Friday 29 May 2015

Important - CIMA Release Announcement about the P3 and F3 Exam - Pass mark lowered

Hi Everyone,

An important announcement came has been released by CIMA today. 

The pass marks for the CIMA P3 and F3 objective tests have been lowered.

If you have taken either the P3 or F3 exams since January 2015 and failed, your exam will be re-marked and could possibly be awarded a pass. 

The official advice from CIMA is:
•If you have completed a course of study in P3 or F3 and have developed a strong understanding of the learning outcomes, you should schedule an exam as soon as possible (after 3rd June for F3)
•If you have had one or more fail attempts at P3 or F3, you should not schedule a retake but should wait until 11th June when CIMA will be back in touch with details of your individual situation.
•If you have any further questions on this matter, please contact your CIMA Learning Business Partner.

Read the full statement below:

'Dear Student

Thank you for having recently taken our F3 and/or P3 exam(s). These exams are not designed to be easy. We know just how hard you have worked to get this far and recognise that the time and effort of taking the exams is considerable.

A number of you have expressed concerns. We are grateful for the feedback and are committed to addressing it as quickly as possible. We recognise the difficulties that have arisen for some of you.

I am writing to explain the current situation and to let you know that we will be able to confirm your own position on 11th June 2015.  For some who have failed, this will mean that you will be told you have passed, as we go on to explain.

Our recently launched computer-based objective tests have been widely welcomed as an important innovation enabling immediate results. The change in the exam method which meant that results could be immediately given on-line from January 2015 necessarily relied on predicted scores. Now that we have enough data to analyse actual performance, we know that, in two of the nine subject exams, pass marks were higher than they needed to be to demonstrate competence.

We have decided that we should, and will, change the pass mark for the P3 and F3 exams. We will apply these changes both retrospectively and to future exams.

This means, that following the review which is underway:

- Students who have failed either exam one or multiple times will have their exams reviewed and may receive a pass.
 - Students who have failed one or multiple times and subsequently passed, will have their earlier fails reviewed to establish whether they would have passed earlier.
 - Students who have taken the exam and passed first time retain their pass. No pass will be changed to a fail.
 - The pass mark for the P3 exam has been changed.
 - The pass mark for the F3 exam will be changed by 3rd June 2015 and any sat beforehand will be subject to the review.

It is important the review process is fair, comprehensive and robust for each student concerned. Once it is complete, we will contact you on 11th June 2015 with your outcome and to explain the next steps.

CIMA staff will be unable to confirm any student’s individual position before 11th June, so please be patient with us for a little longer.

We recognise and are grateful to you for being one of the first students to take these new exams.  Given the gap between the actual pass marks and those needed to demonstrate competence I am sorry that we were not clearer in managing your expectations and setting out the basis on which results might be reviewed, and if necessary, changed.

Whilst this is by no means unique to CIMA – as you may be aware from coverage of similar issues reported by many other exam boards – I do recognise that this has had some significant impacts depending on individual circumstances for you and fellow students who were the first to take these exams.

We are committed to working with you to ensure that you are in the best possible position to succeed in your studies – and will review your own situation with you once your results are confirmed on 11th June.

You have my personal commitment that we will do right by you on your journey with CIMA.

Yours sincerely,

Noel Tagoe
 Executive Director, CIMA Education'

Key points to note

- If you have already passed P3, then these changes do not affect you, you have still passed.
 - If you have failed P3 and have already scheduled to sit the exam again before the 11th June, then we would advise that you postpone the exam until we have spoken to you individually. If you are scheduled to sit P3 or F3 in the next 48 hours, our recommendation is for you not to attend. We will eliminate the no show from your record and credit you the cost of the exam.

Does this affect you?

Do you think CIMA have take the correct course of action?

Please leave comments on our new CIMAforum

Nick Best and the Astranti Team


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