CIMA May 2011 exams
Comments
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Yeah it is quite steep, especially as my whole long distance course was under £200! However, I'm getting no tuition with the course, and if the revision course is good I may use them for the whole of my next unit.0
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Odd that one day costs so much more.
I'm doing the distance course as well and I got a study planner that is not very well done, although it does help me to find out what parts of what chapter to focus on and which just to read quickly, but then has whole sections of the chapter not mentioned.
What really threw me on this course though, was that my study planner tells me I should spent 3 hours or so on a study section and I couldn't get it anywhere close to that time if I did the whole chapter and the suggested exam questions in it.
I now decided it's not me. I came to a point where it fits a 1 1/2 hour exam and 4 exam questions of just under an hour (their suggested times) in one study section of 3 hours.
So now I just created my own study planner and stick to that.0 -
I wasn't given anything like that, literally just sent the books and told I can only contact m tutor by email. When I email them I get a response a few days later when I've forgotten about the problem!
I have been planning my revision time and sticking too it, and today CIMA sent me a wall planner which will be helpful, sad I know!
I'm hoping the revision days will show me how to answer the questions, if I get any hand outs I'll happily share.0 -
My provider says everywhere in the planner that they would also send a separate letter with timetables, but I've never had that one. They also didn't provide me with my student number, which is very helpful if they won't let you send your practice exams in without it....
It took a few emails before I got any reply with the actual student number in it as well, which was slightly annoying, but got there and now just working my way through the books. Haven't really asked any study specific questions yet, so I don't know how fast or well they will answer to those questions.0 -
Who are you studying with, out of interest?0
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BPP.
They have a pretty good name, so when I wrote my motivations for work to get the funding, I only picked BPP and Kaplan as options. I also suggested class room courses, online classes and some other bits. Work figured to go with the cheapest of the options and I bought the Kaplan books for F1 separately.
Although I'm happy with the books and assume BPP will be a bit quicker in answering other questions, I can only email them to a generic email address, while I prefer to be able to call as well, but then again, I can't have everything and I'm quite happy that it came with the section breakdowns with what to focus on!
I didn't mean to sound so full of complaints as it did, I'm actually quite easily pleased and well, if getting a student number from their helpdesk is the only difficulty, I'm happy with that.
I just got the planner as well, trying to convince my boyfriend that it will go up the wall, but so far he doesn't seem very happy about it. I guess that's the problem with having the desk in the living room!0 -
You were moaning no more than me, lol! I'm suprised at the lack of tutor support for the long distance courses compared to AAT and the complexity of the course!
I've got my planner up on the wall, no one to moan at me, haha!0 -
Well, yesterday evening I send a small question to BPP regarding the TQM points from Deming and when I just checked my email I had an answer back.
3 Positive points on it, It actually answers my question, it has a proper explanation, which I can follow and it was timely enough for me to remember the question I asked.
Hurray!0 -
Can anyone recommend the i-pass CD Rom & the Success CD sold by BPP? I`ve been looking at additional study material and came across these but not much info is supplied about these. I need all the help i can get to pass P10
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I had a couple of the audio CD's, really very useful if you are having any trouble with sleeping.....
Seriously, they are quite handy if you have to drive to work it's suprising how much info you can still take in. I passed a couple of the managerials just using a bpp book and the CD so they must be pretty good.0 -
2 exams officially entered and paid for... argh!!!
Have decided I'm going to give it my best shot, if I pass then wahey.... if I fail I'm not going to continue... If I pass one and fail the other then god knows!! Lol!0 -
What exams did you sign up for, E1 and P1?
And would you give up CIMA in general or just the distance learning/ go at it yourself?
I got my first F1 practice exam back in the post yesterday and didn't score too bad, but they didn't explain why or where I lost my marks very clear, which is a bit of a shame!0 -
Yeah I'd give it up totally.. I'm 27 now and if I can't pass it first time I don't think I've got the time to try again, and I'm losing the motivation too after applying for hundreds of jobs in London and not getting anywhere!
I have entered P1 and E1... I don't even get mock exams to do! Have read both text books now so now going to start on the revision books, questions and practice exams.0 -
There are some practice exams on the website of CIMA. Although difficult to find.
Why would the 27 make the difference though? I'm 30 (31 on Saturday). I've seen some more comments from people saying that 30 is old to do the study, why is that?
