What does the CII expect and what will give you the best chance of gaining marks? This article from Brand Financial Training helps with with exam technique and marking for 2019, particularly in Advanced Diploma Level Exams, AF1, AF2, AF4, AF5, AF7, Diploma Level Exams, R06.
This post was originally published on the Brand Financial Training Blog and has been reproduced here with their permission. All content © Brand Financial Training.
1. Be specific and not too generic – keep the clients in mind at all time.
This is particularly true for the advanced financial planning exams where answers should be related to the actual case study. If they are not, there is a risk you won’t be awarded the mark.
2. Use bullet points.
Not only will the examiner be delighted as bullet points are a lot easier to mark (and easier to find if they are not hidden in a lot of text). Using bullet points doesn’t come naturally to some, and a lot of candidates continue to write pages and pages of text, but it’s worth taking the time to practise. You’ll find that bullet points save you time, and importantly, prevent you from waffling – which rarely results in extra marks.
3. Use the number of marks available as an indicator of how many points are needed.
If the question is for 8 marks, you will be expected to make 8 different points – one point wouldn’t be given 2 marks. However two marks might be within one sentence for example: ‘Their home is owned as joint tenants (for 1 mark) therefore Julie will inherit Tom’s share (for 1 mark)’.
The examiner will look for the correct points throughout your whole answer, i.e. they won’t just mark the first 8 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 (clumsy finger on the calculator, for example), 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.
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