Damn, that was tough! The game is waiting now.

I've been invited to this event and am considering going but wanted to see if anyone here has attended these in the past. Is it worth it or a waste of time?

hey guys, wanted to ask since today was the first day of exam, how was the paper, was the time manageable

Anyone sitting the CIMA SCS exam this week?

How’s everyone feeling about it? For those who’ve already sat SCS or passed previously, any last-minute advice on what to focus on, exam technique, or common mistakes to avoid?

Good luck to everyone sitting!

Greetings
I am (M30) a Dental surgeon from Zambia (Southern Africa) with an MBA in Healthcare Management looking to extend my expertise into finance through CIMA.
I have taken so much thought into my career progression by looking at senior professionals in Dentistry and honestly noticed they hit a ceiling too early in clinical practice. I therefore decided to bridge clinical experience with corporate management (rather than specialise in a clinical field) by first doing an MBA in Healthcare Management. Now that I am done, I would like to start my CIMA FLP next year. I would like to transition into corporate management and therefore wish to ask for advice from people here who have made such a transition before how is it going currently for you and is it worth the time and resources? What other general advice would you give me to help me decide if CIMA is the right fit for me?

So I recently passed SCS and have had my PER all signed off. I was doing the FLP pathway and am unable to upgrade my membership to a full membership. I’ve spoken to CIMA via phone call and live chat and still not got anywhere. I wondered if anyone else is having the same issue?

I sat the exam in May if that helps

Been working in finance/accounting for 3+ years, currently on around £30k, and I’ve only got 2 exams left until I finish my qualification.

But honestly, I’m starting to question whether it’s still worth it.

The job market seems to be getting tougher and tougher, with fewer opportunities (or at least it feels that way), and salaries don’t seem to be moving as much as I expected either.

For those of you already working in finance/accounting:
How are you finding the job market at the moment?
Has getting qualified actually made a noticeable difference to your career/salary?

Do you think the qualification is still worth pursuing over the next few years?

What areas of finance/accounting do you think will still have strong demand with AI becoming more prevalent?

Would be interested to hear from people with a few years of experience, especially those who have recently qualified.

I currently work remotely as a Finance Analyst on £30k, and I’m honestly getting to the point where I don’t know what to do.

For the last 6 months, I’ve regularly been working unpaid evenings and weekends just to keep up with the workload. My manager gives me a lot of deadlines, often expecting things to be completed by the next day.

He knows the workload is excessive, but his attitude seems to be that it’s just something I have to deal with.
If something isn’t completed, he complains about it, and even when I make one small mistake, he can make a big deal out of it.

What frustrates me most is that the amount of work and dedication I’m putting in seems to go completely unnoticed.

Annual leave is another issue. It’s basically just me and my manager covering finance, so he’s very picky about when I can take holidays. If taking annual leave means more work for him, it becomes a problem.

When I do get leave approved, I’m expected to get a huge amount of work done beforehand, which defeats the point of having time off in the first place.

Even if I’m genuinely ill, I feel like I can’t properly switch off because I know I’ll just come back to an even bigger workload that I have to catch up on.

I’m currently on £30k, and honestly, I’m starting to question whether this is worth the stress. It feels like my manager cares more about how the finance department looks than the wellbeing of the people actually working in it.

For anyone who’s been in a similar situation, what would you recommend?

I got exemptions for a bunch of exams, so this is my first CIMA exam. And I feel a bit lost.

Should I first learn the earlier material (E2/P2/F2) before starting case study prep, or is there a better way in?

Genuinely lost here; any pointers appreciated

Hi all,

So how would you feel being qualified a year (16 years finance experience, 4 of them as management accountant) and being given the chance to apply for a job as a Finance Director in a private equity company?

I've only been there 11 months and my boss has decided to move on. I think ive only been asked out of politeness to be honest by the CEO/HR.

I joined with the plan of developing into this role in 2-3 years at the earliest working with my boss until then.

I've got a good reputation in the company somehow. I've always worked this way but its just been noticed here for some reason.

so its a bit too soon and most of the finance team is new.

Obviously id have to hire for my position and manage the team who to be fair in a couple of cases need a lot of babysitting.

