Financial Planner Life Podcast
Welcome to The Financial Planner Life Podcast. We cover an intimate and honest account of what it’s really like to work in the financial planning profession.
Our guests share their stories of success, failures, and learnings, as well as what to expect from a career in the financial planning profession! We host guests at various stages in their careers, as well as multiple roles, to ensure that our audience has a variety each week.
Financial planners, business owners, paraplanners, and back-office staff all have their own stories to share, and The Financial Planner Life podcast serves as a platform for them to discuss their personal and professional journeys. The podcast covers a multitude of topics, from mindset and motivation, health and wellbeing, all the way to diversity and inclusion.
We approach each episode with the idea that it will educate and spark a conversation within the industry on topics that may not be openly discussed. If you're considering a career as a financial adviser or are curious about learning more about this exciting sector, we encourage you to give the podcast a listen.
The Host: Sam Oakes is the host of The Financial Planner Life Podcast. since 2008 Sam has been supporting leading national and global financial planning firms in finding the best talent, he was the director of Recruit UK, a 7 figure turnover financial planning recruitment company that he successfully exited in 2024, Sam now works as the Head of Creative for Hoxton wealth, building out podcasts, YouTube and social content for this fast growing fee based international financial planning firm.
Sam has always had a passion for financial services, starting as a trainer for a leading product provider in the UK, and he has been in the industry for over 20 years.
He sees himself as a partner to the industry and wants to contribute useful resources, such as this podcast, to educate those who are further seeking advice and help about how to push their careers forward in this amazing profession.
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Financial Planner Life Podcast
How to pass the CII R01-RO6 exams (DipPFS) in 6 months. 2025 update!
How do you pass the CII RO exams and achieve the DipPFS?
In this episode of Financial Planner Life, host Sam Oakes speaks with Gary Paul (Academy Relationship Manager, St. James’s Place Academy), John Smith (Qualifications/Technical Trainer, Redmill Advance) and Rebecca Bidwell, who passed the DipPFS in just 5 months.
We answer the top questions aspiring advisers ask:
- What are the RO exams? → Six modules (RO1–RO6) that make up the CII DipPFS qualification.
- Which RO exam is hardest? → Most students struggle with RO3 (Personal Taxation).
- How long does DipPFS take? → Many take 12–18 months, but Rebecca did it in 5 with the right support.
- Do I need experience? → No. With the Academy and Redmill Advance, even career changers can pass.
As a Back to School Special, the St. James’s Place Financial Adviser Academy have 100 discount codes to get 50% OFF RO1 learning materials with Redmill Advance. Financial Planner Life listeners can access the codes on a first come first served basis:
👉 Claim your exclusive discount now: https://shorturl.at/Fn8wP
If you would prefer watching the episode, you can here on the Financial Planner Life Youtube Channel -
This episode blends real experience with expert training insights, making it the perfect study guide if you’re preparing for your CII regulated financial adviser exams.
Be sure to follow Financial Planner life on YouTube for extra content about career development within Financial Planning.
Reach out to Sam@financialplannerlife.com in regards to sponsorship, partnerships, videography or podcast production.
Want to appear on the Financial Planner Life podcast? drop Sam a message.
So, when it comes to the actual exams and becoming a financial advisor, someone might be watching this and want to understand really well what are these exams.
Speaker 2:It stands for the Regulated Diploma in Financial Planning, so those are the suite of exams that you need to pass at level four to become authorised to give advice in the UK.
Speaker 1:Does the running order that's just been described, does it create a kind of sense of calm, I suppose, to the approach you're passing?
Speaker 2:the exams.
Speaker 1:Or does it not matter, it's still really difficult.
Speaker 3:Studying solidly on your own for three, four, five months at a time can be a very isolating experience.
Speaker 4:Really worried about this. I'm so sorry. Don't want to let anybody down and he was absolutely brilliant.
Speaker 3:I have sessions to help them evaluate their progress and understand what other support they might need and then act as a liaison with our experts at Redmill to provide that expert support.
Speaker 4:So my top tip for that one would be to be really mindful of how long you're spending on each and every question, so that you don't run out and have questions unanswered at the end.
