What is R03 all about?

The R03 Personal Taxation exam was developed by the CII to provide paraplanners, technical consultants and those in financial planning support roles with the knowledge and understanding of the UK taxation system, and the ability to analyse the taxation treatment of individuals and trusts.  R03 is a core unit for the CII RQF level 4 Diploma in Regulated Financial Planning. Upon successful completion of R03 students are awarded 10 credits from the CII.

My biggest R0 exam challenge yet!

R03….. first thing I want to say is thank goodness it’s over! I think this was the most challenging exam yet (for me anyway). I am so proud of myself for passing this first time, to say it was a relief would be an understatement!

As this was my third exam I feel I have finally gotten into a nice swing of things when it comes to planning my studying and making full use of the resources Expert Pensions and the CII have to offer. I have always booked my exam before I begin studying. I do this so I have something concrete to work towards and can figure out how much work I need to get done each week. I would do 1,2 or 3 chapters per week (depending on their size!) and then leave myself with 2-3 weeks to go over everything before my exam date.

For R03, the exam forum Expert Pensions provide was invaluable. As I mentioned in my last blog, Tessa is extremely knowledgeable and is able to explain answers to questions in a way that is easy to understand and digest. There were a lot of calculation questions in this exam and an awful lot of things to remember so I was asking lots of questions on the forum. It is also handy as you can see previous students questions and answers, so you can learn from their questions too. I also find it helpful that all the quiz/mock exam questions provided by Expert Pensions came with explanations of how the answer was obtained so I was never left scratching my head wondering how they got that specific answer!

Best study tip for R03

My biggest tip for R03 would be to check the syllabus before you start studying. There are 4 learning outcomes and 50 questions in the exam. Chapters 1-8 cover the first learning outcome and only 15 questions are asked on this outcome in the exam. The remaining 35 questions for learning outcomes 2, 3 and 4 are covered in chapters 9-12 so I made sure I spent a lot of time studying these chapters. Saying that, it is important you don’t neglect chapters 1-8 as I found the bulk of information to learn/memorise was in these chapters so it could be very easy to lose marks on questions if you don’t know the material well enough.

Just like the other exams time was extremely tight, so any question I didn’t know the answer to/how to work out right away I would put in a random answer (just in case I ran out of time, it’s better to put in a guess that leave it unanswered!) and flag it so I could return to them once I had completed the rest of the questions. Even if this means you are left with 20+ questions flagged you should still have enough time to go back to these and think about them a bit longer. I also think it pays off to know some of the information on the tax table by heart. The tax table opens up another page during the exam on your computer screen so it can be a bit of a pain going back and forth.

R03 Exam Support

I am extremely thankful to be able to study for these exams with Expert Pensions and they are definitely the reason I have managed to pass with such high marks the first time round. It takes away a lot of the exam stress knowing you have people there to guide you and provide any help you need. I would 100% recommend them to anyone looking to sit their R0 exams!

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If there is one thing that separates our Experts from the rest it’s that they know what they do, and they know how to do it.  You could try to do it all by yourself, but if you’ve never tried before, you’re unlikely to hit the mark the first, second, or even the hundredth time round!!  It can take months sometimes years to understand the complexities of these exams and what the examiners are looking for. As a busy working professional, you won’t have the time to dedicate yourself to this expertise, so it will always be more beneficial and time-efficient for you to reach out for assistance when you need it most.

The key to passing this exam is to have the technical knowledge and an understanding of the exam itself. How are the questions written? How should you approach your answers? What is the examiner looking for?  Purchase our support and we will answer all of these for you.

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