For CII exam candidates that don’t hit the pass mark with a written exam, a remark, otherwise known as a ‘post results review’ can be obtained – but how do you go about doing it and is it worth it? Brand Financial Training share some insights, to help inform paraplanners in making a decision on whether to request a remark.
A remark, or ‘post results review of marking’ to give it its full title, is only available for written exam papers where candidates do not meet the pass mark.
We do hear from candidates who, although they have passed, had hoped for a higher result and would have liked feedback on their paper but this isn’t currently available.
To access a review, this must be done within 4 weeks of the results being posted and costs £90.
Is it worth it?
Sometimes, it can result in further marks being added to the original result if a valid answer was unfairly ignored or missed by the examiner.
Whether this is enough to push the score over the pass mark will depend on how far short of the pass mark the paper was but, it is unlikely to gain more than a few marks.
That said, it can be worthwhile requesting the review for feedback on performance.
Before CII exams were available online, paper exams were much more susceptible to missed marks, either because the handwriting was too hard to read or the totals were added up incorrectly.
Now, exams are typed and submitted online which has helped to reduce the amount of missed marks.
Additionally, a substantial amount of effort is made by marking teams within the CII to work together to ensure that each paper is marked consistently and therefore each candidate has the same opportunity to succeed.
Here is the process (as we understand it)
The paper and marks are sent to an examiner to review. The examiner will check that the mark scheme was applied correctly to the candidate’s answers – this means, they will review the answers given, the mark scheme, and where marks were awarded.
If there were any marks not awarded that should have been, these will be subsequently added to the paper’s score and may result in a pass.
If this doesn’t result in a pass (spoiler alert: it most often doesn’t), a feedback report is provided.
If the paper’s score is changed and it tips the candidate over the pass mark, the score is amended and the review fee refunded.
Refunds can also be given if the next sitting of the exam was booked prior to the review being completed.
The feedback report
If the paper is still below the pass mark, the feedback report is produced within around 35 days.
It will show the exam question and state whether the answer did or didn’t meet the standard required.
It will confirm the parts of the model answers that were included in the candidate’s answer and were awarded marks, and the parts of the model answers that could have gained a mark that weren’t mentioned.
What the feedback report doesn’t show is the candidate’s original full answers marked point by point.
As a result, if candidates can’t remember exactly what they wrote, it can be tricky to tell whether the issue was a missed point, insufficient detail, or a misunderstanding of the question.
However, the report does include feedback on performance and areas for improvement.
For example, the examiner may point out that the candidate failed to link answers more closely to the information in the case study or they need to provide greater depth in their responses.
For some exams, feedback is given for each individual question; for others, it appears as a high-level summary at the end of the report – the approach seems to vary across exam teams.
Summary
Often when a review is requested, candidates don’t know what to expect and what it will, or won’t, tell them. Most are simply just hoping for an improvement in their mark to get them over the line.
However, we think it’s also worth considering for those who are left scratching their head as to why they didn’t pass, especially if the model answers in the exam guide didn’t provide the explanation they needed. At a cost of £90, it is up to a candidate to decide if this is worth it!
About Brand Financial Training: https://brandft.co.uk
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