If you’ve registered to study CIMA but are not sure which path to take next, don’t worry. Help is at hand. In this article, Martin Taylor, chief executive of BPP business school, offers some practical guidance to help you to make the right study choices.
After the excitement of signing up to study for a qualification that will open many doors in your career, you may have panicked. ‘What have I let myself in for, and how do I tackle the programme?’
However, there’s no need to be daunted by the prospect of committing to the course, even while in employment. Follow the guidance below to ensure you hit the ground running in the certificate in business accounting.
Completing the certificate
Best completed in a series, one paper at a time, it’s important that you set yourself a clear timetable for passing the certificate. As you can set the exam dates yourself it’s tempting to keep postponing. Before you know it, you are taking twice as long as necessary to complete the level.
Aim for completion within six to nine months, allowing six to eight weeks for each paper. You should dedicate six to eight hours' study time per week. This may not sound much, but combined with work and life, it soon mounts up. Allocate weekly study slots and stick to a study plan.
Work out your study method and use any support available. The more help you make use of, the more success you’ll have. Avoid taking time off after completing a paper – it breaks your study habits and makes it harder to restart.
Decide on the order you wish to complete the papers. My recommended order is C05, C02, C03, C01 and finally C04.*
Start with a confidence builder, a paper that holds no secrets: C05 (fundamentals of ethics, corporate governance and business law). This helps you to establish a study pattern and process, and has a straightforward exam format.
C02 (fundamentals of financial accounting) is the best paper to take next, in order to ease you into world of financial accounting. Follow this by C03 (fundamentals of business mathematics). Follow guidance and practise lots of questions for this latter paper.
It’s ideal to complete C03 before C01 and C04 as it makes sure your maths skills are up to scratch before you need them for those papers.
C01 (fundamentals of management accounting) should follow C03 as it builds quite closely on the maths concepts, which just leaves C04 (fundamentals of business economics) to complete.
If you fail a paper, don’t despair. Assess what went wrong. Perhaps it was a topic for which you weren’t prepared enough, or maybe you had a bad day. Regroup, practise questions and book another exam for one to two weeks' time. Don’t wait any longer or you’ll start to forget what you’ve learnt.
Best of luck!
*Please note, there are a number of alternative routes through the CBA qualification. While this is the preferred route for BPP, CIMA is not prescriptive about the order in which papers may be taken. You may find alternative combinations will work better for you.
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Certificate in business accounting