way.  As soon as I received my college pack I contacted the Course Director to introduce myself and I found the advice she gave me was invaluable.  As a result I put together a study plan so that I would be disciplined in my approach to the course.  If possible I would suggest you allow yourself a couple of months per module to complete the assignments as I found that some of the practical research I had to do took quite a bit of time.  I built into my study plan a couple of 'extra' weeks which were really useful as they gave me time to take a step back from the assignments and go away and really think about anything additional I felt should be included.

The learning materials the College produce are of excellent quality - which I'm sure contributes to their high pass rate - and I know my tutors are only a phone call/email away. I have received a good level of feedback on my work and the staff have always been helpful and prompt in their responses. Unfortunately I've not been able to attend any of the weekend sessions that the College hold and I think these would have been very useful as I have found at times that I would have appreciated the opportunity to discuss best practice with other delegates.   The College website does provide a delegates' forum which I think is a good initiative.

I've read a wide-range of material in addition to the books provided by the College and I would particularly recommend any book that Philip Kotler has contributed to.  Some of the books are quite expensive so I've used my local library and I've also noticed that you can pick up many second-hand books on Amazon and Ebay - several are sold by former CIM students who comment on the usefulness of the products.
 
Distance learning does require lots of discipline, determination and organisation, but if this is the route you choose you cannot be in better hands than with Cambridge Marketing College.

After sourcing CMC as the right college for me and deciding to be a distance learner, I was very impressed with the amount, usefulness and professionalism of the study material. The first thing I did was to pick up the phone to the Marketing Fundamentals tutor. I found this support invaluable. Knowing that someone was on hand to help me organise my time and workload was very re-assuring as a distance learner - a really good balance was struck between being given space to study as I wished and having guidance where needed.

I organised the order of my modules based on my tutor's advice and then worked out a study plan - oh, the joy of using coloured pens and making a beautiful plan!!! I worked out how many weeks I had from the date I started studying to the date of my revision classes and divided the number of chapters I needed to have studied by the number of weeks so that I knew what my weekly targets were in order to stay on track. This method meant that I ended up with about 4 clear weeks to revise and practise exam questions - and if I could give one piece of advice, it would be to make sure that you have at least 4 weeks if you are sitting 2 exams - any less is not enough!!
      
I used the Study GuideS CMC provided and they were excellent. Some of my friends were distance learners with other colleges and the material CMC provided was head and shoulders above the rest. I cross referenced areas that I struggled with or needed examples for with the text books and the website.

The most valuable thing for me was practising exam questions. I would say to any delegate: don't panic if you look at the questions for the first time and feel that you don't know where to start. I did that the first time I read every set of questions and in the end I have come out with 5 As and 1B so far. Practice really does make perfect and in my experience making sure you spend enough time in this area is one thing that can make a big difference to your grades.