CIMA Exams during COVID-19

I've been trying all day to try to book but keep getting the below error message...anyone been able to successfully book?

"The server you are trying to access is either busy or experiencing difficulties. Please close the Web browser, open a new browser window, and try logging in again."

I'm really disappointed that CIMA have taken the decision to not allow scratch paper during remote testing. I understand the cheating element they are trying to avoid, but honestly, due to time pressures if you needed to cheat you'd run out of time. I don't see how it will be possible to solve many of the more difficult questions using the online whiteboard. We need options more options! Otherwise I feel like this is just an exercise to take our money and watch us fail.

its an absolute joke we cant use pen and paper- lets not beat about the bush. How are we supposed to do long calculations in f3?!

i sat and passed f2 last year, and i promise you there is no way i could have passed it without the pen and paper.

Good luck for next Monday. Please let me know how you get on with the whiteboard. I'm passing mocks at over 80% with scratch paper but it drops back down to 60% when I try without. 

I skip everything that requires a longer calculation(probably less than ten questions) and by the time i come back to them and try to solve them without paper i get flustered and frustrated and lose confidence. It's already such a tight balance even with scrap paper and tbh it feels like i'd be pushing my luck to attempt the exam without. 

I have always relied on paper too, but i am seriously impressed that CIMA have turned this around so quickly and are allowing remote exams
The alternative is do what other bodies have done and cancel all sittings
Lets be thankful that we have options, even if they aren't what we are used to

I'm sitting my F2 exam online next week and I'm also worried about the idea of using the online whiteboard. I'm doing online questions at the moment with the sticky notes to type my workings but it's just taking so much more time. If we could use a digital graphic pad/pen instead of pen and paper I think this would help but CIMA have specifically mentioned these are not allowed. Surely if we were to use one of these or even our own physical whiteboard and show it at the beginning and end of the exam - proving we have wiped our answers/ workings out this would be sufficient.

If anyone sits their F2 exam please report back on how you found it as I'm currently stressing out and thinking of postponing mine.

Anyone who's sat the exam that involves calculations ... please share your thoughts.

This is the only thing that's preventing me from booking the exam. Just ridiculous ... they should've added at least 15 mins to the end of the exam to accommodate for this. What a joke.

Not sure where you all live but I've managed to book an f2 exam at a Brighton Pearson Vue testing centre for June 2.  Worthing and Crawley also had availability from about the 9th of June. I'm not 100% convinced the centres will actually be open as the voicemail for the Brighton centres says they are closed due to Covid-19 but i'm booked on for now......

Here is an example of the answer/workings for a question I skipped. How is it possible?

Cost pool
Cost ($)
Number of drivers
ABC OAR ($)
Production set-ups
105,000
300 set-ups
350.00 per set-up
Product testing
300,000
1,500 tests
200.00 per test
Component supply/storage
25,000
500 component orders
50.00 per order
Customer orders/ delivery
112,500
1,000 customer orders
112.50 per order

Production of product LST = (100 × 60) + (60 × 50) = 9,000 units per year
Number of production runs = number of set-ups = 9,000/900 = 10 set-ups
Number of product tests = 10 × 4 = 40 tests
Number of component orders = number of production runs = 10 orders
Number of customer orders = 100 + 60 = 160 orders
General overheads absorption rate = 900,000/300,000 = $3.00 per direct labour hour
Annual direct labour hours for Product LST= 9,000 × 10/60 = 1,500 hours




Activity
ABC OAR
Number of drivers
Annual cost ($)
Setting up
$350.00 per set-up
10 set-ups
3,500
Product testing
$200.00 per test
40 tests
8,000
Component supply
$50.00 per order 1
0 orders
500
Customer supply
$112.50 per order
160 orders
18,000



30,000

General overheads = 1,500 × $3.00 per hour = 4,500



Total annual overhead cost
34,500

Total unit cost

$
Components

1.00
Direct labour = 7.80 × 10/60 =

1.30
Overheads = 34,500/9,000 =

3.83


6.13

Many many congrats BGC and thank you for letting us know about the exam centre. Re F2 - can I ask what study materials you used and if you have any other tips.Was the test centre setting any way different because of Cov -19? Thank you and many congrats again.

Thank you! It was a big relief to get F2 behind me. On with the MCS which will be my first case study exam as I was exempt from the OCS. Feeling quite overwhelmed at the thought of it tbh.

As far as exam prep for F2 I used the CIMA study question bank and mock, the Kaplan exam practice plus (2 mocks and 180 question bank...which was slightly disappointing as one of the two mocks was the same as the CIMA study mock) and i purchased an additional mock from the Practice Test Academy. I also watched every open tuition lecture available for f2. I created many of my own 'mocks' from the cima study question bank and Kaplan exam plus question bank and spent a huge amount of time answering questions under the 90 minute time limit. Getting comfortable with the time limit is half the battle for me. And relentless question practice is the only thing that I found to get me there.

Best of luck to you both!

Many Test centres are now reopening guys, leave that remote testing alone, do not waste your money. Good luck all