Speaker 1:So welcome to the Financial Planner Life, and today we're going to sat down with some experts who are going to talk to us about how to pass the CII RO exams in 2025. So we've got a couple of experts here from St James's Place. We've got Redmill Advance and we've got Beck, who's a student who's actually going through the process with the St James's Place Academy. I say what? Let's just kick things off. Gary, can you just introduce yourself first of all, just to give us an insight into who you are and what part you play in the academy in helping students pass their exams?
Speaker 3:Yeah, sure, so my name's Gary Paul. I'm one of a team of academy relationship managers who each look after a cohort of people that have joined all at the same time. So I'll do things like facilitate that group learning environment, bringing them all together so they can help each other. We'll run sessions to help dig into some of the knowledge and see how things are going, have sessions to help them evaluate their progress and understand what other support they might need, and then act as a liaison with our experts at red mill to provide that expert support and then also just checking from time to time to see how they are, because, of course, studying solidly on your own for three, four, five months at a time can be a very isolating experience. So just that kind of how are you? What do you need?
Speaker 1:kind of approach no, I love that fantastic. So basically, hand-holding through the process and a bit of support, basically to make sure people are okay, fantastic, okay. And what about yourself? What do you do?
Speaker 2:thank you, sam. So I'm john smith. I'm a technical manager at redmill advanced, so we are digital learning providers, uh, based just outside of edinburgh inland lithgow. We work closely closely with Gary and the team in terms of providing digital learning support, live sessions to support the students through term one, in particular in terms of getting through their RO exams.
Speaker 1:So, bec, you're a student at the moment going through the St James's Place Academy. Do you want to introduce yourself and tell us where you are in the process?
Speaker 4:Yeah, absolutely so. I'm Rebecca Bidwell. I work at Queensbury Financial Advisors and I was a lawyer for 20 years and my husband did the academy last year, qualified in September, and I just thought it was too good an opportunity to miss out on. So I am towards the tail end of it now and just really looking forward to getting stuck into it.
Speaker 1:I love it. How did you hear about the St James's Place Academy?
Speaker 4:So there were a couple of things really. So my hubby was a financial director, so he did a lot of research. My company that we owned together they actually got bought out by a firm of financial advisors. So that was a really interesting thing. And actually I happened to watch your podcast with G, so I've learned quite a lot from that as well.
Speaker 1:I love it. Fantastic. It's obviously working G money well spent, excellent stuff. So, when it comes to the actual exams and becoming a financial advisor, someone might be watching this and wanting to understand really well what are these exams, what are these ROs that we're talking about and why really you've chosen the RO route. So do you want to, first off, just give us an explanation of what these RO exams are and what they actually mean?
Speaker 2:Absolutely. So just a bit of code breaking, first of all, in terms of what RO actually stands for. So it stands for the Regulated Diploma in Financial Planning. So those are the suite of exams that you need to pass at level four to become authorised to give advice in the UK. So there's six exams in total. Five of them are multiple choice exams, that's RO1 through to RO5 inclusive, and one multiple choice exams, that's RO1 through to RO5 inclusive, and one of them is a case study driven exam at the end on the financial planning process, which is an online typed exam.
Speaker 2:So, in terms of those five exams and what makes up the syllabus for them, ro1 is regulations, ethics and an overview of the financial services industry, and that's where most people will start, you know, just to give them that kind of broad overview of how the profession works, the rules and regulations that are associated with it. Ro2 is the investment exam, so that's where we learn more about investment products, investment theory and the investment process. Ro3 is personal taxation, which is all about tax planning, all about how those various products are taxed and you know how to give tax planning advice. Ro4 is about pensions and retirement planning. And ro5 is about financial protection. So life cover, health insurance, the key considerations that drive advice in that area and, as I said before, ro6 is the exam that will come back and do at the end, which is on the financial planning process, which is a little bit more practical, a little bit more involved, because that involves case studies and actually putting a lot of the technical knowledge to practice with a little bit more skill attached. Love it.
Speaker 1:So the ro exams through the cia aren't the only exams out there. We've got the libf as an accreditation, the cisi, so there are different ones out there. How come st james's place have chosen the ro exam route then?
Speaker 3:I think a number of reasons really. Um, first off, we've got a long-standing relationship with the, the cII. That supported us well. They were traditionally the most established provider of the qualifications historically. And also, I think it's a program that is very easy to evaluate your progress and how well you're doing. Lots of regular testing along the way, so we find it works with this modular approach. Lots of regular testing along the way, so we find it works with this modular approach to handhold people through the process Bec.
