You’ve spent weeks working through the syllabus, completing practice questions, and reviewing your flashcards. But when exam day arrives, getting a pass mark comes down to more than just what’s stored in your head. It actually comes down to how you perform under pressure.
During my early CIMA sittings, I assumed that knowing the material meant the exam would take care of itself. Walking into the high-pressure environment of a Pearson VUE test centre is a unique experience, though. Between the security checks, the noise-cancelling headphones, and the digital clock counting down on your screen, exam nerves can easily steal marks you should earn.
Over time, I developed a clear exam-day routine that helped me stay calm, manage my time, and squeeze out every single mark available. Here is my exact execution strategy.
Protect your mental energy before walking in
Your brain acts like a battery on exam day, so you want to save every drop of focus for the test itself.
Avoid last-minute cramming in the waiting room. Trying to read textbook chapters 15 minutes before your exam starts only spikes your anxiety. If you don’t know a concept by the time you arrive, skim-reading it in the waiting area won’t save you.
Arrive at the centre 30 minutes early. Rushing into the building while worrying about traffic puts your body straight into fight-or-flight mode before you even sit at the terminal. Give yourself a proper buffer so you can check in calmly.
Execute the “two-pass” time strategy
In a 90-minute objective test with 60 questions, you have an average of 90 seconds per question. The biggest mistake you can make is spending five minutes getting stuck on one tricky calculation early on.
Every single question is worth the exact same mark. To avoid running out of time on easy questions at the end, split your approach into two passes.
Pass 1 (first 60 minutes): Go through the entire exam answering only the questions you can solve quickly and confidently. If a question looks long or calculation-heavy, pick your best guess immediately, hit the flag button, and move on.
Pass 2 (final 30 minutes): Return to your flagged questions. Because you’ve already secured the easy marks across the test, the pressure is off, so you can tackle trickier problems with a calm mind.
Standardise your scratchpad routine
When you sit down at your desk, Pearson VUE gives you a laminated wipe-clean scratchpad and a marker. Before hitting “start exam” on the tutorial screen, take 60 seconds to prepare your workspace.
Write down any stubborn formulas or acronyms while your mind is completely fresh. Divide your scratchpad into clear, numbered sections so your calculations don’t become a messy scramble. Writing neatly makes it infinitely easier to double-check your maths if you return to a flagged question later.
Trust your prep during the final 10 minutes
It’s completely normal to feel a wave of uncertainty as the clock winds down. When reviewing your answers in the final few minutes, never change an option unless you find a clear, logical mistake in your working.
Your initial instinct on multiple-choice questions is usually right. Overthinking in the final five minutes often leads to second-guessing yourself and swapping correct answers for incorrect ones. Doing full-length timed mocks with Astranti beforehand helped train my brain to trust my initial choices under pressure.
Key takeaway
Passing a CIMA exam isn’t about getting a perfect score. It’s about managing your time, staying composed, and securing enough marks to cross the pass threshold comfortably. Control your environment, stick to your time strategy, and trust the work you’ve put in.
How do you usually handle exam day jitters? Do you have any specific routines before stepping into the test centre? Drop a comment below, and let’s chat.
Good luck and happy studying!
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