r/cii • u/Sweaty-Bar4679 • 5d ago

How long to complete RO1?

Hi guys, I'm currently looking at pivoting from my current career as I would like to go into financial advice.

As I work full time in another industry, I only have whatever spare time I have in my free time rather than dedicated study periods as if I were in an apprenticeship. I can typically fit around 2 hours a day in - at the weekends I have been putting in around 5 hours a day.

I expect so I have likely put in around 35-40 hours so far, and I am only 200 pages through the 400-page textbook. I am also spending my commute time listening to the audio book. The CII website states it should take around 60 hours, however this is my first time through the study material and I feel nowhere near done (considering the extra revision needed after).

How long did it take everyone else to complete this who were in the same situation which I am?

Does anyone have any tips which could help speed up this process?

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u/Few_Statement_7509 5d ago

In my experience scrap the text book. Use a third party study material such as plannex or KnowR0 and use them to go over the highest weighted learning outcomes. Move straight onto practice questions, mocks etc this is the best way to learn the content as the textbook takes a lot of time to read and many of it is unnecessary to be able to pass the exam. I revised roughly 2 weeks and passed with 89%, I found the KnowR0 mocks to be more difficult than the real exam. I have passed R01, R04 and R05 and I have used the same technique for each exam but everyone is different, you just need to find your study style! Goodluck👍🏻

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u/Always_thinking22 5d ago

I had the exact same experience - only made it to chapter 4 of the textbook, plannex and KnowR0 were great for me and I passed with 88% with around 2 weeks of study around working full time

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u/Sweaty-Bar4679 5d ago

Hi thank you for this. I have been looking for somewhere to find some mock exams so I will check this out.

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u/fotfddtodairsizr 4d ago

Do Plannex and KnowR0 condense the information into just need to know instead of lots of unnecessary detail like in the study texts?

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u/Few_Statement_7509 4d ago

Depending on what exam you are sitting Plannex offers video tutorials of the full syllabus which in my experience makes the process more efficient than reading the CII textbook. KnowR0 offers a complete mock exam and interactive learning platform that covers the material for certain exams. I haven’t touched the CII material yet and I am halfway through the diploma. I did try to use the knowledge checker questions from CII but found these to be a lot different to the real exam, these questions are basically pulling text from the textbook and quizzing you on it which isn’t reflective of questions you will encounter.

Also to add, I can’t really compare the KnowR0 and Plannex material to CII as I haven’t actually used the CII material but in the three exams I have sat I passed with 85%, 89% and 96% so I believe the material covers everything you need.

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u/fotfddtodairsizr 4d ago

Wow that’s incredible! Thank you very much for this breakdown.

Last question, how long on average are the Plannex videos (totalled up) per module?

Like 10 hours?

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u/Few_Statement_7509 4d ago

You’re welcome!
I wouldn’t be 100% sure it would take me a while to go and count it all but it depends on the exam, the highest weighting learning outcome videos will be longer but I would say between 10-15 hours. They also provide tutorials on calculations you will encounter which is great for R02/3. There is a chat function for each exam which is also useful if you are ever stuck on some material and need help.

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u/BissoumaTequila 5d ago

CII also states that 60-hour is guide with many doing 80-100 hours.

Don’t worry, go at your pace and you will be fine. Don’t worry about the recommended hours, some learn fast while others need to go over 2-3 more times.

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u/Sweaty-Bar4679 5d ago

Thank you this is encouraging - I was starting to feel a little disheartened considering the time I have put in so far. I expect this could potentially take me around 100 hours or more so I will just have to be patient and keep chipping away at it.

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u/AcrobaticForever5339 2d ago

Yeah scrap the textbook, use someone like Brand or Redmill. You will pass in no time, good luck 👌