Unexpected questions are an inevitable part of every CII exam, but they do not have to derail your result. Brand Financial Training shares practical techniques to help candidates stay calm, manage their time effectively and maximise marks when faced with difficult questions.
It’s likely that you’ll come across questions in your exam that you haven’t prepared for, that are worded differently from what you expected or are just darn difficult.
The key is not to let it throw you. A couple of tricky questions are unlikely to be the difference between a pass and a fail so here are our top three tips for dealing with these unexpected questions.
1. Move on
Most CII exams are time-sensitive. If you come across an unexpected question you can easily spend far longer than you should trying to work out how to answer it. Sometimes the best option is simply to quickly move on and come back to it later.
It sounds obvious, but it can be surprisingly difficult. Most people naturally want to tick off each question in their head before moving on, but that isn’t always the best approach. Pick up the low-hanging fruit first by making sure you’ve answered the questions that you do know well, then return to the trickier ones at the end.
The CII online system includes a feature to ‘flag’ a question. If you know you need to come back to the question, simply click the button labelled ‘Flag’ at the bottom right of the screen. This will add a flag icon to the question number, making it easier to identify.
Note: for the written exams when you go back to the question you’ll need to click ‘edit’ to amend your answer.
Ensure you practise with the CII familiarisation tests so you know how to move between answers quickly.
2. Don’t panic
Again, easier said than done, particularly if a number of these tricky questions appear early in the exam. Try to keep in mind, if you’re well prepared, you’ll know a lot of the content throughout the whole exam and there will be a lot of easier questions too.
For CII exams, there is no negative marking, so for written exams, if you’re unsure, write down anything you do know about the subject and for multiple choice exams, take a guess. You won’t be penalised for any wrong answers. Then flag the question!
3. Break it down
If you come back to a question and still nothing springs to mind, try not to just stare at it, try to break it down. Look carefully at what the question is actually asking and identify any key words.
Ask yourself:
- What topic is the question testing? What do I know about this subject? For a written exam, it’s a good idea to write what you can think of that relates to that subject, as you may well pick up a couple of marks just for stating the obvious.
- If you’re struggling to recall the technical knowledge needed to answer the question, think “can I apply some common sense here?”– you’ll be surprised how often you can!
- For multiple-choice questions, rule out answer options where you can -, going through and eliminating the answers you know, or are relatively sure are wrong, can significantly improve your chances of selecting the correct answer. If you can’t, and you have to just guess, you’ve still got a 25% chance of a correct answer!
Summary
Unexpected questions are a normal part of exams. The important thing is not to let them derail your whole exam.
Move on, don’t panic and break the question down. Keep your focus on collecting the marks you know you can get, then return to the questions that need more thought.
To find out more about how Brand Financial Training can support you with your studies, you can head to their website at: https://brandft.co.uk/
Main image: written, glasses, exam, isabella-fischer-LXDFEdtEGUQ-unsplash
