R02 help please

Andy_Schleider

I have my R02 exam at the end of July and was wondering whether anyone can recommend anything to help with my mental block on a few subjects, and whether places like Exam Angel/Wizard Learning are any good? I saw someone mention Exam Financial from a forum a few years ago but they appear to be no longer in existence.  Alternatively, is there anything in particular I should focus on (eg top slicing on bonds/dividend cover on shares, etc)?

Any help, even at this late stage would be appreciated  

Jamie_Barnes

Have you tried Aviva Adviser Academy yet? that's completely free and has plenty of materials including shortened chapter summaries and practise tests. The practise tests tend to be more tricky than the real thing so is a good place to guage your knowledge (never thought i'd be recommending Aviva for anything!)

Focus wise, I remember lots of questions on portfolio theory and also needing to do quite a few of the basic formulaic calculations they give you, but it does vary from test to test so mine was stacked towards the first few chapters.

Hucko

Andy, I concur totally with Jamie on Aviva Adviser Academy. The summaries are extremely useful as last minute revision aids, and the practice exams are also very testing. I did practice exams 2 & 3 approx. 2 weeks and 1 week before and got marks of 58% and 68% and then achieved 82% in the actual exam!!

Andy_Schleider

Yes, I have the Aviva practice exams - I got 54% and then 59% in practice exam A (they were several weeks apart), then 49% in practice exam B recently, which is why I'm panicking!!!

WoollyDragon

I've failed this exam twice and can't put my finger on which part has the block.

I used Wizard learning and seemed to be doing well with it but then the exam was completely different and I wasn't confident in my answers.

Try not to panic and good luck.

Jamie_Barnes

Andy_S said:

Yes, I have the Aviva practice exams - I got 54% and then 59% in practice exam A (they were several weeks apart), then 49% in practice exam B recently, which is why I'm panicking!!!

I found the Aviva exams to be much tougher as they would purposely throw in trick questions and really make you read the question thoroughly, so I don't think there is any need to panic. I had a brief look at R08 practise paper last night and the second question on there was about tapered annual allowance - but then 15/16 tax year so didn't apply anyway!

reecegunn

How long did you take to study for the R02 exam? Would 2 months of approx 1-2 hour(s) every weekday be sufficient do you think? 

I recently passed R01 within a 3 month study period but if 2 months is realistic for the R02 I'd like to try that instead.

Jona

I think they state a guide of 80 hours revision / study per R0 - but I seem to recall doing a lot more than that for them (but I am a bit thick).

Andy_Schleider

I took about 10 weeks based on around 6-7 hours per week but I know someone who did it in around 4 weeks.  That said, he doesn't have a family or social life!!!

PeterM

Jamie_Barnes said:

Have you tried Aviva Adviser Academy yet? that's completely free and has plenty of materials including shortened chapter summaries and practise tests. The practise tests tend to be more tricky than the real thing so is a good place to guage your knowledge (never thought i'd be recommending Aviva for anything!)

Focus wise, I remember lots of questions on portfolio theory and also needing to do quite a few of the basic formulaic calculations they give you, but it does vary from test to test so mine was stacked towards the first few chapters.

I would agree with Jamie's comments about Aviva Adviser Academy, I used their stuff a lot when I was studying and it was a good help.  Scottish Widows also had some good support materials as did Zurich but this was a few years ago just after RDR so I'm not sure if it is still there.

In terms of how long it took me to study, I honestly can't remember but it was nowhere near the 80 hours the CII recommended.

I always found that the best way to study for the RO exams (for me at least), was to do a practice paper straight away and see how I got on (usually a fail by a long long way).   

Then I would read the full text book and do a practice paper again.  

I would then check the areas that I answered incorrectly and re-read the relevant sections and then do another practice paper.  I basically kept doing this until I was getting enough marks to pass the relevant paper.  I also practiced the various calculations using random examples until I was happy that I could remember the formula and kept repeating the chapter questions on RevisionMate until I could answer them all correctly.

A final pointer would be not to rely too heavily on the CII RevisionMate practice paper for any RO exam as I always found that these were considerably easier than the actual exams.

Jamie_Barnes

Essentially, i found once the book had been read and practise questions attempted, you get into a routine of identifying that of the four possible answers they give you, at least one will be uter nonsense, and then with careful reading of the question and applying the knowledge obtained you can normally narrow it down to just one or two possible correct answers.

R02 leads into R03 quite well as there is a fair bit on tax in the investment exam; I took R02 and R03 one after the other within 4 weeks and passed both first time (though barely passed R03 it must be said!)