Just 52 per cent of candidates passed the most recent financial adviser exam conducted in November, according to the Financial Adviser Standards and Ethic Authority (FASEA).
The pass rate for previous FASEA exams conducted in 2021 were 61 per cent (September), 60 per cent (July), 69 per cent (May and March) and 67 per cent (January).
FASEA stated the fifteenth adviser exam was undertaken by 2129 advisers, compared with an average of 1500 across all exams, and 63 per cent of those sitting the exam for the first time passed, compared with an average of 75 per cent across all exams.
According to the FASEA figures, the number of candidates resitting the exam was much higher than for previous sittings at 65 per cent, compared to an average of 18 per cent across all exams.
Analysis of the exam answers discovered a number of areas in the November exam that require significant improvement, including regulatory and legal obligations, ethical and professional reasoning and communication, and financial advice construction.
It noted that across all 15 exams conducted since mid-2019, 17,950 advisers, or 91 per cent, who had sat the exam had passed, including 1980 ceased advisers who can be reauthorised and 430 new entrants who can be authorised as provisional financial advisers.
While existing financial advisers who have sat the exam twice before 1 January 2022 and have yet to pass will have until 1 October 2022 to do so, advisers who have not sat the exam twice “are encouraged to contact their licensee to discuss next steps”, it said.
