In this guide we will cover how to prepare to retake the Business Planning: Insurance exams including reviewing what went wrong and how to prepare to retake your exam.
Reviewing what went wrong
The Business Planning: Insurance examining team frequently comment that where somebody fails an exam session, it is seldom due to a poor performance in one question, but rather a performance below pass standard in at least two of the three questions.
A slight quirk of the Business Planning: Insurance sessions to date has been that the retake pass rate has been slightly above the first-time pass rate. Examiners tell us they don’t know which candidates are first time attempts and which are retakes until the results come through, so we know that no special leniency is shown to retake candidates! It therefore appears that there is a pattern of candidates performing better on second and subsequent attempts at the exam.
It appears likely that the most common cause of not achieving a pass in Business Planning: Insurance is not having been able to dedicate enough time to study at the first attempt. This should probably be encouraging, in a surprising sort of way – as a retake candidate, you are now statistically more likely to pass than the first-time attempts are!
How to prepare to retake your exam
Very soon after an exam session’s results are issued, ICAEW publishes the student mark plan and examiners’ comments. This is a model answer and a commentary on where candidates performed well and less well. This can be a very useful indicator of where you might have come unstuck in the exam. It is probably the last thing that you want to do, but consider attempting the exam that you failed again, under exam conditions and ask a tutor for feedback.
Be honest with yourself before you do this. If you were unable to give enough time to preparation for the exam session, it is probably better to re-revise what you did on your revision course and allow yourself a bit more time to get to grips with the Business Planning: Insurance syllabus before you make a second attempt at the exams you failed to pass. You will get more from that exercise once you know that you are more thoroughly prepared.
The question bank provides plenty of past exam questions. Maybe attempt the questions from recent exams that you did not study on your courses to date.
Advice from CABA
b. Reducing exam stress
c. Resilience