Chartered Institute of Management Accountants

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Suggested study routes

Need advice on which subjects to study together? See below…

CIMA Certificate in Business Accounting 2006 syllabus

You can sit the five new syllabus subjects in any order and in any combination - to suit your own individual study requirements.

We have suggested some study route options (PDF 32KB) - download these to see some of the alternative single, two and three paper study combinations that are possible,

Please note that these study routes are intended only as a guide.

Managerial level

There is complete flexibility at the Managerial level.

You can:

  • sit between one and six papers at the same time
  • sit the papers in any combination

We recommend that you sit between two and four papers per exam sitting.

Below are three ways that you could sit the Managerial level subjects – based on two paper and three paper study combinations.

Remember there are alternative study combinations – these suggestions are only a guide.

Alternative A – studying up the learning pillars

Suggested two subject study combinations:

  • Paper P1 Management Accounting Performance Evaluation and Paper P2 Management Accounting Decision Management
  • Paper P4 Organisational Management and Information Systems and Paper P5 Integrated Management
  • Paper P7 Financial Accounting and Tax Principles and Paper P8 Financial Analysis

Image of alternative A

Alternative B – studying across the learning pillars

Suggested three subject study combinations:

  • Paper P1 Management Accounting Performance Evaluation, Paper P4 Organisational Management and Information Systems and Paper P7 Financial Accounting and Tax Principles
  • Paper P2 Management Accounting Decision Management, Paper P5 Integrated Management and Paper P8 Financial Analysis

Image of alternative B

Alternative C – studying up and across the learning pillars

Suggested three subject study combinations:

  • Paper P1 Management Accounting Performance Evaluation and, Paper P2 Management Accounting Decision Management and Paper P4 Organisational Management and Information Systems
  • Paper P7 Financial Accounting and Tax Principles, Paper P8 Financial Analysis and Paper P5 Integrated Management

Image of alternative C

Strategic level

The first time that you sit the Strategic level, you must study for and sit all three Strategic level papers at the same time.

After your first sitting, you can take any papers that you need to re-sit in any order.

TOPCIMA

When you have passed all three Strategic level subjects you can sit the TOPCIMA.

The TOPCIMA is based upon a case study. We will publish the case study on the website at least six weeks before the exam, along with the assessment matrix.