the cima student

CIMA have officially released the 2015 exam pass rates and they make for interesting reading. Below is a screenshot of the results for the Case Study and Objective tests.

The official comments from CIMA executive director Dr Noel Tagoe of the pass rates under the new 2015 syllabus were of a positive tone

“Our new exam system has now been live for a year, and we are seeing students feel increasingly comfortable with it, and increasingly confident in preparing for the more flexible, on-demand tests. As a result, pass rates are either remaining steady or are becoming higher, which is great news for our thousands of students looking to progress through their exams as fast as possible”

Dr Noel Tagoe – CIMA executive director of education

The CIMA 2015 Syllabus change was a massive shift in terms of how each subject is examined. It was especially tough for those students who were part way through their studies and had to adapt and decided to sit a case study in the first sitting.

Case Study Results

I feel particularly sorry for the students who sat the OCS in August as only 34% of them passed the exam, which makes me wonder what the reason was. Especially considering that 64% of the students passed in the previous sitting.

Was it simply a tough exam? Or where the questions too vague and difficult to understand the requirements?

In that respect, I consider myself somewhat fortunate to have sat the OCS in November when perhaps they took on board some of the criticisms or feedback from August.

Another interesting point here is how many people passed the MCS (Management Case Study) with the last three sittings getting a 62%, 77% and 78% pass rate. Even the Strategic students had a really healthy pass rate of 70%, 67%, 62% in the same period.

What this could tell us is the fact that by time you reach you the MCS and SCS level you will have the necessary skills and experience to apply yourself well. It’s an interesting thought as I would expect the OCS pass rates to be the highest.

Objective Tests

Personally, I’ve yet to sit an objective test under the 2015 syllabus so I was really interested to see how people get on during 2015.

However, there was nothing really surprising that stood out. The E1, E2 and E3 exams are generally well passed. But the difficulties usually come with trying to pass the Financial Reporting or Performance Management papers.

I am slightly concerned about the pass rate for the P2 and F2 papers – both of which I will tackling in the next six months – only 44% of students passed P2 first time while 47% of students managed to pass F2 first time. So that’s less than a 50% chance of passing my next exams first. <— this reinforces the fact I feel that I will need to work extra hard to pass these papers at the first attempt.

Nevertheless, there was some intriguing reaction on the CIMA group on LinkedIn <— well worth joining if you are not a member already.

The general consensus being that the available exam materials for the objective tests are quite poor and can contain mistakes.

Students are also questioning the amount of time they have to complete the objective tests. Although there was some praise for the BPP materials and CIMA Aptitude materials for the objective tests – so this is worth bearing in mind you are preparing for exam any time soon.

You can find the full list of CIMA 2015 Exam Pass Rates here.