As part of our Ask the Experts series, we put your exam and study questions to the Brand Financial Training team.
We’ll be publishing their answers every day this week. Check the website daily or read via the link on our daily email.
Today we answer four questions around the studying for and taking the R0 set of exams.
Paraplanner question: I’m about to start studying for R03 what would be the biggest piece of advice you can offer?
Brand Financial Training answer: One thing you can be sure about with R03 is that you will be tested on bond taxation, National Insurance, Inheritance Tax, and basic Income Tax calculations (with questions designed to test your ability to apply the personal savings allowance or dividend allowance) and occasionally a question on the 0% starting rate for savings income.
Note, the last area often causes problems for candidates so make sure you practise, practise, practise. If you see a question with a relatively low amount of earned income with some savings income, then it’s probably this they’re testing you on. The starting rate is only available where savings income falls within the first £5,000 of taxable income so if earned income is £17,570 or more, then the starting rate for savings is not available.
There’s no magic formula for passing R03, but focusing on these key subjects that come up time and time again will help you feel well prepared for exam day.
Paraplanner question: Is there a knack for answering the multi-response questions (MRQ)?
Brand Financial Training answer: These can often feel harder than the standard format questions, but in reality, there’s no difference, you are just eliminating fewer options.
The key point to remember is that at least two of the options are correct and MOST of the time it is just two.
In the latest exam guides, for example, the number of questions with two correct options were;
R01 – 11 out of the 13
R02 – 22 of the 28
R03 – 9 out of 11
R04 – 10 out of 11
All the rest had three correct options. NOTE – there were no questions where all options were correct!
Paraplanner question: I’m struggling with the technical content of R04 what do you suggest I do?
Brand Financial Training answer: You are not alone!! We would suggest practising plenty of mock questions which will help you to identify the specific subjects that need extra work. You can then focus your efforts in these areas. Many mock questions are, as per the exam, based around a client scenario and sometimes working through such questions can bring the technical content to life and can often provide a lightbulb moment for some of the trickier concepts. Some mock questions may also provide a rationale of the answers which can help with understanding.
There is also plenty of other good quality support out there. It could be online training courses or, a cheaper alternative, such as video tutorials or audio resources all of which will offer an alternative way of explaining the technical content – it’s really a case of trying out the different options to see what suits your style of learning.
Paraplanner question: I’ve passed R01 and R05 and am about to take R02 which I’m told is harder especially due to the time constraints, can you give me your thoughts?
Brand Financial Training answer: Yes, 2 hours for 100 questions including a number of calculations is demanding. The 2 hours will fly by so do keep an eye on the timer; you really don’t want to be running out of time, especially when you get to the 28 multi-response questions.
Some questions, however, may seem a lot more time consuming than others. For example, the R02 examiner does like a table! Be prepared to be given tables of information from product information, to client information, to how assets correlate. These types of questions can take longer than others, so it is a great relief when a question takes just a matter of seconds to answer, leaving a bit of extra time in the bag for those that do take some thinking about.
Rather than spending a whole lot of time on one or two questions you could ‘flag’ the really tricky ones to come back to later in order to get to some comfortable quick wins.
As with our tips above for R04 (in fact any exam!) do practise mock questions as it’ll prepare you for the types of R02 question and practise, practise, practise will help speed you up on exam day. Also doing a full mock paper under exam conditions is particularly beneficial for R02 so you can practise your timings.
Need help with your CII exams? For resources including mock exam papers and e-mocks, calculation workbooks, revision notes, audio masterclasses and video tutorials do visit Brand Financial Training at https://brandft.co.uk, including free taster versions!
