Aim of the syllabus

Paper E3 continues the integration of skills across functions, but concentrates on developing the knowledge and skills used in designing and implementing strategy.

Strategy is developed in a context. Understanding how an organisation's external environment and stakeholders affect strategy development is important.

This paper requires application of tools to assist in the evaluation of the performance implications of a given strategy.

Topics covered

• Interacting with the competitive environment (20%)
• Change management (20%)
• Evaluation of strategic options (30%)
• Implementation of strategic plans (30%).

• Exam date: 22nd May 2012
• Exam entry dates: find out more
• Exam duration: 3 hours, plus 20 minutes of pre-exam reading time.

The E3 exam is divided in to 2 sections.

Section A 50 marks: a maximum of four compulsory questions, totalling 50 marks all relating to a pre-seen case study and new unseen case material provided in the exam.

Section B 50 marks: two questions from a choice of three, each worth 25 marks. Short scenarios will be given, to which some or all questions relate.

The pre-seen material in section A is common to all three of the strategic level papers at each exam sitting and will be published online six weeks before the exam.

All three strategic exams must be sat together at your first attempt.

The required pass mark is 50%.

• Students who have passed the Gateway Assessment will be exempt from the Certificate, Operational and Management levels and can move directly to the Strategic level
• Other students must have passed the Operational and Management levels before proceeding to the Strategic level
• The three strategic papers are all linked by a single fictional company case study; based on pre-seen material released prior to the exam and further material released in the exam.
• Underpinning knowledge from E1 and E2 will be used in this paper.

Find out more about exemptions.