Following the results from the February 2021 R06 sitting we have dusted off our keyboard again in relation to the Financial Planning Practice exam.
Reflections from the February 2021 sitting
Some of our candidates achieved amazing marks. 116 (a distinction) was the highest mark amongst our students. For many this was the last paper to achieve their level 4 qualification so we were delighted to have helped them on the way to this amazing achievement.
A few missed out on a pass, and they were shocked as they thought they had done enough. Everyone reading this – please don’t think R06 is an easy paper! It needs a lot of preparation and hard work before you get to the actual exam case studies.
What is the R06 exam like?
This exam is very different to R01 to R05. The answers are not in front of you, but instead you have to write/type some quality answers into a blank screen. Questions are based on two case studies that are pre released a few weeks before the actual exam sitting date. You need 82 marks out of a possible 150 to pass (55%). How difficult can that be??
Well, really difficult without the right approach and a shedload of preparation and hard work. The CII recommend a minimum of 100 study hours. BTS have encountered many candidates that have had multiple goes at this exam and just cannot get the required 82 marks.
So what do BTS recommend as the first ‘top tip’?
Candidate should start by purchasing and working through the BTS R06 study guide. Now this is an extra expense as the R06 exam cannot be booked standalone (there’s that lovely CII Professionalism, Standards and Trust at work for you). But it’s so worth it – the BTS guide gets you started down the road of answering R06 questions in the right way, one of the elements that is key to an exam pass. It is packed full of practice case studies and questions and guides you on required techniques.
What’s the next ‘top tip’?
From there we recommend you get your hands on as many past R06 exam guides as possible. These are previous exam papers that give you the case studies, the questions and asked and the answers.
Candidates should aim to sit and self-mark at least one of these a week.
This helps you practice your question answering techniques further, and also shows you that certain questions types are repeated in every single R06 exam sitting. If you can nail these marks you are well on your way to getting an R06 exam pass.
What’s our final tip?
Get enrolled on an R06 workshop. This is where you will concentrate on your exam case studies. You will get to know them, look at possible questions and answers that could come up, have discussion with both the BTS facilitator and the study group. You end up learning from both BTS and each other.
Some candidates look at the cost of a workshop and baulk at the price (and it ain’t cheap as providers have to design the materials afresh for every sitting). Those that attend always leave thinking how much they learnt from the two days. An R06 exam pass is not about just learning possible questions and answers but learning, discussing and practising the exam techniques required to:
- identify the key words in each question stem
- answer the question being asked (not your own version of it)
- write/type around the answers to give the R06 examiner a good spread of answers
- avoid going down the wrong angle and squandering marks
- know how to practice and bank the marks from questions that appear in every R06 exam sitting
BTS have supported every single sitting of the R06 exam since its introduction.
We are offering two, 2-day workshop dates to candidates for the April exam sitting:
6th/7th and 8th/9th April 2021. Reserve your space using the button below: