Examination Hints and Tips

• Basic Preparation
• Examinations - Multiple Choice Questions
• Examinations - Short Answer / Essay Questions

Basic Preparation

It may seem rather obvious to mention the following points but nevertheless, you should make sure you know them:

• The date, time and place of the examination
• Remember to seek permission from your line manager for leave of absence to sit the examination - please do this well in advance of the examination date
• Ascertain how to get to the venue and how long it takes, allowing a suitable margin for traffic delays - at all costs avoid arriving late for your exam or you may not be admitted to the exam room
• Remember to take a spare pen and pencil, different coloured pens, ruler, rubber, non-programmable calculator with new batteries etc.
• Don't forget to bring your exam attendance record and photo identification, e.g. passport.

Examinations - Multiple Choice Questions

In addition to the Introduction to Financial Services examination, all subjects in the following qualifications are examined by the use of 100 multiple choice questions:

• The Diploma in Financial Services
• The Certificate in Financial Services
• The Certificate in Sales and Service
• The Certificate in Call Centre Operations
• The Certificate in Credit Union Practice

This section is therefore devoted to those students who undertake this type of examination and provides a few facts, hints and tips on how to deal with them. The principles discussed here will also be helpful to students undertaking any of the Regulatory Qualification Framework (RQF) examinations - these examinations will either be 100 traditional multiple choice questions, or may be combined with further multiple choice questions based on Case Studies.

In multiple choice examinations you normally have less time than written examinations - for all non-RQF subjects you have a maximum of two hours in which to answer the 100 questions, each of which has four possible answers.

The questions will normally have a series of response options which may include:

• The correct answer
• The almost but not quite correct answer
• The half right and half wrong answer
• The very wrong and perhaps even ridiculous answer.

The distraction answers are there to make you think! What you need to do is carefully read the question and decide what you believe is the correct option.

The multiple choice questions are drawn from a bank of questions stored on computer and are randomly selected for each exam .

• Begin with a careful reading of the instructions and a look at the structure of the paper
• There is no need to read the paper before you begin to answer if you do not have a choice of questions - instead go through the paper answering the questions you are sure of, as this will stimulate your thoughts and help you recall information, putting you in a more active frame of mind for when you go back to the start and give more thought to the remaining questions
• Careful reading of each question is essential in identifying the correct answer, so be sure to read all the alternatives before making your selection - especially if the first answer seems correct
• Look out for statements with 'not' in them or worse still responses which also have a negative
• Do not spend too long on each question - you can always go back to it later
• Remember, each question carries the same mark whether straightforward or difficult
• Sometimes, you may not always be given a perfect answer - you must then choose the best possible answer
• With difficult items, try the following approach:

• Read the question and then the first possible answer. Next, read the question again and the second possible answer and so on until you have read the question with each separate answer. Breaking the items down this way will often help you identify the option that most logically answers the question
• Try not to look at the answers when you return to difficult questions. Instead, supply your own answer and then look for the option which is closest to your response

• Guessing the answer is not recommended, unless you really don't have a clue what the question is about - if you revise well and know your stuff, you won't need to guess!

Finally, practice on the Mock Exams available on this site - this will f amiliarise you with the style of questions which are likely to be asked and will let you see the format of the actual screens you will encounter in the examination itself.

Examinations - Short Answer / Essay Questions

All subjects in the following qualifications are examined by the use of short answer / essay type questions:

• Chartered Banker
• Diploma in Business & Corporate Banking
• Diploma in Customer Relationship Management
• Diploma in Call Centre Management
• Diploma in Operational Risk Management.

This section is therefore devoted to those students who undertake this type of examination and provides a few facts, hints and tips on how to deal with them.

The time allowed for these examinations is dependent upon whether or not the subject is a half credit or a full credit subject. You will therefore have a maximum of two hours to complete half credit subject examinations and three hours for full credit subject examinations.

How to Answer Short Answer / Essay Type Questions

• Read through the entire paper (check both sides of the pages) and consider the order in which you would like to answer the questions - you do not necessarily have to answer the questions in the order that they are presented
• Establish how many sections you need to answer - some may be compulsory, others a choice, so spend a few seconds clarifying precisely what you have to do
• If it helps you, answer the easy questions first - you may then find that the more difficult questions then become clearer
• Spend at least the first 10 minutes or so of the exam sketching an outline of each of the answers - this will help you to focus your mind and if you go blank later, you can refer to this outline answer to help you
• It is also a good idea to allow say a minimum of 10 minutes at the end to allow you to check through the paper to correct any mistakes and to make the paper as presentable as possible
• Allocate the remaining amount of time to each question, depending upon the marks allocated to each. For example, in a three hour examination if you are required to answer four questions, the first being worth 15%, the second 30%, the third 25% and the last 30%, the rest of the three hours time could be divided up as follows:

• 1 st question approx. 24 minutes
• 2 nd question approx. 48 minutes
• 3 rd question approx. 40 minutes
• 4 th question approx. 48 minutes.

• This type of timetable can be flexible but try to stick to it as closely as you can to give yourself the best chance of answering the questions
• The invigilators are there to help so ask if you need anything, e.g. extra paper
• Don't assume that the exam is structured in exactly the same way as previous papers - the format does occasionally change, so ensure that you are clear about how you are expected to complete the exam
• For numerical or problem-type questions, make sure that the marker can see exactly how you arrived at the answer - clearly show each step, as even if you reach the wrong answer, you may receive some marks for the steps that were right
• It may seem obvious but answer the question set - don't be tempted to give an excessively long answer or go off on a tangent; the marker will not be impressed by this so there is no value in writing down all you know just to prove you have learnt it
• Highlight the key words in the title and pay attention to the number of parts to the question
• Re-read the question to make sure you have correctly interpreted it - if you realise that the question is not what you thought, answer another one
• Although it is important that you show that you know the facts, it is more important that you explain the meaning behind the facts - in other words, you need to demonstrate that you understand what it is you are talking about
• Write using clear and simple language - make it as easy as you can for the marker to understand what you have written
• Use plenty of paper and leave spaces for the markers comments
• Try to write as neatly and as legibly as possible - an excellent answer may receive no marks if it cannot be read
• Make sure that you clearly label any diagrams
• Some students 'go blank' during the exam and believe that they have forgotten everything - if this happens to you, try the following technique:

• Try to relax - take a deep breath
• Leave the question and go back to it later
• Jot down a few words that have anything to do with the question - this may stimulate your memory
• If this doesn't work, ask basic questions about the subject, i.e. what?; who?; when?; why? etc. until you become more focused.

• If time starts to run out, don't panic - in the remaining time, write a brief outline of the answer(s), in the form of a list or bullet points, and include key words which may allow you to pick up a few marks if you have included the most important points, even if you haven't written them in sentence form.