Next adviser exam less than a fortnight away as cumulative pass mark holds at 92.8%

The next Financial Advisers Exam will be held on 20 August, with the booking window having closed on 7 August, as the profession's entry assessment moves through its 34th cycle.

Results from the June sitting, the 33rd cycle, were released by ASIC in early July. Across the life of the exam, 22,748 individual candidates have now sat it, with 21,113, or 92.8 per cent, having passed, demonstrating the required skills across advice construction, ethics and legal requirements.

The June figures represent an increase of 137 candidates on the cumulative total reported after the March cycle, when 22,611 individuals had sat the exam with a 92 per cent pass rate across all sittings.

The exam is conducted by the Australian Council for Educational Research as a computer-based assessment of at least 70 multiple-choice questions split equally across three knowledge domains, at a fee of $1,500 per sitting. Candidates sitting the August cycle via remote proctoring were required to schedule their sessions by 17 August to avoid additional fees, with further sittings scheduled through November.

Exam cohorts have become a closely watched leading indicator for the Financial Adviser Register, with each release of results typically followed by a wave of new entrant authorisations in subsequent weeks. Earlier this year, the March cohort of 209 passing candidates was credited with helping push the profession's financial year net change back toward positive territory.

The relationship between exam passes and register growth remains imperfect. The cumulative figures indicate a substantial pool of exam-qualified individuals who have not proceeded to authorisation, a gap that has drawn increasing attention as the profession debates its capacity to meet demand from an ageing client base.

For licensees, the August and November cycles represent the remaining opportunities this calendar year to move professional year candidates through the exam requirement, which must be completed before a new entrant begins the third quarter of their professional year.

Results from the August sitting are expected in the following weeks, consistent with the timetable of recent cycles.