Moving up to CIMA

Bookworm55

I'd like someone to check my calculations. I believe that, due to my degree and MAAT status, I am eligible for exemptions from all of CIMA's certificate level and two-thirds of its management level exams (P1, P2, P7, P8). This leaves me with only P4 and P5 to do to reach the end of that level. The question is whether it's worth me trying to do both of them together this autumn, both next spring (under the new syllabus) or P4 this autumn and P5 next spring. Either way, this is what I estimate it will cost:

(ps- all the costs are taken from CIMA's website and the BPP catalogue. They would be correct for courses taken this Autumn.)

Registration 58
Annual Subscription 87

Certificate level
(nb- I have exemptions from all five certificate papers)
(therefore only the exam/exemption fees are recorded)
Paper C01 Fundamentals of Management Accounting 41
Paper C02 Fundamentals of Financial Accounting 41
Paper C03 Fundamentals of Business Mathematics 41
Paper C04 Fundamentals of Business Economics 41
Paper C05 Fundamentals of Ethics, Corporate Governance and Business Law 41
Total for Certificate level 205

Managerial level (Operations & Managerial levels under 2010 Syllabus)
(nb- I have exemptions from four of the six Managerial papers)
(Only courses for P4/E1 and P5/E2 are included)
P1 Management Accounting Performance Evaluation 67
P2 Management Accounting Decision Management 67
P7 Financial Accounting and Tax Principles 67
P8 Financial Analysis 67
Total for exemptions from Managerial papers 268

P4 Organisational management and Information Systems/E1 Enterprise Operations
Tuition at BPP Cambridge 585
Revision at BPP Cambridge 435
Practice day at BPP Cambridge 210
Exam Entry fee 67
Total for unit P4/E1 1297

P5 Integrated Management/E1 Enterprise management Tuition at BPP Cambridge 585
Revision at BPP Cambridge 435
Practice day at BPP Cambridge 210
Exam Entry fee 67
Total for unit P4/E1 1297

Total to end of Managerial level 3212

Of course I don't actually have three thousand pounds lying around spare. But does that look about right?

NeilH

Hi

That does look about right.

If you wanted to trim the cost you might look at just doing the tuition courses, and doing your own revision structure. Another option, which I did for some of my CIMA papers, was to do home study initially and then followed it up with a revision course, the BPP revision courses are very thorough. I only did tuition AND revision for P9.

If I was in your position, I'd aim to do P4 and P5 this autumn and save myself sometime. However, it depends on what you want to initially commit to.

Neil

Bookworm55

If I was in your position, I'd aim to do P4 and P5 this autumn and save myself sometime. However, it depends on what you want to initially commit to.

I'm really not sure. If I do do anything this Autumn, the courses start in August. I've just finished a degree three weeks ago... I don't want to burn myself out by not taking a decent break.

I think I'll sit this exam session out and do P4/P5 (or E1/E2 as they'll be) in the new year.

Gives me plenty of time to apply for, receive and claim exemptions. I'm not sure if we're supposed to do two of the exams 'on top' of each other in the same session. (ie P1 & P2, P4 & P5) If I can do them both together I probably will in May- just have to be ultra-good with reading ahead etc.

NeilH

Bookworm55 wrote: »

I'm not sure if we're supposed to do two of the exams 'on top' of each other in the same session. (ie P1 & P2, P4 & P5)...

Hi

You can do the managerial stage (operational and managerial stage as it will be in the new structure) in any order you like, but CIMA recommend that they are done in order (I may have aslo read the suggestion of doing them combined, ie P4 and P5 in the same sitting). I actually passed P4 on a re-take which I took and passed with P5.

Neil

Bookworm55

You can do the managerial stage (operational and managerial stage as it will be in the new structure) in any order you like, but CIMA recommend that they are done in order

I'm not totally sure I understand what you're saying. Are you saying that its allowable, but not recommended, to do P4 and P5 together? I hope that's what you mean! Because (assuming I get all the exemptions), they will be the only managerial papers left.

It has occurred to me that if I do them both in their new syllabus forms, E1 would be the only operations paper I have to sit and E2 would be the only managerial paper I have to sit.

NeilH

Hi

Yes it is allowable, but CIMA recommend that papers are done in order as they build on each other, i.e. P5 builds on P4, P2 builds on P1.

The syllabus is cumulative, meaning that in any given exam a question may require you to recall or understand something learnt for a previous paper. So in a P5 exam you may have to recall something learnt on P4 and so on. Whilst this isnt really a major issue it is why CIMA recommend following papers in order. Since you plan on doing P4 and P5 together, this wouldnt be an issue.

Neil

Bookworm55

The syllabus is cumulative, meaning that in any given exam a question may require you to recall or understand something learnt for a previous paper.

I think I understand: the problem would be in trying to do P5 never having studied P4. I know I'm not very good at exams anyway, so I might take it slow and only do one per sitting. I'll pop along to the BPP Cambridge open day in a few weeks and have a chat witht the people there.

On a related note:
On a scale of 1-10, how reasonable would you think it to take all these exemptions and start describing myself as "CIMA part-qualified" to prospective employers?