Every year the Chartered Insurance Institute publishes the pass rates for its Diploma in Regulated Financial Planning. They're one of the few hard pieces of data we have about how candidates actually perform in the R0 exams, and they're a useful reality check when you're staring down a study schedule and trying to work out which unit deserves the most respect.
Below is the latest published picture (annual pass rates, 2019-2024), with the headline numbers for each R0 unit and what they tell us about difficulty.
The headline numbers
| Unit | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| R01 | 64% | 69% | 69% | 68% | 69.6% | 70.1% |
| R02 | 60% | 64% | 65% | 70% | 63.8% | 65.2% |
| R03 | 56% | 65% | 57% | 54% | 55.4% | 60.1% |
| R04 | 58% | 61% | 57% | 57% | 65.9% | 66.2% |
| R05 | 78% | 79% | 78% | 78% | 76.6% | 77.7% |
| R06 | 67% | 78% | 74% | 71% | 74.8% | 71.3% |
Source: Chartered Insurance Institute pass rate data, as published June 2025.
A couple of things jump straight off the page. R05 is consistently the easiest exam to pass. R03 is consistently the hardest. And everything else sits somewhere in the middle, with R01 and R04 slightly more forgiving than R02 and R06.
So which is the hardest?
On the raw numbers, R03, Personal Taxation, is the hardest R0 exam, and it has been for years. It's the only unit that has spent most of the last decade below a 60% pass rate, and even 2024's "improved" 60.1% would be a low point for any other R0 paper.
There are a few reasons R03 is so brutal:
- It's a 60-minute, 50-question paper with no scenario padding. You have just over a minute per question, and several of those questions involve calculations.
- The syllabus changes every year because of Budget updates, allowances, thresholds and rates all shift, and old material gets stale quickly.
- The maths is unforgiving. Unlike R02, there's no calculation toggle to avoid, income tax, CGT, IHT and NIC calculations are core to the paper.
- Easy marks are thin on the ground. Almost every question rewards precise knowledge of a specific rule, allowance or exemption.
R02 is the next toughest of the multiple-choice units. It's broader than R03, more conceptual, and has its own calculation-heavy corners (CAPM, redemption yields, modified duration), but candidates generally find the question style a touch friendlier.
And R05? Why is it so much easier?
R05 isn't really an outlier. It's just a different beast. It's a Level 3 unit, whereas R01-R04 and R06 are Level 4. The depth of knowledge required is genuinely lower, the syllabus is narrower (it's all protection, life, CIC, IP, PMI, long-term care), and the questions tend to reward common sense as much as memorisation.
That doesn't mean you should skip the prep. A ~78% pass rate still means more than one in five candidates fail. But if you're choosing which exam to use as a confidence-builder early in your Diploma journey, R05 is the obvious pick.
What about R06?
R06 is the written case-study paper, and its pass rate has bounced around between 67% and 78% over the last six years. 2024 came in at 71.3%, slightly below the recent average.
The pass rate looks generous compared to R03, but it tells you very little about difficulty on its own. R06 sittings are self-selecting. Candidates only sit it once they've already passed R01-R05, so the pool is smaller, more experienced, and far more invested. A 71% pass rate among that group is not the same as a 71% pass rate among first-time entrants.
In practice, plenty of advisers find R06 the most stressful exam of the lot, simply because the format (three hours, two case studies, written responses) is so different from anything else in the Diploma.
Reading pass rates sensibly
A few things worth keeping in mind before you let the numbers drive your strategy:
- Pass rates include resitters. A candidate who fails R03 twice and passes on their third attempt counts as one pass and two fails. First-time pass rates are almost certainly lower than the headline.
- The cohort isn't random. Most candidates pay for study material, attend workplace study days, or have employers funding their exams, so these numbers reflect a relatively motivated group.
- Year-on-year movement is usually noise. A 2-4 percentage point shift in either direction is normal. Trends over three or four years are more reliable than any single year.
- "Easy" exams still need work. R05 has the highest pass rate, but that's because candidates prepare for it properly, not because it's a walkover.
What this means for your study plan
If you're planning your Diploma route, the pass rates give you a sensible order of priority for study time, not for sitting:
- R03 deserves the most preparation time. Treat it as a calculation exam first and a knowledge exam second. Practise tax computations until they're mechanical, and re-read the syllabus every time a new tax year kicks in.
- R02 needs structured revision around its formulas and investment principles. Don't try to cram it the week before the exam.
- R04 has improved markedly in recent years, but pensions still rewards careful, repeated practice with the annual allowance and the post-LTA rules.
- R01 is passable with disciplined study, but the questions test precise definitions, so don't rely on workplace common sense.
- R05 is the easiest first win if you want early momentum.
- R06 is its own world. Pass rates aren't a useful guide to difficulty here, what matters is your ability to write clean, structured answers under time pressure.
The bottom line
If someone tells you "the R0 exams are all roughly the same difficulty," the data says otherwise. R03 is consistently the hardest, R05 consistently the easiest, and the rest cluster around the mid-60s to low-70s. Knowing where the difficulty really sits is half the battle. You can plan your study time, your sitting order and your mock exam practice accordingly.
Pass rates aren't destiny. The candidates who pass first time are almost always the ones who treated the hardest exams with the most respect, did enough mocks under timed conditions, and didn't assume the easier-looking units would take care of themselves. Use the numbers as a planning tool, not a prediction.