Speaker 1:so when you were looking around at becoming a financial planner, watching some of the videos, what were the exams or qualifications that you were coming across?
Speaker 4:So I was quite interested in the CII ones. If I'm honest, I think the ROs were quite attractive to me as a student. It's what I'd witnessed other people doing and I knew that if I was going to put myself through that, I would come out with a decent level of understanding. And so I just I felt that for me, if I'm going to do it, that was. That was the one that really attracted me. I did do some research, had a look around, but it just felt like it was the right way for me to get through the hurdle of getting diploma qualified.
Speaker 1:So, john, there's six exams, right, there's six modules. Is there a specific order which you would recommend actually taking those in?
Speaker 2:Yes, we think there's a more logical order than the kind of intuitive route of just doing RO1 to RO6 in that order. It's not that far off, to be fair, just a couple of exams that we switch around and hopefully it'll make sense once I talk through it. So RO1 naturally people do that one first because that's, you know, giving me a really good broad overview of the industry, how it works. You know, at a high level, learning how those products and services that they're going to be talking to clients about work, and also the rules and regulations and ethics associated with the industry as well. So it makes sense that ro1 would always be the exam that you do first, just really to get the kind of foundations in place and have something to then build out of. Next one that we would recommend is ro5. So there's a little bit of a detour there in terms of the numbers which is financial protection. There's a couple of reasons why we do that and why we recommend that. First of all, in terms of the technical depth of the exam and the technical breadth it leads on quite nicely from RO1, because there's quite a lot of coverage in RO1 on financial protection and not just that, there is that kind of personal touch as well, where a lot of people can actually, you know, align with the syllabus quite well from a personal experience in terms of you know having life cover, having health insurance, you know taking out, you know a mortgage repayment plan, that type of thing. So there is that kind of alignment in terms of you know having life cover, having health insurance, uh, you know taking out, you know a mortgage repayment plan, that type of thing. So there is that kind of alignment in terms of you know people's everyday lives and you know being able to understand, you know, some of the ins and outs of how that's worked for themselves before we get into the more technical units.
Speaker 2:Then we go back into the kind of you know the usual swing of things with ro2 after that, which is the investment exam. By this stage they've already covered off a lot of the kind of high level content on investments and products by that stage through RO1. So what we're doing now in RO2 is we are going into a little bit more detail on that specific technical area in terms of okay, let's go into a bit more detail on how these products work, the benefits of those products, the, the risks or drawbacks of those products and a little bit on taxation of products as well, which is going to put us in good stead for the next exam, which is RO3, incidentally. So we'll do RO3 after that. And again, they've already built up a little bit of an understanding of tax already by that stage through RO2. But now we're going into more detail. We're drilling deeper into all the various different taxes, the rules, the principles, the calculation steps, etc.
Speaker 2:Then it's RO4 after that, which is pensions and retirement planning. And again the logic follows there that we've already done quite a bit on pensions, probably unconsciously, actually up to that point, you know it's dropped into other units along the way, and now once again, we're drilling down into that particular domain or discipline which is pensions and retirement planning. And then, finally, we come back and look at RO6, as I say, which is that gateway exam, as I call it, where we're looking at the financial planning process and actually putting those skills to practice with case studies and actually applying the knowledge that we've gained over the suite of exams. I love it.
Speaker 1:Gary, when you see this in real time with the students that are going through the St James's Place Academy, does the running order that's just been described, does it create a kind of sense of calm, I suppose, to the approach of passing the exams, or does it not matter? It's still really?
Speaker 3:difficult. I think we have a lady right next to me, there's probably a better place to answer that, but I think it certainly makes sense and it certainly works well as a running order. I mean, as John said, we have to do RO1. You have to have that foundation about the ethics and the industry as a whole, and it's worth knowing that delegates actually complete RO1 and RO5 before they formally join the program. So it shows that commitment to the investment in themselves. We do support them together. If anyone needs that little bit of extra support through that, but it's broadly that's their skin in the game, if you like, that's. You know I'm going to put the time in to make this commitment to this big first step onto the journey. They still get support. They still get support. Yeah, yeah, anyone that needs it, we're here for them.
Speaker 1:Fantastic needs it, we're here for them. Fantastic, sure, and bet you're going through the journey, so you know you're somebody's actually doing it right now. Yes, so tell us a little bit about that, and how's that running order working for you?