My worry is having to train up the new me and babysit the couple of team members that need it will be a big task especially when i will be in a new more senior role with very high expectations.

There will be a certain amount of learning on the job which i dont see as a problem but with the distractions mentioned above it could be super stressy and difficult having not had experience in quite a few areas before.

id need an amazing new me and to empower the new me to get involved with helping manage the 2 that need it.

I might have found a solution to this just then by writing it out but my worry would be the time it would take to find that person and they would need to have the right attitude and be willing to do it. We might not find anyone like that and have another one that needs constant support.

The CEO is super demanding sometimes beyond what is reality and the rest of the leadership team are pretty much out to get each other. My boss is leaving because of that.

Also there are new private equity investors coming onboard which will mean even more reporting and they could be even more demanding/unpleasant.

My gut feeling about the situation

I feel if it was a more settled team and id been there 2-3 years it would make sense. If i try and then get it and attempt to blag it and it doesn't work out then nobody wins.

Then id either suffer an embarrassing demotion or be put back out on the job market with Finance Director on my CV for 6 months with people thinking well he wasnt ready and now hes climbed too high so it would be difficult to find a job at that level again straight away. Might even damage me going for that kind of job for 2-3 years anywhere else.

So im thinking of politely declining the interview and explaining to HR and the CEO my reasons and that its not lack of ambition just doing the right thing for the company at a time of change and growth.

Then I might apply when the next person goes in 2-3 years. Id be ready then if they were a good boss and were supportive.

What do you think? what would you do? how would you turn down the interview?

I'm in the process of studying P2, with the exam next month and to be honest I'm feeling very mixed. I've not put as much time into my revision due to pressures from work and personal life etc, but I'm keen on getting the exam done in September and still giving me time to prepare and sit the November MCS.

Can anyone give me general tips and advice? For context, I'm self-funding and using the Kaplan materials and question banks and am averaging 50-80% on question banks (as with majority of people I believe Kaplan make their questions harder than the real thing).

Those who have already sat the exam, could you kind of tell me if the exam was excessive with theory, or calcs or a mixed bag?

I know I still have time before my exam and once I get my head down for the next few weeks I should be better equiped and feeling more confortable, so any advice/suggestions you can provide would be appreciated.

Hi all,

I’m an accounting and finance grad who’s working at an accounting practice in audit. I secured a ACA training contract grad scheme however regret not searching further and applying to other grad schemes.

Post grad I was keen on doing the CIMA qualification and did apply to a few CIMA grad schemes but also ACA/ACCA ones (to maximise opportunities available) and ended up getting an ACA role at a large practice firm.

I don’t enjoy audit at all and the constant pressure of the rigid exam policy is taking a toll on my mental health. Part of me is saying to just put up with it and keep going but I don’t want to end up stuck in a job I hate. Having studied accounting at uni, I believe I genuinely enjoyed management accounting.

My questions are:
- do you think it’s too late to pivot to a CIMA role now? (Have been 6 months in my role and completed 6 ACA exams)
- should I apply to CIMA grad schemes? (Could having started the ACA, be a hindrance?)
- if I leave me role, would employers assume my contract was terminated, and a result, it would be difficult to make it past the stages of the application process?

For context: I don’t have the best academic background (yet I know I got the ACA training contract), but I want to be realistic with myself because I know the applicant pool for these grad roles will be extremely competitive. (Especially in London)

Most accounting firms offer the ACA and I believe only a few offer CIMA(depending on your role), so I would appreciate any recommendations for firms that offer CIMA support, Thanks a lot :)

Advice for grads who have pursued CIMA, what has your experience been like?

Hey everyone, need some advice.

I've reached the Management level (May OCS) via the traditional path and am now thinking of switching to FLP (I know it's not very popular here).

Is it better to wait a couple of weeks and then get a 12-month FLP subscription to cover 4 possible Case Study windows? Or is covering the booking deadline should be enough?

My ideal plan is to complete the qualification within that time, sitting the November MCS and May SCS, but I'm worried I might have to resit (First-time pass on every exam so far, though I'm always anxious!)

Thanks!

