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How I pass my CIMA P1 Exam first time

Forums › CIMA Forums › How I pass my CIMA P1 Exam first time

  • This topic has 22 replies, 10 voices, and was last updated 4 years ago by ecastilioni.
Viewing 23 posts - 1 through 23 (of 23 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • April 27, 2019 at 9:42 pm #514342
    sophia95
    Member
    • Topics: 6
    • Replies: 8
    • ☆

    Hi,

    Revision – CIMA APTITUDE 2 and KAPLAN study text.
    You need to read the book to understand the topics well. 80% of the questions in my exam were theories and ”select all that applies” questions.
    CIMA Aptitude was a great tool – I think it was harder than the real exam so definitely prepares you well.

    Any specific areas you struggle with, you should concentrate on.

    Exam and Time Management – My advice with regards to time management is to do the easy ones you know first and flag the difficult questions. This is massively important.

    This doesn’t mean you flag 90% of the questions.
    Try to answer as many as possible but the ones you think will take longer to answer or you simply don’t know the answers to, flag them.

    I aimed to get to the end of the whole exam in 60 minutes with about 10 or less questions flagged to go back to at the end.
    I found that knowing I had 30 mins to answer the 10 flagged questions made me a lot calmer and I actually answered those pretty quick as on the second glance picked up on things that I misread previously, again, because I am much calmer.

    Answer every question. Even if you don’t know the answer. I usually say to myself, for example for every question I am unable to answer I will go for answers C

    I actually had about 10 mins to go through all my questions again and and recheck everything.
    So will the using this technique for the rest of my studies.

    I pretty much had a question from all the different topics.

    My weaknesses were in topics such as Forecasting Techniques so as I was getting closer to my exam spent a lot of time on these areas!

    Most importantly – remain calm!

    Hope this helps 🙂

    August 21, 2019 at 8:16 am #528311
    shadyplayscr7
    Member
    • Topics: 19
    • Replies: 25
    • ☆

    Hello Sophia can u tell me exact dates it took for your E1,P1,F1 exams? I am planing for 14th feb 2020 OCS exams but i need to complete My E1, P1 and F1 exams before 10th december 2019. I am trying to save Dec, jan and !4 days of feb for OCS as i have never done such Computerized written exam. I dont have good typing speed and my english isnt good.
    Today is 21st aug where i have started studying for E1

    and goona attempt it on 2nd sept.(10 days, or 15 days if i really cant)
    then attempt F1 on 15th Oct (45 days total)
    then go for P1 on 6th december (50 days total)

    then Comes OCS i wanna study the last years (4exams*5 varaints) 20 variant and write them to increase my typing speed as well as thinking process to apply Concepts with pre seen material. Whole 4 weeks for it (2 days study preseen and attempt to answer the 5 varaints in next 5 days) So will happen till jan 15th. On each day after 3 hours exam i will look at topics which went wrong and study them and will write a correct answers to them in 10 Mins (writing time for OCS)
    And then i will study the pre seen for my OCS for 4-5 days and try to apply such Frequent questions for these till jan 30.
    Last 14 days till Fev 14 i will Go and revise all F1,P1 and important topics from E1 for OCS.

    My questions to you are :-
    1) Can you let me know if my appoach is correct for OCS exam?
    OR should i study for case study when i am studying for Objectives exams?
    2) Is time allotted for such previous year variants enough? (2 days study preseen and 5
    days for each papers?)
    3) According to me Allowing 50-45 days for F1 and P1 will be good for clear concept and lot of Practice kits. Is that right?
    4) i am trying to complete E1 quickly (10 days,max 15 days if i cant) so that i have good time for F1 and P1 and the Big Ocs exams which i have no experience in. So what do u think or should take more time for E1?

    August 21, 2019 at 8:00 pm #528367
    sophia95
    Member
    • Topics: 6
    • Replies: 8
    • ☆

    I took P1 at the end of April, F1 at the end of July and taking E1 this Friday coming

    Very tight timeline you have there! But to be honest, although I have the lectures, I don’t really start to learn/understand till one week before the exam where I spend a lot of time studying! So I think you could do it!

    Goodluck!

    August 22, 2019 at 2:22 pm #528417
    shadyplayscr7
    Member
    • Topics: 19
    • Replies: 25
    • ☆

    Thanks a lot! @sopia can u also answer me regarding OCS EXAM practice?

    My questions to you are :-
    1) Can you let me know if my appoach is correct for OCS exam?
    OR should i study for case study when i am studying for Objectives exams?
    2) Is time allotted for such previous year variants enough? (2 days study preseen and 5
    days for each papers?)

    August 22, 2019 at 6:23 pm #528445
    tarie2019
    Member
    • Topics: 0
    • Replies: 1
    • ☆

    Hi Sophia you must let me know how was E1 writting it on Monday too

    August 25, 2019 at 1:36 pm #528751
    sophia95
    Member
    • Topics: 6
    • Replies: 8
    • ☆

    @shadyplayscr7 I haven’t done the case study exam yet or revised for it so I don’t feel qualified to advise you on that unfortunately!
    I’m not too sure what you mean by your second question?