Speaker 4:I think it's perfect, to be honest. So I did exactly what gary said. I had the, I had ro1 and ro5 in the bag, found those okay, um to do outside. I had some support along the way, which was fantastic. I was really grateful to do RO2 next. I think in the past there's sometimes people will do three first instead of two, but for me, doing two first and then three was perfect because, I'm going to be totally honest, I really really struggled with three, with RO3, the personal taxation one. So because I'd learned some of that on RO2, going then into RO3, I felt like I just got a little bit of an extra boost to get me over that hurdle and pass it from there. And then R04 on pensions kind of came quite naturally to me, I think, at that point. So, yeah, I'm really grateful that the order's that way.
Speaker 1:If I'm honest, so where are you in the process at the moment?
Speaker 4:So I've passed one, two, three, four, five and six.
Speaker 1:All the way through, all the way through.
Speaker 4:Thank goodness.
Speaker 1:I'm going to ask you, then, how long did it actually take you? Because I've heard people do it in record times, so I'm really interested to understand how long it took you to do that.
Speaker 4:That is a really great question. I'm going to have to think back. So I started, I started term one in January yeah, checking with Gary now so I started term one in January. So I'd done RO1 and RO5 before that time, and so that point onwards I think it was pretty much averaging out was one a month, wasn't it? That's kind of where we are heading to.
Speaker 4:So one exam a month, which is quite intense and there's a lot to learn. But I think it's very much about the effort that you put in and I was just incredibly keen to get over the, the effort that you put in um, and I was just incredibly keen to get over the hurdle of getting these things passed. So I was probably working more than full-time on those um, particularly RO3 onwards. So, um, so, yeah, not a huge amount of time. I mean, what's that? That's five, five months, um, and then now sort of we're into that whole term two and yeah, that's a different kettle of fish Really incredibly informative, so interesting and detailed and hard work. But again, it's setting us up in the best way possible to be amazing advisors, isn't it? So you wouldn't expect anything else.
Speaker 1:Good stuff to hear. So, john, what is the hardest exam that you tend to find that people struggle with the most?
Speaker 2:yeah, really good question. It's a question we get asked a lot as well by uh trainees when they're going to start on that journey. You tend to find that two, three and four ro2, ro3 and r4 collectively, you know being the more technical exams are the ones where there's a bigger step up. You, you know from the previous exams. You know RO2 is quite broad. There's a lot of it. It doesn't go into too much depth in those different areas but it's very broad. There's a lot to cover.
Speaker 2:Ro4 can get quite niggly. You can tie yourself in knots with rules and dates and deadlines and you know tax regimes. But I would say of the three, ro3 is the most challenging and that's reflected in the pass rate as well. The industry pass rate for RO3 tends to, you know, leverage around about 50 to 60 percent, unlike the other units where that's maybe closer to 70 percent plus. So there is a bit of a gap between RO3 and the other exams in terms of pass rates. So again, no surprise that that's the one that students find the most challenging. Gary, do you concur?
Speaker 1:with that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely. The pass rates bear that out and I think they're all different. I mean, ro4 was my nemesis because it felt very much more like a history exam. There was just far too many words and lots of reading, but the calculations I could do. But many people do get bogged down with the calculations in RO3. And you can find yourself yourself if you're not careful taking far too much time on any one question.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I'd whole, wholeheartedly agree. Ro3 is the one they struggle with as well. Yeah, absolutely ro3. So I'm from a legal background so I think it was a little bit alien to me coming to quite complex in some ways, calculations, um, and the questions are generally a bit longer, because they really want to make sure that you've got a good understanding, a grasp of what they're asking so you can very, very quickly run out of time. So my top tip for that one would be to be really mindful of how long you're spending on each and every question so that you don't run out and, you know, have questions unanswered at the end so first of all, this difficult one.
Speaker 1:I think probably people stress the most out about it. But just kind of give yourself a little bit of a break. It's a tough one. You're going to struggle a little bit. There's an opportunity to retake it right absolutely, yeah, absolutely, yeah.
Speaker 3:The typical industry standard approach would be that you get three attempts at these things. Yeah, there we go out of interest, like if they get three attempts, people retake it.
