Examination

 **NEW ** 2009 Workshop Dates

Examinations	Location	Date	Cost
Personal Financial Planning	Bristol	Monday 18 May	£250.00 *
Planning for the Business Owner	Bristol	Tuesday 19 May	£250.00 *

 * if two Examinations are booked at the same time the total cost is £450.00

What does the examination involve?

The Fellowship examination consists of two papers: Personal Financial Planning and Planning for Business Owners. Each paper has two parts, one taken in the morning and one in the afternoon.

Within the Personal paper, the morning part will concentrate on the analysis required to prepare a plan, and the afternoon will concentrate on preparing solutions to the problems posed by the client. The same case study will be used in both the morning and afternoon sessions. The Business paper is structured in a slightly different format to this. The morning session is based around one case study to which solutions to problems should be provided. The afternoon session is based around a number of questions, some of which may relate to the morning case study and others which will be generic.

It is recommended that time is spent familiarising yourself with a past paper well in advance of the examination. This can be purchased directly from the Institute or if you are attending a Fellowship Preparation day this will be included within the workshop materials.

The specimen answers contained within the past paper are intended to give a guide as to what the ideal approach and depth should be. The structure of a delegates answer should be easy to follow and the options available and reasons for the recommendations should be discussed in terms easily understood by the client.

The examination is not intended to be just a test of technical knowledge. Holistic Financial Planning requires that the planner can stand back and see the inter-relationship of different parts of the case. Analysis should lead to reflection on the options available; reflection on options should therefore lead to recommendations.

The Fellowship examination is not the subject of a rigid marking scheme, although each section of the question paper has a mark allocated to it, this is primarily intended to flag to the candidate the relative importance of that question.

Examiners will allocate marks for the quality of the analysis, reasoning and recommendations and will give credit for any reasonable solution to a problem (provided that this is supported by logically consistent analysis). Correct technical knowledge is of course expected. You will need to achieve at least 50% on each of the morning and afternoon papers to attain a pass. There is no constraint on the Institute to pass either a proportion or number of candidates. To pass, examiners look not only for quality of answers to individual questions, but also the standard of across the board performance.

Candidates are required to attain adequate marks in each of the questions and all of the topics examined. There are no optional sections and all questions are compulsory. It is not possible to split the morning and afternoon sessions, however the personal paper and business owner paper may be attempted separately.

Candidates should remember that in a non examination situation, they are likely to spend more time on a case than is available in the examination. Undertaking the examination will be a high pressure experience and candidates should be aware of this and plan accordingly.

A pass in both the morning and afternoon examinations of each component is required to pass the paper as a whole. If one paper is failed, but the other passed, then the candidate must re-sit the complete failed component (i.e either personal or business owner paper). Fellowship will not be awarded until both component papers have been passed.

To view the full examination syllabus click here.

What is the structure of the examination?

Each paper will last a total of 6 hours (plus 30 minutes of reading time), 3 hours plus 15 minutes reading time in the morning and the same in the afternoon. No writing will be permitted during the reading time.

Each day will begin with the first examination starting at 10.00am prompt. The morning paper will finish at 1.15pm which will be followed by a 45minute break for lunch. A buffet lunch will be provided. During this period it is strictly forbidden to discuss any aspect of the examination with fellow candidates. If the invigilator feels any candidate has breached this condition they will be excluded from the rest of the examination and receive an automatic fail.

The afternoon examination will begin at 2pm and close at 5.15pm. No extension to this time can be given.

When will I receive the results?

The results will be posted to the candidate within 8 weeks of the examination date. No results will be issued by email or in any other format. Candidates will be informed whether each paper is a pass or fail together with an outline of the comments made by the examiners.  No candidate will be informed of their actual pass/fail mark.  As a matter of course, each paper will be marked by two examiners and any conflicting marks will be subject to a further marking by an adjudicator.

Becase of the double marking system, candidate are not able to request a re-mark of their papers if they disagree with the overall mark or comments made by the examiners.  Unsuccessful candidates may however request an examiners report which will identify overall areas of weakness.  The cost of this report is £100.00. 

How do I book a place at the examination?

To book a place you will need to fully complete and return the appropriate registration form.  Confirmation will then be sent by post.  Alternatively, if you have any queries please contact the IFP: 0117 945 2470.

To download the Fellowship Examination Registration Form click here.

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