    @tarie2019
    –
    I passed E1 first time. I did the exam in 40 mins which means I had an extra 40 mins left. But I studied hard.
    I would say make sure you understand everything. If you can teach it to someone else, ideally you’re ready.
    The names are also important. E.g if they say Edward deeming, you should ideally know what they are referring to automatically.
    Porters value chain is also VERY important. I’m sure it will come up and also apparently for the next few exams too, so might aswell learn now

    I basically read the whole book at least 4 times and made notes and re-read those note a lot (at least 10!)
    Purchased CIMA Aptitude 2. My first attempts I got between 60-68% but nearer the exam I was getting 95% on mocks online.
    This exam isn’t hard, what is annoying is what you think the answer could be, sometimes it isn’t as you can miss key words easily.
    I found this annoying a bit as when I revised, the ones I got incorrect, I could argue my answers I thought lol!…

    But key areas I would say;
    – Porters value chain
    – Know the difference between purchasing and supply
    – HRM
    – Virtual companies
    – IT , eg changeover etc
    – cousins
    – TQM etc
    – remember the SMART, BADPIGS etc
    – some is common sense!

    It’s weird because some stuff came up that I never even heard off or covered and I studied from both BPP and Kaplan books lol

    Open intuition question are also good and prepare you well.

    October 7, 2019 at 3:36 pm #548302
    shadyplayscr7
    Member
    • Topics: 19
    • Replies: 25
    • ☆

    Hello Sopia,
    whats the best way to clear concepts of P1.
    regarding the questions in study material of kaplan, are those questions enough for practice?
    i wanna start P1 by making notes in two parts.
    1st as with the concepts of chapters and
    2nd notes for the sums
    did you practice any other sums apart from kaplan study text?
    Even i ll buy the aptitude test of cima and i have already bought the cima practice text.

    October 7, 2019 at 3:37 pm #548303
    shadyplayscr7
    Member
    • Topics: 19
    • Replies: 25
    • ☆

    Kaplan exam kit i mean, and aptitude test 2 i ll buy.

    October 10, 2019 at 12:50 pm #548638
    eshaasif
    Participant
    • Topics: 0
    • Replies: 2
    • ☆

    @sophia95 I have failed CIMA P1 exam 8 times. Can you please help me on this?

    October 15, 2019 at 1:42 pm #549639
    sophia95
    Member
    • Topics: 6
    • Replies: 8
    • ☆

    @shadyplayscr7 @eshaasif
    I really recommend reading the books to make sure you understand fully. Even if you have to read your bits you do not understand 10 times!
    These exams are not like others where you can just remember how to work it out. You need to know what you’re doing and why you’re doing it.
    There is a lot of theories in the exams and I personally think that may be why most people fail because they wrongly concentrate mostly on the calculations.
    This will also help when it comes to the case study as you are not marked on calculations

    November 15, 2019 at 2:16 pm #552713
    shadyplayscr7
    Member
    • Topics: 19
    • Replies: 25
    • ☆

    Guys i alsp passed my P1 Exam in first attempt! I started to study on 15th Oct and cleared the P1 exam on 12th Nov. 27 days total
    14 days to completed whole p1 kaplan book.
    2 days for kaplan practice kit,
    4 days revision of all chapters
    1 day for Cima aptitude test 2, Failed at first 65%, 2nd attempt passed with 73%, 3rd attempt 95%.
    Again 3 days revision of study text and solving all the questions which i did wrong in Cima apt and kaplan kit!

    November 22, 2019 at 1:36 pm #553462
    fowler82
    Member
    • Topics: 0
    • Replies: 2
    • ☆

    I study CIMA with First Intuition as stuck with them after completing AAT lvl 4. They provide lectures, study text and question bank, Kaplan books as additional background reading, and you can practice all Question bank questions online, which really gets you used to the types of questions you get in your exam.
    Cannot rate them enough: started CIMA from 0 in March and so far I completed Certificate level with just 1 resit in BA1 and passed my P1 first time with only 4 solid days of tuition. All of their practice questions are deliberately designed to be harder than the exam, so you breathe through the exam paper.
    My advice is believe in yourself. I am no maths or finance genius, but if I can do it, you can too. Open tuition is helpful too, as listening to lectures from two resources is better than one.
    Good luck

    July 28, 2020 at 1:43 pm #578487
    imraan.miah
    Member
    • Topics: 0
    • Replies: 4
    • ☆

    I done my P1 Exam at the weekend and thankfully passed it 1st time but it took a lot of work!

