We spend a lot of time focusing on celebrating when someone passes their financial services exams – and rightfully so. But what about when someone doesn’t pass?
In today’s world where social media is flooded with success stories, it can seem like everyone is succeeding except you. But rest assured, that’s not the case.
Here, I want to look at ways candidates can use their exam experiences for positive outcomes in the future.
The first thing to say is don’t beat yourself up. Statistically, candidates are likely to fail at least one of their exams on the journey to the Chartered Insurance Institute’s (CII) diploma, and more than one on the way to chartered.
Most CII exams have pass rates closer to 50%
None of the CII exams have a 100% pass rate. Far from it – most of them have pass rates closer to 50%. There is a level of prestige associated with the achievement of CII qualifications – if they were easy, everyone would do them!
Failure is part of the process and part of life, and it’s OK not to pass and have to re-sit.
Self-reflection
It’s easy to look to apportion blame when we don’t get the result we hoped for. Perhaps the examiner was too harsh or the study text was too long? This might be true but some self-reflection is important too.
Analysing where things went wrong is crucial. Sometimes the issue is clear, such as not dedicating enough time to studying. The CII exams require a lot of effort and a lot of commitment and, with work commitments and family life, it can be hard to find the balance. Giving yourself extra time is always a good idea.
If you are struggling to understand why you didn’t pass, the CII offers a post-results review of marking for its written exam
The issues could also be related to exam timings or exam techniques. Practising mock papers, studying exam guides or reaching out for help from training providers or colleagues may be the answer for you. Either way, understanding and identifying what went wrong can only help improve your performance in the future.
If you are struggling to understand why you didn’t pass, the CII offers a post-results review of marking for its written exam, which may be worth considering, as you will receive a feedback report outlining areas for improvement.
Work to your strengths
Each of us has a natural affinity for certain topics or subjects that others might struggle with. If you are someone who finds calculation questions difficult, you’re likely to need more time revising for the CII’s taxation exam (R03) than someone who is naturally strong with numbers.
Recognising this about yourself, and giving yourself that extra time, practice and support is important because, without it, you’ll find the exam a lot harder to pass.
Luck of the draw
Different people have different strengths and, for a lot of CII exams, there is an element of randomisation in the question selection, so it can sometimes just come down to luck whether you get questions you know the answers to or not.
The pass mark for CII multiple-choice exams is typically around 65%, which leads some candidates to believe they only need to know 65% of the syllabus.
Allowing enough time for each part of your study is important so that you can go into your exam feeling confident
While that logic might be correct, if you get more questions than anticipated on the subjects you didn’t revise, then you will not perform as well. For this reason, its best to aim to learn 100% of the syllabus, and if that means spending more time learning and revising, it might be the best (and cheaper) option in the long run.
Realistic time limits
Allowing enough time for each part of your study is important so that you can go into your exam feeling confident. We often hear from candidates who want to access resources such as mock papers, and they’ll tell us their exam is next week, or even tomorrow.
If you sit a mock paper the day before your exam, and you don’t reach the pass mark, how can you cram in the additional revision needed in less than the day you’ve got left?
Equally, booking an exam with only two or three weeks’ revision time is probably a mistake, unless you’ve got 30+ hours a week to devote to studying. Just because someone you know sat their exam with only a few days revision, doesn’t mean it’s advisable.
Trying again and getting that pass is the most important thing, even if it takes multiple re-sits
We believe study plans are a vital element of exam success and candidates should always consider what they need to revise, how much time they need to study and how much time they have available and then set a realistic timescale for the exam.
Be realistic about the amount of time you can afford to spend revising each week and work backwards from there – if you can do seven hours per week, you probably need around 10 weeks lead up to your exam.
Sometimes, even though you’ve done everything you could, you revised as much as you could, for as long as you could and you took extra training, you still might not get the pass.
That’s OK, dust yourself off and try again. Trying again and getting that pass is the most important thing, even if it takes multiple re-sits.
Catriona Standingford is managing director of Brand Financial Training
Do people still take CII exams these days ?
They take an age to get through and are chock full of topics that nobody ever uses in the real world.
We moved to the CISI qualification a few years ago. We find the CISI learning material more readable and get our people through much quicker.