• A Personal Message from Catriona
• Featured Article :
  I Just Don’t Have Time to Study!
• Out Now : CF5 Calculation Workbook, CF6 Audio Masterclasses
• Moving On – Climbing the Career Ladder
• Exam and Learning Resource Updates
• We Recommend…
  Learning How To Speed Read
• Quote of the Month

Happy New Year! 

It may only be the 12th of January but 2009 feels like a lifetime ago.  Myself and my colleagues have been putting our heads together (via email and telephone thanks to the snow) this past week or so to come up with new ways to help you to pass your exams first time in 2010.  We’re working on some great ideas which hopefully we’ll be able to tell you more about in the very near future.  Watch this space! 

In the meantime, if you have any ideas about how we can help you to pass your exams first time, please do email me directly at Catriona@brandft.co.uk   We always appreciate feedback, comments and ideas.  We can’t provide what you want and need if you don’t tell us so please do email me.

Here’s to a great 2010 with many, many exam passes!

Catriona.

If you have any questions or comments, or any suggestions as to what can be included in this newsletter to help you maximise your potential and pass first time, please contact me directly at Catriona@BrandFT.co.uk  I would love to hear from you.

I Just Don’t Have The Time To Study!

This article is relevant to anybody who wants to further their career in the insurance and financial services industries.

Are your days already full? 

Do you struggle to find free time to study? 

Most people would answer “yes” and “yes”.

I challenge you to find some extra time and prove the answers are really:

“yes, but some of the ‘stuff’ filling my days is unimportant”

and

“yes, but I can find the time if I try hard enough”

Like most things in life, it all comes down to choice.  We DO have the freedom to choose what to do with our time.  We may choose to work full time in order to receive a decent income.  Or we may choose to work part-time in order to spend more time with our family.  There is usually a balancing act involved, and different people will have a different set of scales.

If we choose not to watch that film that’s on this evening, then we are choosing to free up some time do something else.  If we choose to watch Coronation Street, then we are choosing to spend half an hour doing something that might help us to ‘switch off’, but doesn’t really achieve much else.

If we don’t study, it is a choice.  There are always areas where we can cut down for a few months so that study time can be found.  Just getting up 45 minutes earlier in the morning every weekday can provide you with 3 ¾ hours of study time a week. 

Whilst you might not want to get up that early constantly, to do it for 3 months in order to help you achieve an exam pass is surely worth it.  If we then cut down on TV for 45 minutes each evening 5 days a week, that’s another 3 ¾ hours of study time found. 

So already we have found nearly 8 hours of additional study time a week.  Over 12 weeks that’s 96 hours worth of study.  Those small bursts of study time (which for most people is the best way of studying and retaining information – ask the experts) are well worth it.  And if you can fit in some additional hours at the weekend (maybe an hour on a Saturday night before going to the pub, or less time aimlessly surfing the web) then they will also add up. 

Some of those ideas are not workable for everyone as circumstances differ.  The point is that everyone can find 45 minutes here or there if they try hard enough.   I’ve not yet met anybody who can honestly say that every minute of their life is chock-a-block full of “very important stuff”.

To choose not to find the time to study, we are choosing not to invest in ourselves and our future career.  For some the choices can be hard.  With a family and work commitments you can easily argue that we should not be giving up precious time with our family in order to study.  I would certainly be agreeing with you on that one.  But do we really have to give up time with our family in order to study?  I think the answer is yes – to a point – but there is definitely time to be found elsewhere.

Life is about choices.  It’s up to us which choices we make.

Do You Have An Article You Would Like Us To Publish In Our Newsletter?

We’re always interested in reading and publishing any articles that may be of use to our readers. They can relate to the financial services industry, the general insurance industry or to studying and exams in general. If you would like us to consider one of your articles for publication, please email it to catriona@brandft.co.uk

Who looks after whom? A consultant is paid by, and so invariably looks after the interests of, their clients. Candidates quite often feel as if they were just sold a job in order for the consultant to secure the fee and please their client.  A good consultant will know that if they spend their time looking after the candidate they will, by default, be looking after their client’s interests. Ultimately candidates look after their selves, but to do this they need to be confident that their chosen consultant understands their needs and concerns every bit as much as their clients’, and adds real value to their search.  Be sure your consultant is giving you all the facts and answers all your questions.

RecruitUK – The independent specialist IFA recruiter. Ensuring the right people are in the right places for the right reasons.

More information can be found at www.recruitukltd.co.uk         

To discuss your recruitment needs in more detail please contact Terry Hall, directly at terry.hall@recruitukltd.co.uk

CF5 Calculation Workbook

Many of you have been asking for a calculation workbook focusing on the calculations that may come up in your CF5 exam.  So we have done just that!  Find out what calculations we cover step-by-step, view a demo video and download your copy instantly at
http://www.brandft.co.uk/cf/cf5calcwkbk.asp

Note that this is separate from the CF5 Workbook which focuses on Question 2 of the exam (product selection and portfolio creation) and can be found at http://www.brandft.co.uk/cf/cf5wkbk.asp

CF6 Audio Masterclasses – 25% Discount until 15th Jan
Audio masterclasses are a great way to vary your study methods, make studying more interesting, and increase knowledge, understanding and information retention.  You can listen on your PC, on the bus, at the gym – pretty much anywhere.
Take advantage of our massive CF6 audio masterclass 25% discount until Friday 15th January.  To find out more and to get your free sample masterclass for CF6 visit:
http://www.brandft.co.uk/cf/cf6mclass.asp

Updates to our Learning Resources

Updates to all of our learning resources can be found at http://www.brandft.co.uk/updates.asp 
It is essential that you visit this page periodically to ensure that you have the most up-to-date information regarding your learning resources.  Please do not email us with any resource-related queries before checking this page.

General Insurance Learning Resources for 2010

We have updated our IF1, IF2, IF3 and IF5 mock papers for the new syllabus examinable from 1 January 2010.  These are now available at http://www.brandft.co.uk/if/CertI.asp
The good news is that there are not many changes to the syllabus, so only a few questions have had to be replaced or re-worded.

If you do not have the up-to-date CII study text, we recommend you speak to the CII to obtain the updated version. 

There’s nothing worse than receiving your CII study text to find that it weighs the same as a truck and is almost as big.  How are you going to get through all those pages?  To start with, we recommend that you speed read the text to grasp the extent of the content and what is expected of you. 

We recommend you listen to this free audio produced by Michael Tipper, an expert in the field http://www.michaelonspeedreading.com/  He will help you to learn how to speed read, and you will soon discover that it really is straightforward.