Paper combinations

CAUTION - THIS POST RELATES TO THE CIMA 2010 SYLLABUS, SO IS NO LONGER VALID


Anonymous wrote:

 

Hi David. I have passed my Operational level subjects on the exams I wrote in Nov 2012 & intend to start the Managerial level this month for May exams. I want to do 2 subjects (per semester) at a time and I am not sure which subjects I should start with and what I will do thereafter until I finish the strategic level.

 

This is an interesting question. Your comment doesn't make it clear whether you've now finished Operational Level, or just passed your first two exams. It doesn't really matter, though, as I'll explain...

 

Your situation is complicated (and your choices limited) by CIMA's rules about what exams you're allowed to sit, when. CIMA treats the Operational and Management Levels (6 exams) as a 'block', and allows tou to sit any combination of 1-6 exams in any order. However, CIMA won't allow you to start the Strategic Level until you've passed all of the Operational and Management Level papers. You're not allowed to sit a combination of Management and Strategic Level papers at the same exam sitting. Also, when you sit the Strategic Level for the first time you have to sit all three exams.

 

If we just look at the six Operational and Management Level papers, there are various combinations you could choose if you want to sit two exams at each exam sitting. Bear in mind that the papers are, to some extent, progressive - F1 leads into, and so on. It's not essential that you sit exams in sequence, though, as you could study for P1 and P2 at the same time, and sit the exams at the same exam sitting. I wouldn't, however, suggest that you sit exams out of sequence (for example, P2 before P1, etc.), as you might find you have a knowledge gap. Other than that, the choice is yours.

 

Some students combine papers according to their own strenghts (i.e. they attempt their 'best' ones first), while others try to combine a numerical (P or F) paper with a wordy (E) paper, just for variety. There's no best way - too much depends on your skills and preferences, and what you've already passed.

 

I hope that helps. If I haven't managed to deal with your specific situation just post a comment and I'll try to help you more.

 

 

Good luck!

Well, the guru is back home after yet another great World tour. Thanks to everyone I met in all those interesting places, and good luck this week in your exams. Let me know what you thought...

The guru on tour again

Well, it's time for another World tour. The guru will be in:

Kiev, Ukraine (21-24 September)
Bucharest, Romania (27-29 September)
Cape Town, SA (6-9 October)
Johannesburg, SA (10-14 October)
Moscow, Russia (19 Oct - 3 Nov)
Bucharest, Romania (5-7 November)

There will be CIMA exam techniques events in each location, so contact your local CIMA office for details...

Prioritisation in the Case Study (T4B)

CAUTION - THIS POST RELATES TO THE CIMA 2010 SYLLABUS, SO IS NO LONGER VALID


Summit wrote:

Hi David,

We identify & prioritise from the unseen and then start evaluating the issues and so on.

My question is the issues would be Financial/Non Financials, regarding Financials we would be able to prioritise them only once we have calculated the NPV and other relevant calculation . So do we do the calculations first and then prioritise the main issues or do we prioritise based on the unseen information and then do the calculations to be used in judgement/discussion?

Thanks
Summit

The main ways of prioritising issues are, according to CIMA, urgency (timescale) and impact.  Quite often there are clear indications of the urgency of an issue in the unseen, such as 'this project begins in 6 weeks', or 'we have a meeting next week'.

You are correct in your assumption that, in order to determine the financial impact of an issue, it may be necessary to perform a calculation. For other issues, it may simply be a matter of identifying a figure from the unseen.

I would therefore suggest that any calculations relating to the issues (rather than the options to resolve those issues) should be performed before deciding on prioritisation.

Study resources for CMGA/CPGA

CAUTION - THIS POST RELATES TO THE CIMA 2010 SYLLABUS, SO IS NO LONGER VALID


Anonymous wrote:

Hi Sir, I am wondering what should I buy that can give me lots of questions to prepare for the masters gateway program as practicing is the key to me? BPP and CIMA study etc all have limited practice questions. Please guide me. Regards.

There's no need to buy anything - start with the free stuff that CIMA has made available. You can get access to all of the past Gateway exams through cimaglobal.com, and the answers and post-exam guides by logging into MyCIMA, so that is a start, but I guess that most of those questions are in the BPP/Kaplan/CIMA material? You might also look for suitable questions from the past E2/P2/F2 exams? CIMA has made this easier for you, by providing tables showing which past exam questions cover which Learning Outcomes. You should, of course, concentrate on the types of question (and the Learning Outcomes) that are examined in the Gateway exam. Here's the link to the table for E2. I hope that helps.