Speaker 1:It's like. It's like drive tests, isn't it? You know, some people are on their first go or they have a couple of attempts after. Is there an average of how many attempts to actually pass that exam? Do you know? There, probably is. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean, even though you know, as I mentioned earlier on, the pass rate is a lot lower first time pass rate for hour three. I think the second time pass rate is going to be a lot higher than that, probably closer to 100. So I would say an average. It would probably take two attempts for people to get through that exam. I think it's an exam as well that you learn a lot about yourself through sitting. You know so once you've sat that exam. If you've been unsuccessful, it's a real learning curve in terms of you know, going back to the materials, going back to your study plan and thinking right, have I been going about this the right way? Have I been focusing my energy and attention in the right place? And we find that people do. You know, the penny does drop second time round and a lot of the things that didn't fall into place first time round get rectified second time round.
Speaker 4:I think it really helps with the support, though, as well. So I was really down on myself I'm not going to lie, because I think you just you put more pressure on yourself than anybody else will ever do that. And I remember contacting Gary and, look, I'm really really worried about this. I'm so sorry, don't want to let anybody down and he was absolutely brilliant. I had extra, you know, revision materials that I could go to. He facilitated getting me some extra access to some documents so I could understand things a little better. You know, my brain doesn't necessarily work in quite a traditional fashion, so reading something on a page is quite difficult for me, but being able to watch some of the amazing little videos and tutorials suddenly things sink in that I wasn't able to grasp. So I think I just felt that I had so much support there. That's what got me over the hurdle.
Speaker 1:Gary, you see a lot of people struggle with RO3. So can you identify things quite quickly when somebody is struggling where to help?
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, I think one. We see lots of trends, so we quite commonly see the feedback on the past papers that calculation questions are ones where people struggle. Start to spot the things that individual people need their own learning styles, or are they just being hard on themselves and need to be kind because they're going through this big learning?
Speaker 1:procedure. Yeah, I love it, john. What does redmail do to help support on the ro3 side? You've obviously got lots of experience on that across the yeah absolutely so, you know.
Speaker 2:Again, like gary said, you know there's an element of proactivity there because we know that groups are most likely to struggle with that one more than others. So for us it's about making sure that we kind of get to the crux of it early on. I mean, in our first live session for arrow three with the cohorts. We won't really cover that much in the way of content like we normally would do. We would spend probably half that first session just talking about the exam, talking about the environment and doing a little bit of myth busting as well you mentioned um, you were reading, so when you were reading something.
Speaker 1:So I, when I read things, my short-term memory is terrible. I don't absorb the information as much If I listen to it or I watch something. It's far better for me.
Speaker 4:Is that the same sort of thing?
Speaker 4:Oh absolutely so. You've hit the nail on the head there. So what Redmill do especially well is they cater to all learning styles. So I have known for a while my learning style is very much. I I cannot. If I read something 10 times, it doesn't, it's still. I still struggle to retain it, whereas if I read it and then I watch a little video and then I think, right, how would I apply that in practice? Suddenly it's in and I know that about myself. But what these guys do, no matter how you you learn and retain information, it's, it's set up in the best way possible with the end client in mind these guys are the experts.
Speaker 3:What they don't know about what's in an ro exam or what you need to do to pass it isn't worth knowing. They've been doing it for a long time and they've got a great track record with that. And then I think what we bring in the relationship team is that personal interaction that how are you, how's it going for you, what do you need? And then, whether that is sessions that we put on ourselves to work through some questions as a group or whether it's in some cases, plugging them into the experts to say we need a bit of specialist help in this topic, the two offerings work hand in hand together really.
Speaker 2:I mean we like to use a lot of analogies. You know, in what we do with you know the real world, or the world of financial planning. You know you're not on your own, you know you're not having, you know that panic around well how am I going to?
Speaker 2:get through this exam. How am I going to get over this hurdle? Because you've got someone on the other end of the phone. You've got decades of experience of helping people get over those hurdles. So I think it's that aftercare and that ongoing service that both of us are kind of delivering, albeit from a different angle. You know, we're obviously providing it from an exam support angle. You know, it's not just the live sessions that we're delivering or the materials that we're making available in all the different formats that Beck mentioned, but it's also the softer touch. This is what we love more than anything, what we do for work.