    My tips:
    1. Actual exam was more theoretical (you’ll notice in this & other forums its similar feedback), I’d say around 70-30 theory to calc
    2. I studied with Kaplan and found the resources useful. I would recommend the Kaplan study text and exam toolkit, along with the online MyKaplan assessments
    3. Practise the Open Tuition assessments for each chapter
    4. Astranti Mock exam was super useful and included theoretical exam questions
    5. Do the free CIMA Practise paper that you can access via CIMA

    Practise Practise Practise is the key with this one and don’t get disheartened if you score low. Just keep at it and if you need to delay the exam until you’re ready, then delay it!

    Hope this helps 🙂

    August 23, 2020 at 9:46 am #581589
    Anonymous
    Inactive
    • Topics: 0
    • Replies: 1
    • ☆

    Hey sophia95:

    If you want latest CIMA P1 exam material. I have CIMA P1 Real Exam Questions. You will easily pass with my file. I have updated CIMA P1. If you are interested then you can contact me here, I m selling CIMA exam material in cheap cost.

    I have also other cima exam certifications.

    Thank you.

    November 10, 2020 at 6:11 pm #594644
    Nchengeti@Gaone
    Member
    • Topics: 0
    • Replies: 1
    • ☆

    I am curently self studying and doing cIMa management operational Level modules any advice you could give with regards to how to tackle them and if you do have study materials please kindly share gaone.madzimule@gmail.com @Sophia95 and all

    December 30, 2020 at 4:54 pm #601190
    ecastilioni
    Participant
    • Topics: 0
    • Replies: 6
    • ☆

    Just sat P1 exam today for the second time. And, for the second time, I failed. I can’t bear studying this module anymore. Such a pain!

    I can’t get the variances analysis in my head – it all makes sense when watching the videos, but when it comes to responding to the questions, it’s a mess! I don’t even know how to start!

    First attempt I had 98 points and the second one I’m still waiting…

    December 31, 2020 at 9:04 am #601192
    ecastilioni
    Participant
    • Topics: 0
    • Replies: 6
    • ☆

    ecastilioni wrote:Hi,

    I’m studying with Kaplan and they have two mocks available online… I guess the CIMA Aptitude 2 is one of them? Can anyone confirm?

    That’s what it says on the CIMA website:

    “CIMA Aptitude 2
    Get even more CIMA exam practice with an additional online question bank, available for all Certificate in Business Accounting and Professional Objective Test exams.

    If you are studying with Kaplan these questions will already be included in the pass guarantee element of your course.”

    January 4, 2021 at 1:02 pm #601427
    kthomson
    Member
    • Topics: 0
    • Replies: 25
    • ☆

    If you have 2 mock exams available, it’s likely that you already have aptitude 2 I believe.

    I purchased the study text and revision kit from Kaplan which cam with the “Test yourself” question bank and a mock exam. I then purchased aptitude 2 which came with “Test yourself extra” and another mock exam.

    Definitely worth reviewing all questions before sitting the exam.

    I sat my exam this morning and found that the exam was mainly theory with very little calculation. I was narrowly passing the Kaplan mocks and found the actual exam to be more straight-forward as you aren’t having to spend ages on each question calculating.

    January 4, 2021 at 11:08 pm #601456
    ecastilioni
    Participant
    • Topics: 0
    • Replies: 6
    • ☆

    kthomson wrote:If you have 2 mock exams available, it’s likely that you already have aptitude 2 I believe.

    Thank you. Yes, I think I already have Aptitude 2.

    The results for the second time I sat the exam came in and I had 98 points AGAIN! How annoying!!! I really need to crack on with the variances, but I can’t get it to stick in my head! 🙁

    February 4, 2021 at 1:03 pm #609140
    kthomson
    Member
    • Topics: 0
    • Replies: 25
    • ☆

    Sorry Ecastilioni, I should have replied sooner! Have you attempted the P1 exam again? I really struggled to get the variances too – it’s just a case of practice, practice, practice! I remember feeling like I was never going to get the variances. Eventually, when you’ve looked at the variances and worked through hundreds of questions on them, it will begin to make sense and you will know what to look out for.

    If there are any questions in particular that you are struggling with, I’m happy to try to provide support.

    Thanks,
    Kyle

    February 15, 2021 at 5:43 pm #610557
    ecastilioni
    Participant
    • Topics: 0
    • Replies: 6
    • ☆

    Hi Kyle, I have attempted P1 again and finally passed! What a relief!!! Hoping to sit F1 this week… wish me luck! 🙂

    February 16, 2021 at 9:09 am #610599
    kthomson
    Member
    • Topics: 0
    • Replies: 25
    • ☆

    Amazing news! Good luck with F1, I just passed it a week ago and found it slightly less stressful than P1. Hopefully you are the same!

    February 28, 2021 at 1:09 pm #612119
    ecastilioni
    Participant
    • Topics: 0
    • Replies: 6
    • ☆

    Hey Kyle,
    Yes. Passed F1 last week as well. Next one is the Case Study! :O

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