What is CIMA? (2024)

There are four categories of fees that a candidate has to pay while pursuing the course.

Registration fees: New students pay a one-time registration fee, which includes their first year’s subscription fee. Note: The CIMA subscription year runs from 1st January until 31st December.

Subscription fees: To study CIMA, you need to pay an annual subscription which is due on 1 January each year.

Exam Fees: The student has to pay exam fees for every examination.

Exemption fees: If a candidate is entitled to any exemptions he/she needs to pay exemption fee per paper being exempted. It is usually equivalent to the exam fees of the corresponding paper

Objective type Questions:

The Objective Test Questions (OTQs) are used to assess all the certificate level and professional level subjects. You can take the assessment at any time of the year whenever you feel ready. OTQ has different types of questions such as Drag & Drop, Hotspot, Short answer (normal calculation), Drop down, Matching, Ranking, Sentence completion.

Case Study Exam

You need to clear all three objective tests (or receive exemptions for them) from a single level before you can take a case study exam. In the case study exam, you have to apply your knowledge and learning across the three pillars at each level.

The case study exam is set to make the students understand a real business environment. The case relates to a fictionalized organization, however, it is based on real business or industry. Passing the case study exam will showcase your ability to apply the technical, business, people and leadership skills from the three subjects at a particular level in a business context. CIMA assesses various skills in the case study exams which includes research and analysis as well as skills to present and communicate information.

If you are getting admission in the top 20 B schools in India, then you should go ahead with it. If not, then you can plan for CIMA or PGP Management Accounting because it will offer you more rewarding career opportunities than an MBA in Finance from tier II colleges. For more details you can check below:

Global Recognition: CIMA Professional Qualification is recognized in around 180 countries across the world and nearly 4500+ top recruiters across the world have hired CIMA members in the last year. These give CIMA an edge over most of the MBA programs in India. Moreover, after completing CIMA, members get joint designation CGMA by CPA as well.

Fees: The fees for CIMA qualification (Rs.2 lac to 4 lac) is low compared to the MBA course fee. Moreover, many of the candidates find job opportunities while pursuing CIMA.

Salary: The average salary of the CIMA Professional is very high compared to MBA graduates. Most CIMA professionals get an average salary of Rs.12 lac.

Professional vs Management qualification: The big difference between CIMA and an MBA is that a CIMA qualified member is entitled to call himself/herself a qualified management accountant. This is not the case with an MBA since it is a management qualification.

Knowledge and skills: CIMA qualified members across the world are at par in terms of knowledge acquired. However, many different institutions offer MBA and hence the knowledge and skills levels are highly variable.

Job opportunities: With more than 2 lac MBA grads coming in every year, MBA graduates have no edge over other candidates. CIMA being a new emerging qualification in India that offers multi-dimensional skills, gets various job opportunities in India for students and members. Moreover, MNCs prefer CIMA or CPA.

They are equally the same in the amount of effort required. The decision on which to study ought to be based on what you want to focus on; CIMA is more business focused and ACCA is more accountancy-focused. Of course, your work experience after passing ultimately counts for more than your choice of qualification.

If you have a related degree, then you may get different exemptions.