Hi Rebecca

 Is his only available from BPP?

I have just registered with Cima and looking for some assistance.

I had the exemptions from papers C1-C5. I will start with the Operational Level.

I am about to buy some materials for self study. Could you help me and give some advices, please?

1) Is there any particular order I should start the Operational Level, e.g. E1, P1, F1? If yes it is, what is the best order OR I can start with any paper I want to?

2) Which materials are the best for self study? Online course from Cimastudy, BPP, books etc.??? I have heard that there are some differences between BBP and Cimastudy online courses.Do I have to buy new books for 2012 or can use the same for 2011 - do I need new ones or used are fine? Where can I buy them from? Any CDs? If book are the best - any study kit which includes the tution, revision, QBD, past papers and passcards to recommend?

3) I cannot find link for syllabus for 2012. What is the syllabus for 2012, still the same as is for 2010 and 2011? Any link, please! Thank you.

4) If I fail in May, are the questions the same in November?

Thank you very much in advance.

Roman

Dear Roman,

Congratulations on becoming a new CIMA student.

1. There's no order to take Operational level papers. Also, no order to take Management level papers too. You may sit single subjects or couple of subjects etc. If you're taking 3 papers, better to take in that order - ie, E1, P1, F1 and then E2, P2, F2 - as it may be easier for you to keep the topics in memory. If you're taking 2 papers each - better to take, ie: F1, P1 / F2, P2 / E1, E1 (just my view)

2. Self study means - what you exactly mean by it ? Are you going to read text books and learn in your own or gonna use any of the ditance learning systems ? If you have plans to read text books and learn by yourself, it's completely up-to you as some students can learn in that way. If you have plans to use a distance learning programme, cima study.com is not a popular choice unfortunately. Including myself, I've seen many students do not prefer as it's something like, someone reading the text book again (by this time you may have watched demos). Bpp class of the future is better than cima study, but I dont think it's the best. Although you can learn at your own pace, it doesn't give you a 'live tutor session' throughout the course. Lsbf video lectures are also there where you'll be given access to their recorded tuition which you can watch for few months (no downloads possible). I personally prefer and use Insaf business live online programme, which I think by far the best I've ever come across. Insaf business live is live and online programme where you get a private tutor who will conduct lessons on a 1-2-1 basis. Their price is so so cheap - £14 an hour - may be the cheapest in the UK and tutors are also of excellent quality. 

2 - 1 Text books / materials: I believe if the Kaplan-CIMA books were available, it'd be the finest choice. If not, then Kaplan text books follwed by Bpp.

3. CIMA Certificate level is changed for 2012 as far as I am aware. No other changes now.

4. Ha ha ha LOL ... Do you seriuosly believe so questions will be the same again ?? lol .... Nope. Questions will be different. Anyways, think positively that you would not fail ! 

huh ... 20 marks worth question ??? :p 

Welcome.

1. Happy :)

2. If you're going for self-study (without tuition), then I think the best option is to buy Kaplan text books + Revision kit + Pass cards (optional) and teach yourself. Based on my experience, for cimastudy.com, I'd say, it's something like you receive the materials in a 3D view. You won't be provided hard copies of text books if you purchased cimastudy.com course. They all will be in a 3D format. In other words, if the hard copies are £65, then you pay £150 to get the CIMA materials in a 3D view :P ... also note, if you felt CIMA text books have errors, similar thing you're gonna get in cimastudy too, as cimastudy is CIMA's own and they do not use Kaplan or BPP products. SO the decision is yours.

Yes. For the time being, I think Kaplan materials are better than other products. 

2-1 Yes. In text book materials, Kaplan is the best I think. (But Insaf live tutors where I studied used CIMA study texts - but we were free to use our own selection of materials too). 

3 ;P

4. Greedy wish may be haha ;P ;P

5. I am waiting for my management level results although running around operations, management and strategic sections of this community here as interaction between fellow students may be very helpful I believe. I was not strict to 1-2-1 always. But rather I had taken online courses mostly due to my personal commitments. Finally I found the most suitable programme for me insaf live online and it was they themselves a 1-2-1 programme. It was, of course added benefit to me. Because their 1-2-1 prices were less than a classroom course price at other colleges here in London. I got a personal tutor online teaching me from the other end of the net (in contrast to recorded 'movies' of other colleges ;P). I always purchased 18 hours tuition blocks and it cost me just £13.25ph. Cool !

Now Kaplan and Elsevier seems to be working together. So buy the cheapest from CIMA and Kaplan. 

(A) Official CIMA text book link http://www.elsevierdirect.com/imprint.jsp?iid=100005

(B) Kaplan (same books it seem) http://kaplan-publishing.kaplan.co.uk/study-materials/study-text/Pages/cima.aspx

(C) BPP Texts http://www.bpp.com/learning-media-listing/-/lmlist/3651

Also I suggest you two things.

(1) If you still would like to save few £££, you can see the book sale section in this forum where used books are sold at cheap prices (I haven't bought any though). I think you can still use 2011 books for 2012 exams unless a very major syllabus change was not made (keep an eye on syllabus always). Also at times, Insaf live programme offers books for free to students. So I give you the link where you can find out if there were any such -  http://www.insafglobal.co.uk/  Also if you're doing self study, I found Acorn and EXP offer free help sections (again remember they wont replace instructor-led tuition). Links: http://www.acornlive.com/cima-home-study/free-exam-resources/ and http://www.theexpgroup.com/professional_qualifications/cima/cima_papers.html

Ehhhhh ......... Water please .................. :( ;P

Hi Roman,

Only moderators can delete a post.  However once that post is deleted, all replies to that post will also be deleted.  This is why we don't usually delete post.  I can delete your unresponsed post on your behalf.  Otherwise, you may use the "Edit" function yourself and delete the content (you will still see the post though).

Best regards,

Sam

CIMAsphere Moderator