This is the final unit needed to achieve the CII Diploma in Regulated Financial Planning. It brings together all the knowledge gained throughout the previous five units. Candidates cannot achieve their level 4 qualification or apply for their Statement of Professional Standing (SPS) without a pass in the R06 exam to complete their Diploma.
The R06 exam is a three-hour written exam based on case studies released two and a half weeks prior to the exam sitting. Worth 30 credits and with a recommended 100 hours of study, this is a chunky unit that needs serious attention. The R06 exam can be sat four times a year (January / April / July and October usually), so if a candidate fails, they have to wait a while until the next sitting.
| Exam | Recommended study hours | Credits | Pass mark | National pass rate (2022) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| R06 Financial planning practice | 100 | 30 | 55% | 71% |
The biggest challenge is that this exam is not made up of multi-choice questions and answers. All a candidate is faced with are the questions and a blank screen to type their answers on (pre pandemic this was a written exam). Which takes some getting used to and lots of practice on question answering techniques.
Candidates can type War and Peace, think they have nailed all the questions because they put a lot down, and six weeks later find themselves facing a ‘fail’ result. It’s not the volume of your answers, it’s more about answering the question being asked, relating answers back to the case study scenario, and make sure you give the examiner a good spread of answers. Which sometimes is easier said than done.
And don’t let anyone tell you this is an easy unit…The national pass rate for R06 in 2021 was 74%.
An R06 pass requires three things:
If one of these elements goes awry, then a candidate is likely to have to resit the R06 exam. To help you to build your R06 study plan, again we have put together a range of study and training options in our BTS R06 Study Toolkit.
This approach has helped thousands of trainee financial advisers, paraplanners, administrators and managers pass the R0 exams on their first attempt.
The first step in your R06 preparation is to work through the BTS R06 study guide. This guide will get you started on the right exam track in terms of your question answering techniques.
It will introduce you to key techniques and mnemonics to help answer the questions in a way the CII R06 examiner will love. It is full of practice case studies that enable you to learn and then practise these techniques on.
BTS offer remote workshops for each R06 exam sitting. We have analysed and produced an analysis for every single sitting of the R06 exam.
The workshop is delivered live online in the week following the release of the exam case studies. BTS designers analyse the two case studies and produce possible examination questions and answers. These materials then form the basis of the workshop.
On the workshop you will work with a BTS expert to develop an understanding of what the examiner is looking for and how to approach the questions. But the workshop is more than that – an R06 pass is not achieved by just memorising questions and answers. We discuss and practice the key question answering techniques and revise possible technical areas that may be needed.
The BTS R06 Case Study Analysis e-Learning module is available to purchase within days of the release of the CII case studies. It allows you to work through your R06 case study analysis at your own pace, with the BTS team behind you all the way.
BTS R06 designers start work on this analysis the minute the exam case studies are released. This enables the module to be available for purchase early the week after Friday’s case study issue day.
You can pre-order the analysis in advance of the release date. This gives you immediate access to the analysis for the previous sitting plus the analysis for the current sitting as soon as it becomes available.
BTS R06 workshop attendees receive access to the e-Learning module as part of their workshop booking fee.
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Below, you will find a range of recent articles providing insights, help and advice for this R0, we hope you find these useful. Remember if you have any questions on your journey feel free to get in touch with the BTS support team.
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