The CII J07 February 2024 Exam in Review

Here, we are looking at the J07 exam – Supervision in a regulated environment – that was sat in the last exam sitting, February 2024. 

This article is correct as at 2 May 2024.

You can find the exam guide here. 

Question 1

The exam began with a question on the certification regime and the workplace roles it applies to. What initially seems like a straightforward question, candidates may have found tough to answer if they had spent time revising the rules and regulations of the certification regime but did not know, or memorise, the specific roles within a firm it covers.

Question 2

This question was a nice offering for 8 marks which required standard knowledge around the main competencies required of a manager.

Question 3

As always, the J07 exam included a question on leadership and/or behavioural models. This time, it was Belbin’s model on team roles that was tested. If candidates had revised the assets and liabilities of each team role, they would have picked up the majority of marks on offer.

Question 4

Communications is another subject that is almost always covered – this time around the focus was on two-way communications via face-to-face meetings and video calls. Candidates hopefully had a good go at answering the question based on their own experiences even if they had not revised this subject thoroughly.

Question 5

This question turned to the subject of recruitment and more specifically ‘person specifications’. The study text clearly sets out seven suggested elements that should be included in a person specification. If candidates had revised this section, they should have scored well.

Question 6

Question 6 covered the niche area of a pension transfer specialist and the requirement to have a Statement of Professional Standing. This is a less well-known part of the syllabus, but hopefully, candidates were familiar with the requirements from their revision or from their own experiences of working as or with individuals in specialist roles.

Question 7

Here the subject of counselling was tested: both the skills required to lead a counselling session and the three stages of counselling suggested by Michael Reddy. As with most of the J07 questions, if this section of the study text was revised thoroughly, good marks were available.

Question 8

We would have expected many candidates’ eyes to light up when they read this question which asked ‘List the twelve Principles for Businesses’. This is a well-known part of the syllabus and something hopefully many candidates would have covered in previous CII exams or possibly in their work-life training and CPD.

Question 9

The subject of the suitability report was examined in this question. Again, this is a well-known part of the syllabus that many individuals working in roles related to financial advice would be familiar with.

Question 10

Next, the three main elements of the annual appraisal process: performance review; potential review; and reward review, were tested. We hope that candidates were able to draw on their own experiences as well as their revision to answer this question in detail.

Question 11

The three key elements of corporate objectives were tested in Question 11. This seemed like a typical J07 question, so it was interesting to note in the examiners’ comments that candidates had misunderstood the requirements of the questions. We always advise candidates to read and re-read the question!

Question 12

Question 12 covered ISO 9000, the international standard relating to the framework within an organisation designed to deliver improvements and best practice. This is a niche part of the syllabus that would have picked up 8 straightforward marks if it had been revised thoroughly.

Question 13

This question focused on the benefits of exception reports when managing a team. Those who revised this section well would have scored highly.

Question 14

Candidates were asked to list the COCON rules applying to employees in a certified role and the three main objectives of disciplinary action for an employer. Again, it was a standard J07 question which hopefully most candidates scored highly on.

Question 15

The last question examined the candidate’s knowledge of employment tribunals in a client scenario. This is quite a niche area of the J07 syllabus so something that likely had to be memorised to gain good marks.

Comparison with the September 2023 Exam Paper

Let’s look at what was tested in the previous exam, held in September 2023, which can be found here.

The topics covered were:

• FCA’s conduct rules for individuals and senior managers.
• The competent employees rule.
• Risk-based approach to supervision.
• Kotter’s model of change management.
• Use of social media for communications.
• Fitness and propriety test for certified roles.
• Assessing training needs.
• Training and development plans.
• Six key stages of the financial advice process.
• UK GDPR.
• Balanced scorecards to measure performance.
• PESOS coaching structure.
• Performance reviews.
• Competency-based interviewing.
• Management information systems/RAG ratings.
• Equality Act 2010.

Overall, the February 2024 paper was very typical for a J07 exam. Some niche areas and some more mainstream areas were tested, and questions spread evenly across the syllabus. The wording of the questions was quite straightforward (we have definitely seen trickier in the past!) so we hope candidates who had revised well and practised answering many mock questions were able to gain the pass.

Grab the resources you need!

If you’re studying for your CII J07 exam, and you want to be fully prepared, grab our free taster to try out one of Brand Financial Training’s resources for yourself.  Click the link to download the J07 mock paper taster now!