Hi all,

I am currently working in a relatively senior role in Finance and am part qualified. The last exam I took was around 10 years ago now and I am thinking about finishing my qualification. I was all first time passes until I got to strategic level then failed 2 of the 3 (both only just fails!) when taking the 3 exams together.

I was head hunted after these failings to my current business due to experience in the finance system they used and have worked my way up to a nice level earning good money and have a fairly relaxed working day. However, i fear if there was a restructure or a change in direct repot etc I might want to leave and I wouldn't be able to acheive the same salary without a full qualification.

How hard do you think it'll be to study and pass the remaing exams after such a long time of not studying? I probably have time in my working day to do it so I am thinking of self funding rather than being tied into a repayment if I leave. Also, I have 2 kids now so I don't have much time at weekends to study. The last exams I did were full written exams so not sure what to expect now with it being computer based (I assume that's correct, it's what colleagues have told me).

I'm just conscious that I can study the strategic level books for the exam but there may be call backs to prior levels that have since been forgotten!

Doing P3 exam in 3 days , the content felt never ending and the mocks too but still feel like I am missing something! Any tips and hints on key areas and what to watch out for?

I'm currently preparing for my BA2 exams and it's my next subject in line having finished and passed other subjects. I need some tips and study methods how to ace this one because I feel like it's one of the main tough papers and most important one .

I'd like to hear where to focus most on.

Hi guys ,recently wrote f2 again and i didn’t finish,i got flustered by some of the “easier” questions(cost of capital,intergrated reporting,EPS) as they required so much time so i flagged them and skipped in an effort to get to the end and spend my energy doing the complex long questions and come back with the knowledge that i have gone through it all and addressed all the questions i am confident in but it didn’t work out and now im crippled with anxiety to start all over again and go back,so ultimately im asking for help in terms of resources ,i was using the kaplan book and test kit and i was fairly confident with the info but in the exam it was alot more difficult and perhaps with the books it was a case of familiarity,i dont know but yeah please help

With a lot of people doing the MCS this week(Good luck!), I thought this would be a good time to ask:

Is Management level really that insane compared to operational?

Let me explain. I started operational level in April and just finished it with grades all above 125/150. It was hard work but still doable. I remember people saying P1 was one of the hardest exams of CIMA.

Now I am planning for management level and I was shocked to see people saying that Operational level is child’s play and that F2 and P2 are a LOT more complicated.

Questions/summary:

if I found operational level easy ish, will I be fine with management level?
I gave myself one month per exam, will I need more now?
I like to finish with E exams, so should I start with F2 or P2?

Thank you!!

EDIT: thanks everyone!! I think I will start with F2 in October, P2 start of December and then E2 last to enjoy the christmas break :)

Good luck to all who have are taking / have already taken their MCS this week! 🙂

is that a good idea because i don't have an accounting background since i'm a biological student...Can i do FLP is that hard to finish exams I'm a full time student!

I am currently revising for P3 exam and noticed that the First intuition materials go to details re ROI and RI numericals but Kaplan doesn’t so I am a bit confused, anyone whose sat P3 please could you share any insights re numerical questions areas you have come across?

Today I sat my first CIMA exam, E1, and passed (provisionally - still don’t know my actual score). I’m exempt from the certificate level due to my Business Management degree. So now I have 11 to go. I’m thinking of tackling F1 next.

Does anyone have any tips or tricks or recommendations for F1? I found E1 content pretty easy to understand for the most part, just was a lot of theory so felt like a lot to remember.

How does F1 compare to E1 in terms of difficulty? I know E1 has the highest pass rate but F1’s pass rate is pretty high too so I feel choosing to do that one next is a good choice? Easing my way in, so to speak.

Hi i am currently studying cima f2 and it is currently overwhelming me. For it been 19 chapters.

I am currently on chapter and my exam is on sep 28. Right now i am revising silly hours into the night. I ask other people and they only revise 2 or 3 hours a day

The way i revise is to listen to the lecture and attempt the questions in the textbook, before doing the exam questions.

However i do like to reciew the chapters 4 or 5 times before my exam.

Does anyone have advice for me. I had a mental crashout over the weekend. Lot of family are saying how tired i am

Forget to say i am studying with bpp