CF5 Advice

quadrantforce

Well i took my CF5 this morning, at the London Centre, and i'm not convinced it went entirely well. I might well have failed

For those taking this in future (of which i might be a part of!), one critical tip:

watch the time!

Although i knew the answers, i spent waaaay too long on certain questions, only to be surprised when there was only 15 minutes left and 30 marks with not a word written for them!!

Note to self: Be BRIEF......

Brum_Man

quadrantforce wrote: »

Well i took my CF5 this morning, at the London Centre, and i'm not convinced it went entirely well. I might well have failed

I know someone that took it this morning at the London centre, he said he didn't think it went well either! But that was mainly as he said there were a few pension questions in section one and he pension knowledge isn't that great.

The_Lodgeman

Does anyone have experience of Wizard Learning's CF5 website for exam help? I've used it for CF1-3 & 6 with some success (constant question practice works for me) but am reluctant to shell out for CF5 if, as it seems, its previous knowledge that you really need. Or any other website for that matter (Brand FT, Exam Angel etc)?

quadrantforce

Lodgeman:

I've used Wizard Learning for all the modules so far, and it's been fantastic, but for CF5: i wouldn't bother (having bought it and revised with it).

Your money would be better invested in the past papers book that you can buy from the CII (16 past questions) - when i do my re-take, i'll be sure to focus more on this than the Wizard module (which i actually think was detrimental, as the answers are still multi-choice on the website.....)

maxiseller

I did the CF5 exam on 14th July in Birmingham and it wasn't exactly what I was hoping for.

I had difficulty finding ten points about employers obligations with regard to stakeholder pensions, and the unit linked pension was also a pain.
The second question building the portfolio I feel went well however. I know a lot of people were unhappy when I came out; so whether the CII moderate it down remains to be seen. I'm not hopeful though.

Of course if I now fail, it means spending £150 updating my CF1-4 coursebooks after all the taxation changes this year.

I do agree with a previous poster; the CF5 coursebook is largely not needed. There is a useful case study discussion but once read, you'll discard the book. Save yourself £50!

Also wizardlearning.com is a great tool; but again not for CF5. A written exam is hard to emulate in online testing format. Examfinancial.com is also quite useful but they only have CF1 and 2 on there but its cheap.

Has anyone been on any of the CII one day courses for £200?

dunstonh

I had difficulty finding ten points about employers obligations with regard to stakeholder pensions

Yep. That would be hard as there is no obligation. That was abolished after a failed attempt by the Govt that was introduced in 2001 with the replacement coming in 2012. Of course, it could have been a trick question or it could be that the paper was based on the rules prior to the abolition of the employer requirements.

The obligations before were:
1 - if you employed more than 5 people and at least one paid NI then you had to offer a stakeholder scheme.
2 - you had to make your employees aware of it.
3 - you had to have evidence of the scheme if requested (otherwise face a fine of £50k)
4 - you could not refuse an employee who wanted to join it.
5 - it had to be available from day 1 with no restrictions.
6 - if you have an occupational pension scheme or Group personal pension then the employer is exempt from offering it.
7 - the scheme must be suitable.
8 - ability to make deductions from their pay must exist
9 - contributions must be made promptly to the pension provider
10 - cant think of a 10th

Brum_Man

maxiseller wrote: »

Has anyone been on any of the CII one day courses for £200?

Yes I went one one about a year ago as I too was having difficulty with the exam, not so much the material but how they wanted you to answer the question.

I found it really useful, not so much for the 1st half of the paper as half a day on that is not long to go over 4 coursebooks, but for the portfilio question I found it helped a lot. They virtually tell you what to put, and where to put silly little points that will gain you marks.

maxiseller

dunstonh wrote: »

Yep. That would be hard as there is no obligation. That was abolished after a failed attempt by the Govt that was introduced in 2001 with the replacement coming in 2012. Of course, it could have been a trick question or it could be that the paper was based on the rules prior to the abolition of the employer requirements.

The obligations before were:
1 - if you employed more than 5 people and at least one paid NI then you had to offer a stakeholder scheme.
2 - you had to make your employees aware of it.
3 - you had to have evidence of the scheme if requested (otherwise face a fine of £50k)
4 - you could not refuse an employee who wanted to join it.
5 - it had to be available from day 1 with no restrictions.
6 - if you have an occupational pension scheme or Group personal pension then the employer is exempt from offering it.
7 - the scheme must be suitable.
8 - ability to make deductions from their pay must exist
9 - contributions must be made promptly to the pension provider
10 - cant think of a 10th

That sounds about right. I would assume that they were examining on the past requirements then. That's about typical. The amount of times I've gone to put the wrong personal allowance, the wrong ISA limits etc because they examine the previous tax year limits until August is amazing!

Well, I think I've got about 3/10 then for the question we're talking about; maybe I got more on others; maybe they moderated the exam because of these questions...we'll see! Thanks for the reply.

wizardlearning

Wizard Learning has just launched a practice exam package for CF5. This includes 3 mock papers and a bank of short questions and answers. One of the mock papers is marked by a qualified assessor who provides feedback.

Well worth a look, as far as I am aware you can't get this marking and feedback service from any other website, take a look at www.wizardlearning.com

Kind regards

Mike

dunstonh

wizardlearning wrote: »

Wizard Learning has just launched a practice exam package for CF5. This includes 3 mock papers and a bank of short questions and answers. One of the mock papers is marked by a qualified assessor who provides feedback.

Well worth a look, as far as I am aware you can't get this marking and feedback service from any other website, take a look at www.wizardlearning.com

Kind regards

Mike

Why would you need to have them marked when the CII supply the answers to the mock papers?