An exam revision platform for financial advisers, built in days and now being adopted by a firm

Sounds like you if

• Your team sit professional exams, and revision is left to each person and a workbook
• You want people through their exams sooner, and to keep what they learned rather than cram it
• Technical questions and exact wording keep coming back after the exam, and need somewhere to be checked
• You want something built around your own syllabus and the current figures, not a generic course

The challenge

The CISI Level 4 Financial Planning and Advice unit is the technical unit of the Investment Advice Diploma: a timed multiple-choice paper across financial planning, protection, retirement planning, retirement solutions and recommendations.

I was revising for it myself. The workbook teaches the content, but it gives no timed practice, no way to find the areas you keep getting wrong, and figures that go stale every April.

For an advisory firm the problem is wider: every new adviser sits the same exams, revision is left to each person, and once they are through, technical questions and the exact wording still need a reference to come back to.

The brief

First, for me: a revision and mock-exam environment for the unit, with original questions only, built around the syllabus and the current tax-year figures so that an April update is one edit, not hundreds.

Then, for the firm: the same platform as a way to train and upskill its team, so they accelerate through their exams and have a point of reference for technical questions and wording afterwards, with further modules to follow.

What we built together

1. Focus: the gap

   Where revision time was being lost: no exam-condition practice, no view of weak areas, and figures that change every tax year.

2. Frame: the syllabus as data

   The unit's elements, topics and paper weighting, every tax-year figure with its source and date, and an original question bank mapped to the official learning objectives. Nothing copied from the CISI workbook.

3. Build: the platform

   Learn mode, topic and weak-area drills, timed mock exams weighted like the real paper, flashcards, a figures sprint, a printable rate sheet, and a results report that reviews every question: the right answer, the explanation and why each other option is wrong. Questions that turn on an amount, an age or a date draw fresh numbers each time, so nobody memorises an answer. The first version was built on 31 October 2026, in days; the full review, fresh-number questions and rate sheet followed in the week after.

4. Prove: the checks

   Automated tests run on every build: coverage of every learning objective, mock papers weighted exactly as the exam, no repeats within a session, answer letters balanced, and every fresh-number question checked against its hand-worked answer. A question only goes live once every figure it depends on has been confirmed.

5. Embed: into a firm

   A financial adviser is adopting the platform for his business, to train and upskill his team. Further modules are planned for pensions and insurance, and perhaps mortgages.

What it took

• Days to a working first version, because the syllabus, the figures and the questions are data the app reads, not pages written by hand.
• Original content only: every question, explanation and note is written fresh. The CISI workbook and syllabus stay the learner's to buy and use alongside it.
• Low risk for the firm: the platform already exists and is in use before any further module is built, and each learner's progress stays on their own device.
• AI sped up the build and the review of each question against HMRC manuals, GOV.UK, the FCA Handbook and the legislation. The app is for practice; the exam itself is the CISI's.

What changed

• For me: revision with timed papers, a weak-area drill and a report that shows exactly where the marks are going, instead of a workbook alone.
• For the firm: a platform its team can revise on, with the same questions, wording and figures for everyone, and somewhere to come back to for technical questions after the exam.
• No results figures yet. The firm is adopting it now, and this page will carry the results when there are some.

What's next

Further modules are planned for pensions and insurance, and perhaps mortgages.