I managed to pass the CIMA P2 Advanced Management Accounting first time this week and must say I am over the moon with finally getting it out of the way!!
I scored a scaled score of 101 out of 150, bearing in mind you need 100 to pass I just edged over line!! Nevertheless, a pass is a pass and I can move on to the MCS now.
I started studying the P2 materials almost 12 months ago, but after taking a break from studying due to other commitments I finally picked up the P2 books a couple of months ago and managed to pass it first time.
Here are my lessons learnt and materials used for the exam.
CIMA P2 Materials
I signed up for the CIMA Study Prime course at the beginning of the year and found the content was a great mixture of interactive and “plain text” content. I did all of my initial studying in the early part of the year with this course and would recommend it to other CIMA students too – I actually wrote a blog article on this earlier this year here.
But when I picked up the pen again after 6 months away from the books, I was in two minds whether to go through the CIMA Study Prime course materials again. I felt it would be a duplication of work, so instead I looked towards the Astranti P2 masterclass video to refresh my knowledge of the syllabus.
Once I had refreshed my knowledge I turned towards the mock exams and used the Kaplan CIMA P2 Exam Practice Kit and the online Practice Tests Academy P2 mock exam question bank of over 500 questions.
Build-up to Exam Day
I gave myself three weeks to concentrate on taking mock exams, doing practice questions and mock exams in real conditions using the practice tests academy materials. I had time to revise the weaker areas of the syllabus based on the mock exam results.
However, I still found myself coming up short of a passing grade of 70% which did lead me to panic somewhat in the final few days.
5 days until P2 exam – still looking for an extra 10% to get a pass. Just looking forward to getting exam done now.
— The CIMA Student (@theCIMAstudent) November 10, 2017
But I continued revising the materials and practising my weak areas like the demand/pricing equation and standard deviation (which in fact is a doodle when I compare it to the pricing equations and linear programming!).
I stayed calm on exam day as I know I tend to work better under the pressure of a real exam and to be honest I just wanted to get it out of the way to see where I was – also I felt I couldn’t really do any more work than I had already done.
To summarise, here are my lessons learnt:
Use the final days before exam to keep revising
I was even revising the night before. I’m sure the extra theory I read on Transfer Pricing the night before helped me a great deal in the exam the following day.
Don’t neglect the theory
It might seem like a wise idea to skim read the wordy part of the syllabus – especially with P2 and F2 – and jump to the questions and calculations but you need to make sure you have covered all bases.
i.e. Calculating an acceptable transfer in the question is all well and good but can you also explain the difference between a Two Part Tariff and Dual Pricing?
Mock Exams – don’t get too disheartened with poor results
I found that the questions I faced in the mock exams felt tougher than the exam itself, maybe this is down to a combination of things. One of them being I tend to perform better under stress of an exam.
But don’t get down with your mock exam results or question practice. Best to iron out your mistakes before exam day and approach the exam with confidence.
Have an exam strategy
You will be pushed for time in the exam. Be smart – answer the easier short style questions first. Build confidence and move on.
This is nicely explained in the video below.
The CIMA Objective Tests are tough, there is no hiding place as I learnt when tackling my first one with F2 which I failed twice before passing – however, since then I have managed to pass E2 and now P2 first time – so it is possible.
Just keep going!
The CIMA Student 
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