the cima student

Studying CIMA, especially the further you progress, is becoming tougher and tougher in these modern times.

Juggling a full time job, family demands and trying to have a life yourself outside on the daily grind means it’s even harder to squeeze in time to study CIMA.

I should know, it feels like I have been studying P2 for a life time now, in fact I had it on hold for a few months due to other commitments at home, but I am trying to get back on the horse, so to speak.

Using OneNote with CIMA Studies

And one resource that is really helping me to study on the move is Microsoft Onenote.

It’s an online virtual notebook that I have installed on my laptop and mobile phone (it’s free by the way) and it’s allowed me to access, edit and read my CIMA P2 notes any where!

So on the commute to work I can open OneNote on my mobile and read through my P2 notes, before I get to sleep I can pick my phone, open the app and continue where I finished on the commute to work.

The program itself is really powerful too, it’s not a basic notepad. You can snip, screen print, insert excel files, draw notes, shapes, comments… Share the notebook, add pages with subpages, add checklists, photos.

When you make changes to the notebook (on any device) it automatically saves it, so it’s available when you next access it from anywhere.

CIMA and OneNote Examples

• You can see the below example of my P2 notebook with brief notes on Direct Product Profitability DDP, and a couple of screen shots from my study text to show examples and developments in DPP.

 

• This shows the shows inside the notebook, so I have chapter 1 with sub pages underneath that in the notebook hierarchy.

 

• Here you can see all of the options within OneNote – you can directly insert spreadsheets, files, pictures and even video into your notebook.

Furthermore, it’s integrated with all Microsoft applications like word, excel, outlook which makes it even more versatile. If you are using Excel to illustrate transfer pricing you can immediately drop into your OneNote book (on the transfer pricing sub page you created of course 😉)

Quite simply, it’s brilliant and it’s free.

I can access my full set of notes anywhere and even squeeze in some revision while waiting at the dentist, although having my tooth pulled is just as painful as some of the P2 syllabus but nevertheless I always have a choice to study.

So now, no more excuses! And no more multiple note pads with print outs, folders and post it notes everywhere.

It’s all in OneNote.

Even their social media team has a sense of humour too.

So excuse me, I need to review my notes on Activity Based Costing while I wait for the bus to come.