I've stopped applying for jobs for a bit, still checking sites and such, but not really sending my CV out to anything. My job is officially still evolving, even though I think I know where it will get stuck, so just using it as a way to build up some more experience. My main problem is that they still haven't updated my job title or description as I am now ashamed to say my job title and it is very far from the actual work I do.
Anyways, rant over.
So why do you seem so demotivated all of a sudden? You seem to be doing great so far! Are you struggling with something specific or is it the general thought of having to study further?0 -
I'm in a good enough job at the moment so not worried too much about not moving to London which was my initial goal.
Even though I'm 27, I'd rather try and get the course finished by the time I'm 30 as I did a degree until I was 21, then had a few years out and now doing this and would like to have finished in time to have a family etc. I don't think 30 is too old to study, just depends on personal situations.
I was getting demotivated as I like my social life which I've had to cut back on a bit whilst doing this so think that if I put as much effort as I can in and still fail then I'm not prepared to put even more effort in to try again.. but who knows, maybe I'll suprise myself!0 -
That makes sense. I'm not planning on having a family or kids (I've got a cat and a boyfriend and that's enough for me).
I think the main thing is to keep a social life somewhere and to make sure study doesn't take over your full life! Depending on how much spare time you got and how much you got going it really will depend on how much you will study, so I don't blame you for limiting it and if you are, as you said, happy in the job, you lost a big chunk of motivation there if you were planning to move to London at first.
I do think (hope) you will surprise yourself though!0 -
Lol, I've got the cat, but not the boyfriend... which is why I need my full social life back to go find one, haha!!
The last weekend in May is what I'm looking forward to now
I still have lots of friends in London so not being able to move there is not a huge deal anymore as can go there often without having to pay the expenses! 0 -
I'm also looking forward to that weekend, but still need a lot done before I am ready. Still going slowly through the textbook of E1!
I would like a social life back, as I do think my relation at the moment is suffering a bit from both of us living together, but not spending a lot of time together. However that's partly because we're both studying and have different study habits, different hobbies and activities and well, if I would give up my study, I don't think it would change much, apart from maybe the Saturday afternoons.
We got a new young colleague at work at the moment. He is about 20 to 23 I think and everytime he walks into the marketing department the girls almost throw themselves on him in the hope of getting his attention... I can make some introductions if you really want to?
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Haha... thanks, I think Bournemouth is a little bit too far away tho, lol!
I've read through the E1 textbook bar the final chapter and found it quite confusing, didn't expect to be learning about marketing and economics! I'm liking the multiple choice parts to the questions though as some of it is common sense... couldn't beleive how small the book was in comparison to the P1, barely half the size!!0 -
Oh, when I did research into ACCA or CIMA, I made a big post why I preferred ACCA over CIMA, which included that I didn't really care about marketing or HR, but I changed my mind to study CIMA, as I couldn't see myself working in a practice at any time and I am actually quite happy at the moment to be learning about these things. It is quite interesting , but looking to the company I work for (manufacturing + retail) I can't see it being used in our accounts department.Haha... thanks, I think Bournemouth is a little bit too far away tho, lol!
I've read through the E1 textbook bar the final chapter and found it quite confusing, didn't expect to be learning about marketing and economics! I'm liking the multiple choice parts to the questions though as some of it is common sense... couldn't beleive how small the book was in comparison to the P1, barely half the size!!0 -
If I can chip in here....
I started with AAT in Jan 2006 (age 34). I qualified and got my MAAT in 2008 and then started CIMA in August of that year (age 36). I'm now working towards my three CIMA strategic Papers (E3,F3 and P3) for the May sitting. CIMA changes the way you think and approach business. 27 is NOT too old. You are NEVER too old to train and develop skills.
In terms of your study-life balance, you can do Managerial level at your own pace, you can easily do one paper at a time and take 3 years to complete it if you wish. (At Strategic level you must attempt all 3 papers in one sitting! but then you can resit individual papers if need be)
What I would say about CIMA is it trains you to be a strategic manager and to understand how organisations work at many levels. I've not used a calculator much in class over the last year and a half. A lot of E1 is around stuff like the Global Business Environment, HR, organisational structure. You'll get even more of this in E2 which is about basic strategy, project management, conflict resolution, etc. E3 I really enjoy as I have a great teacher - it involves case studies on real companies and looking at their strategy and what went wrong/right.
When I chose CIMA it was partly on the advice on my boss (himself ACMA) who pointed out that with this qualification I would have good management skills and could work pretty much anywhere in industry.
