How to study, not stress (and live in Utopia)

I've been studying so hard, I am now pretty sure how I should have studied from the start. As with all things me, its come to me a little late or just in time to a millimeter, with no space to spare.

I got my hygiene factors in place early enough, thank God, carving out a study place where I can sit and study in a suitably conducive environment, or I would be lounging around like I was last time all around the house until just a month before the exams.

The managerial level syllabus has refreshed some important planning, management and control techniques that can be applied to studying for the exam. However, simplicity is key rather than a complex schedule that was pretty time consuming just to manage.


A block chart manager, with a line for Completion, Each of the subjects, and Weeks is the main planning and control tool.

Completion chases weeks and each of the subject lines, divided in area by each part of the syllabus, is shaded.

In studying for each part of the syllabus, an activity sheet is drawn up. This lists the major objectives (Leads) of each part of the syllabus, followed by the lists of components, paying close attention to verbs.

Finally, the CIMAStudy modules are listed and mapped to each component and study requirements analyzed. How many pages for each module? How many review questions?


While it is a good idea to have all the mapping done at the start, a fresh activity sheet should be hand-drawn and mapped for each major section to have a good idea of follow-through required until completion within the estimated time frame.


For example, P2 Pricing and Product Decisions (30%) has five modules and a total of 29 pages with 11 components to cover, and 4 review questions for practice, totaling 29 x 0.5 hours + 4 X 1 hour = 18.5 hours of study time required, with a buffer of 1.5 hours.

Using the variables above, if 20 hours are required for 30% of the syllabus, then somewhere around 65-67 hours are needed to cover the entire syllabus at a regular pace for P2. Assuming this can be applied to all the 3 papers then a 14 week period could be scheduled around 15 hours of total study time each week, or 2 hours daily on weekdays and 2 hours X 3 subjects for Saturday, which equates to coverage of around 4.5 - 5 % of each subject's syllabus in a week.

This kind of planning and organization should begin as soon as possible so that pace can be varied and coverage ensured, rather than being in my situation, with a schedule to cover the Product and Pricing section in the next 24 hours, and being caught with the winter bug at the same time - a recurrence of asthma and a fever and 10 tons of stress. Luckily, this is my last P2 section as its not like I left everything for the last minute (just started late and leisurely, with 45 minutes of facebook preceding each 1 hour session).

Another very pragmatic thing to do as early on as possible, with the initial planning and syllabus review, is to carefully gather resources and file them for use as study progresses. This includes syllabus structure, exam format, calendar info, any pre-seen examination material and release dates, past papers and solutions, useful articles and tips and so on.


Taking a good look over CIMA magazines, news articles and filing them if they contain reference material is another ideal solution.


As for the actual studying part, the strategy I used this time was to create hand-written QAs of all the learning for practice and filing for later reference. While it's a little messy, it gave me more of a a sense of accomplishment than making a slideshow for each chapter like I did last time. RQs are terribly, terribly important to nail the understanding and not be completely stumped at every innocent, even straightforward, question you later have to answer.


So hopefully once the managerial papers are cleared, there should be no mistake in the strategic level, as planning and review should start as soon as the exams are over, before Muharram starts.