Heard it's possible to obtain the ECA without necessarily sending the Certificate but I don't know how. Please,could you help me find out what the guy in your WhatsApp group submitted to CIMA that made them conclude his ECA even without him having to send his certificate. Any other person who has an idea about this could also enlighten me..Thanks so much. bozz007:
VERY LONG POST ALERT!!! Just to share my experience, encourage and educate people....I finished my CIMA BAs recently (very basic accounting background).
Total time to finish all papers: Just over 3 months and below is my timeline:
BA1: May 19, 2019. Exam Center: London School of Information Technology, GRA, Ikeja
Materials used: Strictly, opentuition study text and videos.
The opentuition study text I used for BA1 was very brief and quite easy to understand especially when combined with the videos. However, their practice tests didn't reflect the actual exam-type questions. So, if you are going to use it, you need to read and understand in order to apply the knowledge or better still, solve kaplan practice questions to familiarize yourself with exam questions. Passed the exam quite well.
I chose the exam center because they were the only ones open on Saturday.
BA3: June 1st.. Exam Center: London School of Information Technology, GRA, Ikeja
Materials used: Astranti study text and practice tests on the astranti website (astranti dot com)
I switched to Astranti for BA3 because I didn't like the voice of the instructor in the opentuition videos (you need to watch the videos to fully grasp the study text). Astranti also provided the advantage of revision notes, which sort of summarizes the voluminous study texts. Their online practice tests were also very useful.
BA4: June 29th. Exam Center: London School of Information Technology, GRA, Ikeja
Materials used: Astranti study text and practice tests
I used only Astranti for BA4 as well. I kinda underrated this course and almost failed (scored 102, pass score is 100). It is the only course without calculations, so I read the study texts in 1 week and put in for the exam. My God!! I honestly thought I was going to fail judging by how the exam went but we thank God sha.
BA2: Aug 20th. Exam Center: 1st Intellit Solutions, CMD road, Lagos
Materials used: Kaplan study text and practice questions.
Due to work and other stuff, I had to take a break before studying for the dreaded BA2. BA2 has a bad reputation for highest failure rate so I thought lemme take my time to read it well. BAD DECISION! The break I took put me off my stride totally. The initial ginger of studying day and night vanished. Found it really hard to juggle work, personal life and studying like the previous ones and even when I found time to study, the astranti study texts were really hard to understand. I shifted the exam THREE times in July before eventually cancelling it. August was flying by too and was still struggling to understand what I was reading. Then, a colleague resigned after getting PR and CRS scores kept increasing. I immediately slapped myself back to reality and decided to take 5 days exam leave immediately after sallah break. Scheduled the exam and promised myself not to cancel/shift this time.
My CIMA group people (shoutout to them….their ginger is contagious) shared Kaplan practice questions and I decided to switch to it. I recommend Kaplan study texts EVERYDAY OF THE WEEK. Their practice questions are very close to real exam questions and the study texts are very easy to understand. I read day and night during the leave and the exam turned out to be the easiest of all the exams (had my highest score in BA2)
Study Recommendations:
Whatever study text you decide to use, please make sure you solve all the Kaplan practice questions afterwards. They are very close to real exam questions.
NEXT STEPS AFTER EXAM.
1. Logged on to WES to request for additional certificate evaluation (previously evaluated my BSc with them), paid the necessary fees (107CAD), got my WES reference number and downloaded the WES academic records form.
2. After my last exam score was uploaded, I e-mailed CIMA to request for transcript and letter of good standing and attached the WES form. I followed up with a call as well. Their default process is to send through Canada Post, which takes 6 weeks. In order to speed up the process, I told them I wanted arrange for a courier (DHL) to pick it up.
Process for DHL parcel pickup.
Step 1 - Fill in necessary details on this DHL web page.
https://book.parcel.dhl.co.uk/
Note : Collection details should be CIMA address and phone number. For Name, write Amen or Bill or Evelyn. The e-mail should be your email address. Very important to use your email address here so you can track the shipment and get the shipping label.
Step 2 : Fill in the delivery address, use the WES Canada address and make sure you include your WES reference number.
Step 3 : For the size of the parcel, choose Height 1cm, length 20 cm, width 20cm. This determines the price you will pay
Step 3 : Choose pickup date. To be on a safe side pick the next day even though you would tell CIMA to get it ready same day.
Step 4 : Make payments. Total payment should be £41.28. DHL doesn’t accept naira card (dunno about dollar). So, you need to pay with PayPal. Get in touch with someone with a PayPal account to make the payment for you or open Nigerian PayPal and use your naira card on it.
Step 5: Once your shipping label has been sent to you by DHL, forward this to CIMA via email and include the normal "you will like CIMA to prepare your transcript and letter of good standing, so that it can be sent to WES.
Step 6: Call CIMA after some 30 mins or thereabout to tell them you've sent an email concerning preparation of your transcript and state the time courier service will be picking it up. Ask if it will be ready by that time. All these is formality, it's just for them to acknowledge the email and ensure they prepare your transcript immediately.
You will get an email once your parcel is picked up by DHL and you can track the movement. Your transcript will get to WES within 3 days.
CIMA said the certificate won’t be ready until 6 weeks after and someone in the WhatsApp group said he got his ECA without sending the certificate, I’m really hoping same will be applicable to me even though I will keep calling them for it.
Unfortunately, the whatsapp group is currently filled but I think they opened a telegram group, will try to find the link.
Wish you the best. |
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