9 Ways to Increase Your Chances of Passing Your CII Written Exam

With some written exams back on track for July and the rest in October, it’s time to think about exam technique and how to give yourself the best chance of receiving the marks on offer.

1. With the Advanced Financial Planning Exams, be specific, and keep the clients in the case study in mind at all times.

With AF exams, your answers should be related to the actual case study as much as is possible.  If they are not, there is a real risk you won’t be awarded the mark.

2. Use bullet points.

It’s true that bullet points are a lot easier to mark for the examiners, but they can also benefit the student. Using bullet points helps you to be concise and focused and prevents waffle – a practice that rarely results in extra marks.  Look at the exam guides for your subject, study the marking schemes, and practise answering in this way.

3. Use the number of marks available as an indicator of how many points are needed.

If the question is for eight marks, you will be expected to make eight different points – one point wouldn’t be given two marks.  However, two marks might be within one sentence, for example:  ‘Their home is owned as joint tenants (for one mark); therefore, Julie will inherit Tom’s share (for one mark)’.

The examiner will look for the correct points throughout your whole answer, i.e. they won’t just mark the first eight points you give, so if you can think of more, write them down.  Also, if the question asks you to recommend and justify something, then don’t forget to do both, as you would expect that half the marks will be for the recommendation and half for the justification.  If it helps, then draw yourself a line through the page to clearly show your recommendation one side and your justification the other – again, the examiner will love you for this.  You can also do this if you are asked for the pros and cons of products or a particular comparison.

4. Show all your workings in calculations.

This is particularly important in AF1 and other AF exams where there will always be calculations. Make sure you show every step of the process you’ve used to arrive at the answer.  If one mistake is made in the middle, you won’t then be marked wrong for the rest of the calculation.  Instead, you would lose one mark only for that one error, assuming the rest of your process is correct.  A lot of marks can still be achieved even if the final answer is incorrect.

5. Start each question on a new page.

This means you have some space should you need to go back to enhance your answer or you remember something else. Remember also to cross through any notes you make in your answer book which you do not want to be marked.

6. Read the whole question first.

If you don’t, you may find that your answer to (a) is really the answer to (b) and you may find yourself writing it all out again.  You will only get the marks if they are in the right place.

7. Make sure you are answering the question you are being asked.

Use a highlighter for key words to help you focus your answer.  More than anything, answer the question written in front of you, not the one you wish was written in front of you. The most common fault in most written exams is candidates not keeping to the point of the question.

8. Remember to state the obvious.

Spell out the particular tax you’re talking about or which class of national insurance contribution or which product.  You know which one you’re talking about; just make sure the examiner knows too, so they can award you the mark.

9. Use abbreviations appropriately.

We get asked a lot about the use of abbreviations.  Our view is that some are so well used they will be fine, so things such as IHT, NICs, ATR, and SDLT.  We have been asked about EOW and A2R, and our view is these are not used as a matter of course, so spell out ‘expression of wish’ and use the more common ATR for ‘attitude to risk’.

Lastly, remember there is no negative marking.  The CII uses a positive marking system with no marks taken away for incorrect answers.  However, if conflicting answers are given, even where one of them is right, you may not be awarded the mark if the examiner feels you have hedged your bets.

Grab the resources you need!

If you’re studying for your CII AF1 exam, and you’re wanting to feel confident on exam day, you’ll need to prepare as much as possible. Grab our free taster to try out one of Brand Financial Training’s resources for yourself.  Click the link to download the AF1 calculation workbook taster now!

Alternatively, you can download the taster for AF2, AF4, AF5, AF7, or R06 if any of those exams are causing you some worry.