The truth behind the pass rates for CIMA exams

The truth behind the pass rates for CIMA Exams

CIMA has been running the new 2015 syllabus for 4 years, so I thought it is high time to have a deeper look at the exams pass rates. I will not bore you with a full statistical analysis, because that is not the point. As a CIMA student, you should understand the numbers and get some insights from them. So here it goes - the most recently released data is from January 2019.

(UPDATE - this article has been updated to show the most recent data from January 2019).

I will show you the pass rates in the following order: •

OT pass rates from: o the professional level, o the certificate / foundation level,

•

Case Studies pass rates.

OT Pass Rates

This line that goes through the whole chart, is the trend. It’s no rocket science that more advanced you get, the more difficult it becomes, hence the pass rates are getting overall lower.

The exam pass rates are calculated on total exams passed over total exams taken for the periods stated below.

Papers with the lowest pass rates According to the graph, the P pillar seems to cause most of the problems for the CIMA students. •

P1 has the lowest pass rates: 47% and it doesn't seem to be moving from the 1st position for a very long time...

• •

P2 & F2 is next in line with 51% & 52% respectively (P2 has increased in the last few months, which I think is a very positive sign), P3 and F3 have a passing rate of 54% & 55% respectively - those results are pretty stable across last years.

On the contrary, E pillar seems to get the highest scores. So if you don’t know how to approach a certain level and if you’re motivated by success, attempt E paper first.

Of course, that is not always true in real life. A little disclaimer here - statistics was actually my major at the University… BUT… if a man is walking the dog, statistics say that on average each of them (the man and a dog) has 3 legs :) The same goes for the E papers. We are individuals and we have a preference towards a specific pillar. For instance, my preference rating is P > E > F. I always passed P without any problem, on the first sitting. F was always a big stretch for me as first of all, I am a converted management accountant (I prefer the management part of that phrase ;) ). I had financial accounting subjects during my university time, I had some exposure at work, but I’ve always been an auditor or a controller. And that explains why P was the strongest. Statistically, I’m among the minority here.

My point is that everyone has a preference for a certain pillar (paper). If a failure puts you off, start with a topic you enjoy the most. If you are new to CIMA and cannot really judge based on the papers’ names, look at the syllabus. And if you still don’t know and you need success to keep you going, go for E papers first.

Let’s look at each pillar across those 3 years:

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Tags- CIMA P3,CIMA E3,CIMA F3,CIMA P1,CIMA P2,cima exam,cima 2019 syllabus,cima online course