ASIC exam sees highest pass mark in 2 years
The pass mark for November’s financial advice exam was the highest since ASIC took over its administration, sitting at 77 per cent.
The sitting saw 289 people sit the exam in November, with 207 sitting the exam for the first time.
Some 77 per cent (225 candidates) passed, a significant jump from the 62 per cent pass mark in the August sitting.
This was the highest pass rate since ASIC took over running of the exam in January 2022, beating the previous high mark of 73 per cent in August 2023 when 205 candidates had sat the exam.
Joel Ronchi, who coaches advisers with their exam preparation, said he had noticed candidates were pushing back their exam dates until they felt confident to sit the exam as well as candidates having greater experience.
“People are taking their time to prepare – for example, some of the people who completed the myIntegrity Financial Adviser Exam Masterclass were originally going to sit in August but then pushed it out to the November sitting.
“I feel like there was a greater number of people with financial advice experience sitting the November exam, based on conversations I was having with people looking to pass the exam and then come back into the industry and meeting the higher education requirements by using the ‘10-year professional experience’ exemption.”
Alisdair Barr, founder of Striver, said: "As more people go through the exam, there's this knowledge base built up and people know what to expect. There's also better resources such as those from TAL Risk Academy which runs a Financial Adviser Exam Masterclass and support groups and forums where people can share information and spend time together, that was something that was lacking previously.
"You are getting people sitting the exam now who have gone through their Professional Year, they've taken their time to make sure they're ready and read the right resources."
Referencing the low mark achieved in August, he posited this might have inspired November candidates to work extra hard to avoid being one who failed.
The highest pass mark overall was 90 per cent at the inaugural exam held in June 2019, when the exam was administered under the previous regime of the Financial Adviser Standards and Ethics Authority (FASEA).
The lowest pass mark since the exam’s inception was in February 2022 when only 32 per cent of the 333 candidates at that sitting passed the exam.
To date, 21,637 individual candidates have sat the exam, and 92 per cent have passed.
At the start of 2024, ASIC announced changes to the exam structure which saw the removal of the short-answer questions from the exam and increased the number of multiple-choice questions. It also removed the requirement limiting exam participation to new financial advisers who have completed an approved degree and existing providers.
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Laura Dew
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