the cima student

CIMA released a whole set of new self study guides for all levels of the qualification earlier this month and they look much better than the previous versions.

The idea behind it remains the same i.e. it acts as a week-by-week study guide aligning the syllabus objectives with the recommended study time. However, CIMA have gone all interactive on us and added a few nice touches that make the self-study guides much more appealing!

CIMA Self-Study Guide: What’s new?

Well, firstly they look much more polished and professional than the original “wordy” study guides offered by CIMA. Secondly, and more importantly, you can personalise and customise the guide to fit around your study plan.

Here are a run down of the new and improved features:

• Stage-by-stage checklist.
• Weekly planner covering the whole syllabus.
• New PDF format that you can download, edit and save.
• Personal study planner you can update.
• Tips from subjects experts.
• Advice on how to achieve exam success.
• Guidance on relevant resources for each learning component of the syllabus.

All of the study guides can be found on the CIMA connect website and here is a link for the E2 self-study guide. You just need to navigate to the specific paper you are studying for and the self-study guide should be under the “featured content”.

CIMA Self-Study Guide: What does it look like?

Firstly, you will find the nice, new shiny cover page with an overview of the contents.

Tip: Once opening the document, save a copy on your desktop and you can edit and personalise the study guide as you like.

One of the best features is the study planner.

They give you an example of a completed study planner with a breakdown of how many hours you should be spending on each are of the syllabus and how they fits into a designated 12 week period.

Personally, I have yet to follow such a rigid plan but I will give it a go with the E2 exam to see if helps me stay focused and on track.

Below you can see the example provided for the E2 paper and on the following page there is a blank weekly study planner that you can amend for your own purposes and tick the weeks off as you go. Very nice!

Diving into the study planner detail you will see the detailed learning outcomes along with the study guidance and tips. However, there are two GREAT features here:

1. Resources: the study planner contains live hyperlinks that will take you straight to the published resources on that topic.
2. Practice Questions: secondly, you can find a list of the past exam questions that relate to the learning component you are working. (it even gives you a nice box to tick once you have attempted the question).

*Note: each practice question is not individually linked, you’ll have to find them via the search on the CIMA connect site.

Overall, I think it has some very nice touches and the fact you can save a copy of the pdf file and open it offline is great too.

Not too mention all of the links, tips and resources for the paper you are sitting are ALL together in one document will make it a very valuable tool.

Please feel free to share your experiences or practical experiences with the new CIMA self-study guides in the comments below.