Ironically I'm now finding that what really interests me is good old fashioned bean-counting, and particularly tax - which RARELY features in CIMA at all. But never mind, I can count beans and maybe do a ATT paper in my spare time (if I ever have any again!)
Feel free to PM me if you want any more CIMA info.0 -
Thanks Chinless..
How hard actually are the exams? Also, what did you find was the best way to revise for them?
I've read through both books now but when I attempt questions I only get about 20% correct! Think I might start doing some practice papers, but refer back to my textbooks when I get stuck.0 -
The best summary of CIMA exams I heard was "Professional exams don't test you on what you know - they test you on what you don't know"
Most of the material in CIMA (with the odd exception!) isn't difficult to understand - there's just MASSES of it. The syllabuses are very wide. If you buy the Elsevier (ie CIMA official) texts, which are the "bible" for the entire scope of each paper, you'll see they are huge and packed full of text. There's tons to get to grips with, esp if you're doing more than one paper.
The absolute best way to revise is doing questions.
Go onto the CIMA site and print out all the past papers for your subject going back to 2005 (though bear in mind the syllabus change in 2010); put them in a folder sorted by date and just work through them solidly in the run up to the exam. DON'T do "question auditing" (where you read the answer first and think "oh, I would have known that"). Even if you have to leave the question to consult a text, do the question yourself the best you can, and use the solution to work on the areas you went wrong in.
P1 (AFAIR) is quite focussed on calculations (I remember it including variance analysis/ process costing/etc) so practice till you are fully confident on each type of thing; E1 is very wordy and about business theory etc - so "mind map" the theory and even spend some time googling and reading about stuff online if it's too boring from the text. A big help for me with P5 (now E2) was buying an alternative text (in a charity shop) that told the full story of all the various HR management theories (Taylor/ Herzberg etc) which made it (shock! horror!) Interesting!! EG part of E1 is Global Business so keep an eye on the FT/ BBC business news (the Bottom Line is a good program to hear from business directors in action)
Above all think about how the "theory" relates to the "real life" of the business in the question.
And plan your time. 1.8 minutes per mark - NO more.
ALL the best with it!!0 -
Thank you, that's very helpful.
I do have the Elsevier texts, which I hated at first but now am realising that they are pretty useful!
I'll print off past exams now and try one tonight.0 -
P1 - help
Hi,
Just started on P1 and I have come accross this calculation.
How do I solve it?
3 = 7 + 20 + X divided by 10.
How do I find x?
Ian0 -
Well.... 30/10 = 3, so wouldn't it be 3? 7 + 20 + 3 / 10 = 30
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I read that as just x divided by 10, in which case it would be - 240.
Depending on the rest of the question, that might or might not make sense.0 -
Yeah that could be right too... I haven't come across any equations like this yet
I only ordered my scientific calculator yesterday!0 -
Hi,
Just started on P1 and I have come accross this calculation.
How do I solve it?
3 = 7 + 20 + X divided by 10.
How do I find x?
Ian
Firstly do you mean:
1) 3 = (7 + 20 + X) /10
Or
2) 3 = (7 + 20) + (X/10)
Easiest way to solve any equation is to apply something to each side of the equation to make it simpler.
Assuming you're solving equation 1 above:
Multiply both sides of the equation by 10 to get:
30 = 7 + 20 + X
Take 27 (7 + 20) away from both sides:
30 - 27 = 7 + 20 + X - 27
So X = 3.
There's not a lot of maths in CIMA overall - but if you're not comfortable with solving basic equations, it will cost you time in the exam if you have to fiddle about - so now might be the time for some maths revision to give you more confidence in this area.
Esme: You'll need your scientific calculator in P2 where there are a few calculations involving powers; it's also useful for F3 (financial strategy). Other than that - I've hardly needed to use mine. But it always comes to the exams with me, as well as my large-button fast-punching speedy big beast that I got for £3 in Morrisons.
Make sure you don't get a calculator that has programmable functions/ can store text in its memory as these are disallowed by CIMA.
http://www.cimaglobal.com/PageFiles/360027612/Exam_Rules.pdf
Needless to say my Morrisons calculator aint that fancy!0 -
Chinless Wonder wrote: »You'll need your scientific calculator in P2
... I sat P2 before the Syllabus Change in 2010 of course.... they may well have shifted some stuff over to P1.0
