Who Has Done Their CII/DIP CII/ACII?

dranzer01

From my view on the grid they showed me, it seemed like if you wanted to, you could pick the modules which were just 'assignment' based instead of doing the exams. Or is exam compulsoty?

Trillain

The CII are changing the exams to be mixed assessment at diploma level by 2018. They piloted this on the insurance business and finance unit M92. Instead of a 3-hour written exam, you take a multi-choice exam and coursework. You have to submit the coursework within a 6-month window after enrolling and sit the exam within 18 months. At the moment most of the units can be sat on the old style starting with P and only four are available at mixed assessment those with an M.
This will do away with October and April sittings. So depending on which you prefer you can choose your options accordingly, for now.

dranzer01

Trillain wrote: »

The CII are changing the exams to be mixed assessment at diploma level by 2018. They piloted this on the insurance business and finance unit M92. Instead of a 3-hour written exam, you take a multi-choice exam and coursework. You have to submit the coursework within a 6-month window after enrolling and sit the exam within 18 months. At the moment most of the units can be sat on the old style starting with P and only four are available at mixed assessment those with an M.
This will do away with October and April sittings. So depending on which you prefer you can choose your options accordingly, for now.

Based on that id definitely prefer to do the coursework with the multiple choice exams! rather than straight out exams!

Rossim1985

Trillain wrote: »

The CII are changing the exams to be mixed assessment at diploma level by 2018. They piloted this on the insurance business and finance unit M92. Instead of a 3-hour written exam, you take a multi-choice exam and coursework. You have to submit the coursework within a 6-month window after enrolling and sit the exam within 18 months. At the moment most of the units can be sat on the old style starting with P and only four are available at mixed assessment those with an M.
This will do away with October and April sittings. So depending on which you prefer you can choose your options accordingly, for now.

A colleague told me about these recent changes the other day, I think it's such a massive improvement! I had no idea that there was now a multiple choice option at Diploma level.

I found the Cert level exams very easy and did them all pretty close together back in 2008 but after trying and failing two 3 hour written Diploma exams not long after I'm ashamed to say I did sort of give up with it!

I've worked in the London market since 2008 and I think it's fair to say that there are more Dip and ACII qualified people in underwriting than in broking. As someone else said there are a few Lloyds syndicates that insist on it. I've never heard of a broker insisting on it, but I guess it's possible.

In my opinion contacts and reputation are sometimes just as important as your actual working experience. The London market is pretty small and it seems sometimes that almost everyone knows each other, especially if you specialise in a particular niche and when you start to get older / higher up the ladder.

A couple of years back when I went for an interview at one of the big 3 brokers, two underwriters I worked with told me they'd had calls from the prospective employer basically asking 'what's he like, is he any good etc'. Thankfully they were both people I got on well with so they put a good word in! I then went and flunked the second interview but that was entirely my fault! Basically where I'm going with this is that it's never a good idea to p*#s people off, be it former colleagues (no matter how much you hate them) or underwriters (or I suppose brokers if you are an underwriter, I'm sure it would work both ways).

If you want to go down the underwriter route though I think it's a good idea to have at least the Dip. If you ever need some good insurance recruiters send me a PM, because there are plenty of totally useless ones out there that's for sure!

FlameCloud

Rossim1985 wrote: »

A colleague told me about these recent changes the other day, I think it's such a massive improvement! I had no idea that there was now a multiple choice option at Diploma level.

I found the Cert level exams very easy and did them all pretty close together back in 2008 but after trying and failing two 3 hour written Diploma exams not long after I'm ashamed to say I did sort of give up with it!