Speaker 3:You know Gary gets the same from his side of the. The point is about the people that are not here today, and that's the 26 other people that are in Beck's group. So you know, typically we'll have an average 20-plus group size and it's such a simple thing. But we have a whatsapp group where all 27 of them can dump questions into it and pound to a penny. Um, one of them will know the answer and and so there's great, great value in that group learning approach, because, I said earlier, it's a very isolating experience to be studying solidly for a few months on end. It's much less isolating if you do it with 20 plus other like-minded people. Do you find that?
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. Do you feel like you get those supporting?
Speaker 4:numbers, yeah, and do you know? What I think is really interesting is I think what we learned from day one is this is a really safe, secure environment, and we're all supported to an extent that there there really is no competition and we're there for each other let's look at some of the some of the obstacles and then we'll talk about some of the fixes.
Speaker 1:Right, so they're obviously always going to be obstacles to passing any exams, doing any qualifications, but of course, you've got so much experience, so hopefully, a few fixes along the way that we can share with people today. So, john, what are the five top challenges? Would you say yes?
Speaker 2:I think we've probably touched on a couple of them already, but I think, just kind of bringing them back to this point in terms of summarising, I would say timing, both in terms of the amount of time you've got to get through that syllabus, which is quite complex and quite detailed, and you're coming across a couple of areas there as well and things like taxation of trusts and residence and domicile. You know, real specialist areas that you've not touched on yet in any of the previous exams. So you're kind of starting them cold in hour three. So timing would be the first one I would mention. I think the second one I would mention is calculations again, bex, you know giving me a great prompt there um, that in this particular exam it's not so much the breadth of the calculations, it's the depth.
Speaker 2:Another one is the misuse of practice questions. Now, what I mean by the misuse of practice questions is that there does tend to be that focus, or too much focus, on what you score in those practice questions, when, I'll be honest, the only score that really matters is the score that you get on the day. You know, the purpose of those practice questions is to help you, you know, see the material in a different way, test your understanding of what you've learned up to that point and give you a prompt to then go back into the materials and fill the gaps. So, again, it's not so much about, you know, looking at whether or not you're shooting the lights out with the scores in those tests. It's about using them in the right way to then, you know, enhance the learning and using those questions almost as another learning tool, rather than being this, you know this, uh, you know, um, this pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, so to speak. So I think you know, the use of practice questions and what you should be doing with those, I think is a is another obstacle.
Speaker 2:And then, finally, I would say, um, dominant learning style, the fact that a lot of people will focus on one particular type of learning and not really embrace the other styles that we uh, that we can have, offer access to. So a lot of people will get too caught up in the text and they won't then move away from that, you know, and look at maybe videos or practice questions or audio clips or e-learning modules, and through, obviously, our tracks, we are providing access to all of them. So there's a little bit of everything for everybody. So. So I think, just to summarize there, I'd say the five were timing, the other ones were use of practice questions, calculations and the depth of calculations, especially in RO3, if we're using that as a case study. And then the other ones were extensive note-taking almost spending too much time taking notes rather than actually actively learning. And the final one was obviously focusing on a dominant learning style, not embracing, you know, the other kind of varieties of learning materials that are there.
Speaker 1:Gareth, you ever get many people come to the St James's Place Academy that have attempted these on a solo basis, not doing it, you know, not going through the academy originally and then having to go, I admit, defeat.
Speaker 3:Sometimes, yeah, we occasionally come across somebody that originally and then having to go, I admit defeat. Sometimes, yeah, we occasionally come across somebody that said, yeah, I had to go to this before and it wasn't the right time for me, so I'm going again. But more often we find, because, as we said, everyone does do RO1 and RO5 on their own. So that can often be another thing for us to manage, because all of a sudden you're thrown into an environment where, whilst there was a bit of a deadline in ro1 and ro5, in that the selection process won't wait for you forever, but if you did miss that deadline, there will be another intake next month or a month later, or it won't be too long before we can get you on another seat on the bus.
Speaker 3:Um, all of a sudden you're then thrown into term one proper, and you've got five weeks Term 1 proper, and you've got five weeks to do RO2, and you've got five weeks to do RO3, and you've got four weeks to do RO4. And so people suddenly go, ah, and it is a little bit of an intake of breath. But actually when you then start talking to them about well, how long did you take to do RO5? And they say, oh, I blitzed through it in three weeks, okay, so don't worry. Then Calm down, Trust the process, you'll be fine. So it's that friendly arm around the shoulder to say don't worry, you've got this.
