Posted by The Team at Brand Financial Training on August 9, 2022 in Newsletter
9 August 2022
We hope you are enjoying the summer.
If you are planning to take any CII exams over the next couple of months, please be aware that the syllabus changes on 1st September.
We are currently working hard to update our resources for the 2022/23 examinable tax year, and new versions of resources with updates will be available soon.
If you purchased 2021/22 study materials and need the updated version for the next tax year, don’t worry. We will provide this to you free of charge*. We will notify you with details of how you can request the updated materials very soon.
Best Wishes,
The Team at Brand Financial Training
* Note that free updated versions are not available for: E-Mocks or Video Tutorials – they have their own subscription period. If you have an active subscription, you will gain access to the updated versions automatically as soon as they are available; R06 or AF5 Analyses – these resources apply to specific exams; J07 Mock Papers – we have discontinued this resource; and IF Mock Papers – they are still valid until 31 December. The E-Learning Videos (not to be mistaken with Video Tutorials) are being discontinued from 1 September and will not be updated for 2022/23 examinable tax year.
Featured Article
How CII Exams are Tested
Candidates planning out their exams for the CII qualifications are faced with a bewildering choice. There are many different levels of exams, worth different amounts of credits, which are being tested in different ways. This article looks at the Diploma and the Advanced Diploma units and how they are tested.
Diploma in Regulated Financial Planning (R01 – 6 exams)
Five out of the six exams that make up this qualification are tested by multiple-choice questions.
R01 (regulation) and R02 (investments) are both RQF level 4 exams, 2 hours each with 100 questions, split between multiple-choice (MCQ) and multi-response questions (MRQ).
R01 has 87 MCQs and 13 MRQs
R02 has 72 MCQs and 28 MRQs
With MCQs, only one answer out of four options is correct.
With MRQs there will, according to the CII, be between 4 and 6 answer options. In our experience, there are usually 4 options, sometimes 5 but very rarely (if ever) 6. More than 1 of these options is correct; usually, it’s just 2 and very rarely (if ever) more than 3. Both exams give 20 credits with a nominal pass mark of 65%.
R03 (tax) and R04 (pensions) are also both RQF level 4 exams, they are 1-hour exams with 50 questions. The nominal pass mark is 65%, and both exams give 10 credits.
Both R03 and R04 have 39 MCQs and 11 MRQs
Often the biggest challenge with R03 and R04 is the time constraints – candidates only have one hour to answer 50 questions and the exam does contain calculation questions and 11 MRQs – both of which tend to take longer to answer. Plenty of practice with mock papers is a must to ensure the exam can be completed in the time allowed!
R05 (protection) is an RQF Level 3 exam also worth 10 credits. It is a 1-hour exam of 50 multiple-choice questions (with no MRQs). The pass mark for this exam is 70%.
R06 (financial planning practice) is the only R0 written exam. It is made up of two case studies, which are made available by the CII two weeks prior to the exam. The exam will then test the candidate’s financial planning capabilities with questions based on the case studies. It’s a 3-hour paper with a nominal pass mark of 55% giving 30 credits.
Note the CII still refer to any non-multiple choice question exams as ‘Written’ exams even though the vast majority of them (since COVID-19) are only available to take online rather than with pen and paper!
Are you in the later stage of your revision for the CII AF7, AF5, J05, or R04 exam? This month, our ‘Bitesize’ video is all about phasing retirement and creating an income through phased annuity purchasing.
For someone wishing to phase their retirement, they may consider partially crystallising their pension fund over a number of years to segment their retirement income. This can be done by purchasing annuities throughout retirement, depending on the required level of income. In this Bitesize video, we look at an example of how this could work, and how to calculate how much of the fund needs to be crystallised, based on the required income and annuity rate available. This could be useful to you if you are studying for a pension-related exam, especially R04.
Available for AF1, AF4, AF5, J02, J05, J10, R01, R02, R04, R05, R06
..."Your study [revision] notes were invaluable… I would advise everybody who is due to sit these to use the study notes and the mock exams as these will give you a terrific insight into how the exams work. Good luck."...
Brian Lynn, Partner, Brian Lynn Financial Services
Passing your CII exam can seem like a struggle, especially when there is so much content to learn. Our revision notes are for when you are further into your studies and are ready for a more condensed version of the study text so you can spend time revising what needs to be revised and get focused on what is needed.
Use them with the other resources in our study kits and you’ll be well prepared for your exam.
Why not try before you buy? Download one of our free tasters:
..."The Brand training material certainly helps you to focus on the key information required and get straight to the salient facts. Having to read all of RO4 and JO5 was daunting but by using the notes as a guide it helped me to condense a lot of this information quickly."...
Mandy Saunders, Verifier
AF5 and R06 Exams
Want to get ahead of the game?
If you are planning to take the R06 or AF5 exams in the autumn, you may not get the case study or fact-find until a couple of weeks before the exam, but there is plenty to be getting on with. Exam technique is so important for these exams and there is lots you can do to start preparing.
We advise you study past CII exam guides and, where available, the CII practice papers. These are all available on the R06 and AF5 homepages on the CII website.
Also, if you pre-order our analysis you will be sent the analysis from a previous exam, so you can familiarise yourself with the content and see how we approach the preparation for the exam and how our team of experts analyse the case studies and fact-find.
If that’s not enough, you can also order past analyses from earlier exam sittings to hone your technique!
Updates to CII Study Texts
Here’s a reminder that the CII update their study texts throughout the examinable year to either incorporate new legislations, correct errors or clarify information. Many candidates aren’t aware of this, which can result in candidates studying out-of-date information.
To find out if you have the most up-to-date information, visit the CII website, navigate to your chosen exam and click on ‘learning solutions update’ in the ‘Unit updates’ section in the sidebar.
Note that we keep our resources up-to-date with any updates from the CII.
Did You Miss These Posts on Our Blog?
Articles and Help for All Your Exams
You’ll find that there’s something for everyone when you check out our blog:
specific topics and how-to articles;
reviews of recent CII exam papers;
our Friday Five – a weekly quiz to give you a fun break from reading the study text;
study techniques that help you to retain your revision and keep your brain working for you, when you need it
Here are the blog posts you might have missed since our last newsletter:
There’s such a variety of information on offer to help you as you tackle your CII exams, that you won’t want to miss a single post. We’ve made it easy for you; just click the button below and enter your email details. Be ‘in the know’ with CII-exam-related tips and info – straight to your inbox!
Quote of the Month
..." Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it. "...
Henry David Thoreau
Friday 5 Focus on...
"5 Questions in 5 Minutes Every Friday"
Each week, we ask questions relating to one of these topics: Investments, Taxation, Pensions, Protection, or Regulation. The challenge is for you to answer them in 5 minutes.
Where do I find the Friday Five?
We post each week’s Friday Five to our blog first thing every Friday. You can either visit our blog every Friday at https://brandft.co.uk/blog/ or you can simply go there now, and click on the subscribe button in the top right-hand corner of the blog and sign up to receive notifications of our Friday Five posts.
Note that we don’t email the Friday Five out to everybody every Friday, so we recommend you sign up to our blog at https://brandft.co.uk/blog/ so that you receive an email notification when it is posted. It will only take you a minute to sign up.
A bit of Friday Fun, but with the added benefit of testing your exam knowledge!
