What is an IIQE license?

How to register for the exam? How to prepare?

Isn’t the IIQE test score a license?!

Obtaining a passing score in the IIQE (Insurance Intermediaries Qualifying Examination) held by the Institute of Professional Education and Knowledge (VTC PEAK) is one of the requirements for applying for an insurance practitioner license. Since PEAK is a statutory organization that is only responsible for providing professional education and training in Hong Kong, although the IIQE exam it holds is recognized by the Insurance Authority as one of the ability references, PEAK is not a licensing organization, and the IIQE’s qualified results will not be accompanied by any license or rights. Insurance licenses are issued by the Insurance Authority (IA). The IA is responsible for overseeing the compliance of the entire insurance industry, ensuring that insurance intermediaries comply with local laws from licensing to operation, but it is not responsible for organizing examinations. Therefore, the exam must be registered at PEAK, and cannot be registered on the Insurance Authority’s website nor taken there. 

Instructions on applying for an insurance business license

According to the “fit and proper” guidelines (Guideline 23) issued by the Insurance Authority, the Insurance Intermediary Qualifying Examination (IIQE) results are valid for 2 years from the date of the examination. If candidates do not use their scores to apply for a license within 2 years after the exam, the scores will be invalid. If students take the written test, the results will not be announced on the day of the exam, but the validity period will still be 2 years after the exam date.

To apply for an insurance license, most of you must register for more than one exam and obtain passing results. To know which papers you should take, you can refer to ________________. If students need to take more than one exam to obtain a license, they must ensure that they pass the required exam papers and apply for a license within 3 years (from the date of the first exam). If students take the written exam, the results will not be announced on the day of the exam, but the validity period will still be 2 years after the exam date. For example: Suppose you need to take the IIQE Papers 1, 2, 3, and you choose to take the IIQE Paper 1 exam first. After taking the IIQE Paper 1 on January 1, 2021 and obtaining a passing score, you need to take the paper 2 and 3 exam before January 1,2023, and submit an application for a license by that day; in this way the exam will not be a vain. At the same time, it should be noted that the results of the written exam will not be announced until 7 days at the earliest, but the 2-year validity period is calculated from the exam date, not the date of the result released. If the exam result exceeds the two year validity period, you will need to retake the exam for which the result has expired. As long as you complete an exam combination and successfully apply for a license, and the license is  not terminated or revoked, you do not need to retake the exam again, and the license can always be effective.

Let’s see what exam(s) you need to take

How to register for the IIQE exam

The IIQE exam should be registered at PEAK, not the IA. The IIQE exam slots are quite sought-after. If students have an urgent need to take the exam, they should register as soon as possible. The exam period will be issued on the 12-17th of each month. If the 15th of the month is not a working day, it will be advanced or postponed to the next/last working day (note that Saturdays that are not public holidays are also working days).

IIQE registration can only be conducted  online. The quotas for online registration and postal + in-person registration were separate before the outbreak of pandemic in 2019, that is, if you fail to register online, you can still try your luck with postal registration. However, from December 2020 until now, IIQE only accepts online registration. As for whether in-person and postal services will be resumed in the future, no relevant information can be found at PEAK.

register online:

1. To register for the exam, go to: https://www.peak.edu.hk/exam/econline/en/

2. Select “Registration Now” on the right side of “Insurance Intermediary Qualifying Examination”

3. Choose “Insurance Intermediaries Qualifying Examination (Computer Screen Examination Mode)” or “Insurance Intermediaries Qualification Examination (pencil-and-Paper Mode Examination)”

*Please refer to the difference between the computer mode exam and the written mode exam

4. Choose “Start”

5. Read and agree to the terms and conditions

6. Click “I am not a robot” or the box to the left

7. Click “Next”

8. Find out the paper(s) you want to take. If the quota is full, the window will display the word  “Full”, if there are vacancies, the window will display “Do not choose to register”. Click “Do not choose to register” then it will display all the sessions that are still available for registration. Including date, time and location, click on the session to select the session 

9. After selection, check “Selected Exam Papers, Sessions and Fees”

10. Click the green button below that states “Next: Enter Personal Information”

11. Fill in the English name, Chinese name, date of birth, gender, phone number, email address, ID card number and other information. Please ensure that the information is accurate, otherwise students may miss important messages

12. Click the green button below that states “Next step: Preview and confirm the registration form”

13. After checking the information, read and confirm the statements

14. Click “Confirm”

15. Enter credit card information, you may need to enter a one-time password using your mobile phone

16. After completing the registration, you will receive an email notification

Video Tutorial: https://iiqequestionbank.com/zh-hant/iiqeregistration/

How to download the official study manual

If you want to download the exam coverage compiled by PEAK, you can download the “Study Notes” for free at the link below.

1. https://www.peak.edu.hk/exam/en/page.php?id=262385
2. Choose the exam paper you need to partake
3. If you use a computer, you need to click the “Download” button to save to the device

Tutorial  videos (applicable for 2018-2021):

How to download the IIQE Insurance Intermediaries Qualifying Examination Study Material Handbook?

https://hksi.com.hk/zh-hant/iiqestudynotes/

Are there other ways to ensure that I am more prepared  in obtaining a passing grade?

The pass rate of IIQE has always been a major concern for many candidates. As an expert in exam preparation, below is a revision method we recommend our candidates to follow: 

1. First study the official study manual / a chapter of 2CExam Youtube instructional video

2. Complete one chapter of the 2CExam mock exam 

This review method takes 20-25 hours, and statistically has a pass rate of 80%.

No statistics are available for other revision methods.

2CExam is a company specializing in training candidates to take the securities, insurance and real estate exams. For HKSI LE, 2CExam has produced free Cantonese video tutorials for Papers 1, 2, 6, 7, 8, 12, which are publicly released on major well-known video sharing websites at no additional charge. If students have difficulty understanding the content of the study manual when studying for the HKSI paper 1, 2, 6, 7, 8, 12, they can choose to watch the video classes. If you want to purchase revision materials to better understand the content of the exam, you can browse www.2cexam.com (hard copy version) or www.hksiiiqepasspaper.online (online version)

Can I do mock questions without reading the study manual? 

It is not recommended that students only do mock questions without looking at the study manual. Similar to Hong Kong’s primary and secondary education, students are always encouraged to absorb the learning materials before doing the practice exercises. It is highly recommended that students deepen their understanding of the study manual content by doing the mock exam questions. If the student do not look through and study the study manual, prior to doing the mock questions, this will impact the student’s chances of absorbing the knowledge adequately, and that may even cause misunderstanding of the relationship between questions and answers. 

How can we help?

2CExam provides HKSI LE, IIQE, EAQE and SQE related exam preparation materials. We sell mock question banks for IIQE Papers 1, 2, 3, 5 and MPFE in Chinese and English; and bibles for IIQE Papers 1, 2, 3, MPFE in Chinese. We also offer 1 on 1 tutorial services. Besides, we have also made free tutorial videos for IIQE Papers 1, 2, 3 and MPFE and posted on public channels such as Youtube/ Bilibili/ Tencent/ Iqiyi. 2CExam has been an exam training expert for years. Should you need any help please visit www.2cexam.com or contact us through:

Phone +852 2110 9644 Email: [email protected] Wechat: hk2cexam WhatsApp: +852 9347 2064