Speaker 1:Bec, what would be your one piece of advice for anyone approaching their ROs?
Speaker 4:I think it's all about the effort that you put in. If you continue to put that time and effort in, you will get over that hurdle and it's unbelievably rewarding once you're out the other side yeah, I love that great bit of advice.
Speaker 1:So, john, you talked about some of the obstacles.
Speaker 2:There's five of them it's five of them, you're familiar brilliant.
Speaker 1:So let's just finish up with what are some of the fixes to those.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely so. Um, you know, chose those obstacles because I know that for a fact those are the ones that most students come up against, and it's the obstacles I think we're the most proud of in terms of how we deal with them. Rather than it all becoming submerged and getting conflicted like it often is in textbooks, we've separated that out to provide that structure so that when you actually start working through the materials, that logical flow is there and it starts to make a little bit more sense, and obviously that repetition as well, that that logical flow is there and it starts to make a little bit more sense, and obviously that repetition as well, that starts to kick in, where you realize, actually I can do this. Now that I've gone through these steps in this calculation that I thought was going to be this beast that was never going to be able to take down, now I can do it and I'm proving that I can do it. So if that comes up in the exam, I am uber prepared for it. So I think the key thing for timing there is the proactivity, giving the guys a heads up in terms of, okay, it's going to be a challenge, but we can do this, we can break this down. One of the other challenges that we mentioned was calculations, so just dovetailing off of that, it's getting the right balance in terms of making sure that we don't spend too much time on those calculations if they're not going to come up, but where there are calculations that we know come up regularly. It's all about those step by step guides. It's about the repetition, lots of practice, examples and in the live sessions that we have with the groups, walking through those steps, step by step, with examples, and providing a safe environment for people to learn from making mistakes. That's really, really important to us. And again, if you're getting a low score, it's about what you then do with that. It's about going back through those questions, debriefing every question to make sure that you don't just understand the questions you got right, you also understand why the other answers were wrong, just in case they flip that question around in the exam and you get something that looks very, very similar. So things about using those questions to you know enable your learning rather than the hindrance to your learning in terms of tripping you up and making you feel like you're not going to be capable of getting that score on the day.
Speaker 2:One of the other areas I talked about was note taking and again, I like my analogies, so the analogy I always use here with the note-taking is if you were reading a book or if you were watching a film on netflix, for example, you wouldn't be pausing it or stopping every 10 seconds to write down what you've observed or what you've learned. You would be patient with it, you would watch the whole film, you would read the whole book and then you would reflect on it and if there was gaps, you might want to go back and read certain chapters. Or if it's a film you're watching, you might want to go back and watch, you know, a couple of episodes just to maybe kind of fill in the gaps where you were off making a cup of tea or answering the door, for example. We treat the study materials in the same way, you know, in terms of, you know, giving you structure to those notes, in terms of saying, right, you're going to provide you with some structured notes, some activities, some handouts which consolidate the official textbook, you know, and give it a little bit more context in terms of the exam. But the expectation isn't for you to read through these materials, highlight everything and take notes on it, because we've kind of done that for you. So it's all about all about understanding the relevance, and first before you then start taking notes and highlighting things, because if you take notes without relevance, you're going to end up rewriting the book or highlighting pretty much every page, and then you know you're wasting a lot of energy.
Speaker 2:A lot of people will, you know, basically hang everything on one learning style. You know they're readers, they like text, they'll take notes, that's all they'll do. They won't look at videos, they won't listen to audio clips or recordings and they won't, you know, focus too much on the practice questions. And I genuinely feel and this is the advice that we give that by using all the resources they're all there for a reason you get that perfect blend. It all gels together, you get that variety and, dare I say it, and hopefully bex will agree with me here it makes the whole process a little bit more enjoyable I absolutely love it very, very detailed.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much. And, gary, have you got a chance to add anything where there is a group of like-minded?
Speaker 3:people around you that have got the same goal in mind, industry leading experts that can help you with the technical detail, and a team of people that really care about you getting over the line. I love it.
Speaker 1:So there you have it. If you're interested in joining the St James's Place Academy and you're really serious about passing your exams, I think really you should definitely consider the Academy as a choice when it comes to the exam side of things, not to mention what it offers thereafter as well.
