Recommended order of exams

Operational and management level

You can take the six operational and management level papers in any combination and sequence.

CIMA students enter CIMA with different qualifications, backgrounds, support systems and demands on their time so it is difficult to recommend any particular approach, order or combination of exams for you to sit.

More operational and management level advice (PDF 23KB)

Strategic level

You will need to enter and sit all three strategic level papers the first time you attempt strategic level. This is because these three papers share an integrated approach with greater interaction and dependency of syllabus content than previous papers.

Your study approach will need to be different to operational and management level exams, because you will need to apply your knowledge much more to practical scenarios. Don’t worry though: the high level of integration between the papers means studying for one paper helps you understand and prepare for the others.

More strategic level advice (PDF 32KB)