I think its an awful idea designed only to get more people passed and money rolling into the CII. If people are not technically capable of answering the exam they shouldn't get the qualification - all multiple choice does is let people make guesses (by default they should get 25% right and its only what, a 50% pass mark, 40% if they do their CA)

My biggest pet peeve though with multiple choice is that they dont force the candidate into justifying their answer - so they could just recite the text book without actually understanding why they are giving an answer.

dranzer01

FlameCloud wrote: »

I think its an awful idea designed only to get more people passed and money rolling into the CII. If people are not technically capable of answering the exam they shouldn't get the qualification - all multiple choice does is let people make guesses (by default they should get 25% right and its only what, a 50% pass mark, 40% if they do their CA)

My biggest pet peeve though with multiple choice is that they dont force the candidate into justifying their answer - so they could just recite the text book without actually understanding why they are giving an answer.

lol i see where you are coming from. Im going to be honest... if I knew CII were strictly examinations (all 3 hours) to advance all the way to ACII, i probably wouldnt take it (maybe i would just to see...)

I know within me i am absolutely no good at exams whatsoever, just do not have the attention span.

So by them doing multiple choice it allows the person to tap into their subconscious of what they remember the answer to be (or closely to be)

/

back to what the above poster said, thats definitely true; seems like brokers dont ask for qualification... they dont really care; but if yo uwant to be higher than that (underwriter/actuary/adjuster) etc then thats where they will ask for qualifications for sure!

/

ive re-booked my LM2 for tuesday so for the love of god, i hope i pass it again... an intense 5 day revisionmate study for me (even though it seems the questions from revisionmate do not come up in the actual exam... ) -_-

westv

I passed my ACIi back in 1997. It was so much harder back then.:D

dranzer01

The diploma part really does look confusing

They have sent me a pamphlet showing the stages and breakdowns and units you can take to become qualified.

On the right is a colour grid showing what the colour means

so yellow means: written exam (only for DIP CII & ACII status)

(Tested in april and october, includes a 'continuous assessment' option - allowing completion of assignments which count towards the final exam mark.)

purple: multiple choice

(only for CERT CII status)

black: dissertation

(only for ACII status)

green: coursework assignments

(only for ACII status)


can someone explain the yellow?

bouncydog1

When I did my DIP, you could do continuous assessments which meant submitting responses to various questions to your assessor. These were marked and returned with feedback. Going this route (which I didn't) could provide an allowance of up to 10% of the examination marks.

The examination part is as it says - you study the coursebooks for each subject and book yourself in for the exams which are held twice a year in April and October. The CII publish an exam timetable which will give details of times and dates for each exam.

From memory the exams were about 3 hours each, and were comprised of a series of short answer and essay questions. There should be full details on the website.

Strongly recommend that you also follow up on other areas that the coursebooks do not have much detail on. One of my questions was on IFRS which was fairly brief in the textbook and one of the high markers in the exam!!

CaseyN

smifffy1989 wrote: »

I am doing the Dip CII & ACII currently, I found the law module (PO5) difficult and I would say it is only for the committed as coming home every evening and studying is not fun.

starrystarry wrote: »

PO5 was horrid. It was one of the compulsory units for my underwriting diploma. I can honestly say, of the ten CII exams I've done that was by far the most tedious.

Hi guys, looking for some expert advice;

I'm working in Germany in a non-underwriting-role for a UK insurance company. My company places great value on CII qualifications (probably because the UK is the home and main market) and fully pays for the exams. So far I've done LM1&2, P92 and P86. Key motivation has been that even though I'm not an underwriter (and don't have a desire to become one) I do see the general value in thoroughly understanding what the business is about.

Current CII situation: I'm two exams away from a Dip CII qualification, one of which would have to be the mandatory P05 hurdle. Apart from reading it's quite difficult, it also seems this exam -even more so than any other- is extremely UK focused, and I'm really in doubt if it's worth the effort. P86 ('Personal insurances') already gave me great doubts what the hell I was spending my time on.

Do you feel P05 is of any use to a person working in the non-UK insurance business? (If I'd decide to not do P05 I'd essentially be deciding to completely quit the CII program --given that P05 is mandatory)

Any and all thoughts and advice would be greatly appreciated..