Where to Download the IIQE Paper 2 Study Notes for Free — and How to Use Them as a Reference Book, Not a Novel

Last updated 2026-08-10

For Paper 2, the first question is usually not "how do I study" but "where do I get the materials". This page settles both: where the official materials are available free of charge, and how to use them so the reading actually sticks.

Not yet sure whether Paper 2 is on your list? Start with which papers you need — Paper 2 covers general insurance business; if you will only work in long-term insurance, you do not need it.

Where to find the materials: official and free

The syllabus and Study Notes for each paper are freely downloadable from the PEAK website and the Insurance Authority website (Handbook clauses 2.1.4 and 14.1). That fact alone protects you from two common traps:

• Be wary of anyone charging you for "official materials" — the official versions are free and

public in the first place.

• Be even more wary of anyone claiming to hold "past papers": Handbook clause 12.6 states that

the examination centre does not release the questions or the correct answers. Since no genuine past papers are ever published, "official past papers" cannot exist.

When downloading, make sure you have the current edition: the official documents are updated from time to time, so use the edition that matches the sitting you are enrolling for — not a copy someone re-uploaded long ago.

One thing to know in advance: the language of the questions

The questions are set in Traditional Chinese and English side by side — there is no Simplified Chinese version (Handbook clause 2.2.2). In practice, this means two things: you can rely on the English text throughout the exam, and candidates used to Simplified Chinese should start getting familiar with Traditional-script terminology from the reading stage. Insurance terminology is exactly where the gap shows — having seen a term before, in both languages, is a very different thing from guessing at it in the exam room.

Why Paper 2 does not reward cover-to-cover reading

Paper 1 can be read straight through — its principles form a logical chain, and each one leads to the next. Paper 2 is different: it is a product-based paper. Each class of insurance has its own scope of cover and its own exclusions, with little to deduce from one class to another. That knowledge structure has a predictable consequence: memorise the classes one by one in isolation, and by the time you reach the later ones, most of the earlier ones are gone — retention from isolated cover-to-cover reading is poor.

So the better way to treat the Paper 2 materials is as a reference book to consult, not a novel to read from beginning to end:

1. Build the framework first, then hang the details on it. The

six principles of insurance from Paper 1 come up again and again in Paper 2's underwriting and claims contexts — get that chain of principles in place, and every product detail has somewhere to hang: what risk underwriting is managing, how proximate cause is judged at claims time, how indemnity plays out for that particular class. Details hung on a framework last far longer than details memorised in isolation.

1. On the first pass, build a map — do not try to memorise. Skim once to learn what sections

the materials contain and roughly what each covers. The goal is to be able to look things up quickly later, not to retain everything on this pass.

1. Details enter memory by being looked up, not by being read. Going back to the materials with

a specific question produces far stronger memory than undifferentiated reading. And where do specific questions come from? From doing questions.

How the materials and question drilling divide the work

Break the loop apart, and each of the three pieces covers one stage:

• Questions expose blind spots — "does this class cover that situation?" Only getting it wrong

tells you what you had not actually mastered;

• The materials handle verification — for every question you are unsure about, go back to the

official materials and trace the source; the moment you find it is the moment the memory runs deepest;

• The wrong-answer loop handles consolidation — redo the questions you have looked up after a few days, and

only consecutive correct answers count as cleared. When you drill Paper 2 on Mange, wrong answers automatically enter the review queue on exactly this schedule.

As for the overall timetable, and how Paper 2's preparation rhythm differs from Papers 1 and 3, the guide on how to prepare for Paper 2 covers that separately — the two pages are meant to be read together.

Sources and currency

The free download channels for the Study Notes come from the official Examination Handbook, clauses 2.1.4 and 14.1; the bilingual Traditional Chinese and English format, with no Simplified Chinese version, from Handbook clause 2.2.2; the fact that the examination centre does not release questions or correct answers from Handbook clause 12.6. The official documents are updated from time to time — the examination scope and the content of the materials are governed by the current official editions. The advice in this article on how to use the materials is organised and written by Mange, based on generally applicable methods for preparing product-based papers. It is not a quotation from any official material — we do not hold, and do not paraphrase, the text of the Study Notes.

Mange does not own, and does not claim to own, copyright in any official examination material; the content on this page is written by Mange. Nothing on this page is a promise about any examination outcome, nor does it constitute legal advice.