The mistakes that cause competent candidates to fail

An adviser who has been practising for years knows their trade. Yet they may still fail the exam, and often come away feeling upset and incredulous. It is almost never a question of knowledge. It is a question of method.

Here are the pitfalls most commonly encountered.

1. Practising before having seen the material

This is the most common mistake and the one that takes the biggest toll on morale. Tacking on one practice test after another without having opened the study materials results in low scores that measure nothing other than the fact that you don’t know the material yet. You get discouraged by information you already knew.

Look at the material first, then test yourself.

2. Retaking a set instead of revising

After a poor score, the temptation is to start again straight away. However, the result has just highlighted your weak areas: that’s where you need to go back to. Retaking a set without going back over the course material simply means re-measuring the same gap in your knowledge and getting the same score.

3. Revising what you enjoy

We’re happy to revise what we’ve already mastered, because it’s rewarding. The time spent on a chapter you’ve already covered won’t improve your average mark. The revision plan is there to force you to face that necessary discomfort.

4. Confusing professional experience with exam knowledge

An experienced professional often answers ‘what is done in practice’, whereas the exam expects ‘what the framework states’. The two do not always coincide, particularly when it comes to definitions, deadlines and disclosure requirements. This is a trap specific to seasoned candidates, and it’s all the more surprising given that they feel they’re on familiar ground.

5. Cramming everything into the final week

Two hours a week for two months are better than a whole weekend of cramming. The memory needs to forget a little and then recall: it is this back-and-forth process that helps information stick. Material covered just once, even at length, fades from memory.

6. Turning up with a borderline average

An average barely above the official threshold doesn’t guarantee success: it means it’ll come down to luck. The stress, fatigue and unexpected questions on the big day will eat into the margin you didn’t build up.

The sure-fire sign

You’re ready when your scores become boring: consistent, high, without surprises, on practice sets you’ve never done before. As long as your results fluctuate from one set to the next, it means your performance still depends on chance.

You don’t reach that point by doing more sets. You reach it by going back to the lesson between sets.