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Success strategies for insurance courses and exams 

Insurance licensees have a great deal of responsibility, not only to meet licensing requirements (which involves writing exams), but also to apply their knowledge correctly and provide the right advice to customers about coverage for their valued assets.           

A strategic approach to learning will help you advance your knowledge base (and career) and meet mandatory education requirements - all in the most cost-effective and efficient manner. 

Which is to say: Study smart. Approach your licensing, certificate or designation program just like any other work-related project. Commit to the process, take deadlines seriously and prepare well. 

Here are some tips to help with that preparation. These suggestions should prove to be useful whether you're joining a class, studying on your own, or rewriting an exam. 

Preparing for your course

  1. Make sure you have the current text materials. CAIB and other textbooks are revised periodically to stay current with regulatory changes. A second-hand textbook may not prepare you for all exam questions.
  2. Familiarize yourself with insurance terminology. Have a glossary of insurance terms handy. The Glossary of Risk Management & Insurance Terms provided by the University of Calgary's Hiskayne School of Business is one example of several good online glossaries. Or purchase a copy of the Glossary of Insurance Terms. Look up any words or terms that are unfamiliar or unclear to you.
  3. Check out the online portion of the course, especially if you're challenging the CAIB 1, CAIB 2, or CAIB 3 exams. This is an excellent additional study tool.
  4. Choose an attainable exam date. Remember, if you cancel or change your exam date with less than one month's notice, you will be charged a deferral fee.

Class-specific study

  1. Prepare for classes. Read through the materials prior to your class. This enables you to identify those areas that are unclear and to ask questions both in class and of your colleagues at work.
  2. Participate in class. Don't be shy about asking questions. It's likely that you're not the only one who has that question; get an answer from the person who knows. 

General study

  1. Schedule your study time. Stay organized and stick to your schedule. There's nothing worse than going into an exam and wishing you'd done more studying. Make time. (Some licensees with hectic home environments have booked themselves into a hotel room for a couple days of quiet studying prior to writing an exam.)
  2. Make notes and highlight areas in your text book to help you in your review prior to the exam.
  3. Look at the checkpoints and key terms at the end of each section of each chapter. These are an indication of what you are expected to know.
  4. Do the discussion questions at the end of each chapter and answer all the questions in your study guide. This gives you practice in writing out the answers.
  5. Re-read your textbook, look through the answers you've completed in your study guide, check the key terms in your student resource guide. To test yourself you may find it helpful to make flash cards.
  6. Save your practice exam. Challenge your preparedness with the practice exam just a few days before your examination date. There's no point in testing your knowledge before you've studied. 

Exam day

  1. Give yourself plenty of time to get to your exam. Make sure that you know where you're going and what time you need to be there. Arriving at your exam late and stressed isn't going to improve your performance.
  2. Read the instruction sheet provided separately with your exam. If the instructions printed on the front of your exam booklet conflict, defer to the instruction sheet.
  3. Read through the entire exam before beginning. Do the questions you can answer with no difficulty first, then work on the harder questions. Allocate time for each question to ensure that you don't run out of time. If a question has you completely stumped attempt to answer it anyway; you may at least get partial marks.
  4. Read the question carefully. Does the question ask you to list, explain, contrast or compare? These key words tell you exactly what the marker is looking for. You won't get marks for providing what's not asked for, but you also won't get full marks if you list when the question has asked you to explain. This is especially important in the CAIB 4 exams.
  5. Write as clearly as possible. If markers can't read the answers, they can't award marks. Clearly number each answer in the answer booklet.
  6. Re-read your answers and double check that you have completed all the questions. Take care if you decide to change an answer, especially multiple choice questions - your first choice is usually correct, so think carefully before making the change. Take care that you haven't confused similar words such as 'insured' and 'insurer' or missed out key words such as 'no' or 'not' as this can completely change the meaning of a sentence.

Remember, exams can be stressful. Don't make it harder on yourself than you need to. Having a plan and being prepared from start to finish can go a long way towards relieving that stress, and improving your overall score.