Speaking to ifa, Synchron general manager of operations Ian Knight said the dealer group had received “overwhelming adviser comment” around the lack of feedback given in the exam process, where advisers who fail are currently provided with up to three broad ‘knowledge areas’ that they will need to revise in order to pass.
“Advisers are very much wanting a score, feedback on the areas they did not get right and how best they can correct that knowledge deficiency by way of references to applicable and relevant content,” Mr Knight said.
He added that older advisers in particular had recorded a number of consistent concerns around the exam, two of which were the broadness of the suggested study and content to refer to, and concerns around what specifically to study and how to prepare.
In a LinkedIn post earlier this month, Joel Ronchi, principal consultant of adviser education and training provider myIntegrity in Practice, detailed the struggles of an older adviser he had recently worked with who had failed the FASEA exam and was given three areas of study to work on – “financial advice regulatory and legal requirements”, “financial advice construction”, and “applied ethical and professional reasoning and communication”.
“I literally had an adviser with over 22 years experience on the phone in tears as she explained how she had failed and what the potential impact on her life will be, and how she can’t get any insight or guidance on where she did not perform well,” Mr Ronchi said.
He told ifa the ambiguity of the exam questions as well as the feedback provided to advisers after the exam had combined to make some advisers feel they were being set up to fail.
“There is an overarching feeling of incredulousness about how the exam questions are worded and the context in which they are presented,” he said.
“Most advisers can accept this as part of the challenge, however if they fail the exam, advisers are then dumbfounded as to where they went wrong because of the lack of feedback and ambiguity of the exam questions.”
In response to queries from ifa round the logistics of the exam process, a spokesperson for FASEA said it was “worth advisers taking the time to understand the feedback process for those who fail the exam”.
“Essentially the FASEA exam assesses candidates on three main knowledge areas. Should a candidate fail the exam, analysis of their performance is undertaken to determine whether they underperformed in a particular knowledge area, or across all knowledge areas,” the spokesperson said.
“Based on this analysis … if a candidate [who fails] has clearly underperformed on one knowledge area versus others, they receive advice to revise that particular area. If a candidate has underperformed across all areas consistently, they will be advised to revise all knowledge areas.”
Industry calls for more exam resources
Mr Knight said there was “major adviser support” for FASEA to be provided with additional resources to be able to offer detailed feedback around how exam candidates had performed.
“Synchron has also had a number of advisers request FASEA provide one dedicated educational textbook that contains all relevant exam information in the one place, that is scripted in a fashion that provides clear study guidance and is ‘the source of truth’,” he said.
Mr Ronchi agreed that the authority, along with exam administrator ACER, needed to be provided with better quality resources to ensure consistency of marking and individualised feedback.
“I think the feedback needs to be at the individual adviser level as this is the level at which the exam is occurring. This may necessitate a consideration of available resources – human and financial – or investigation into the consistency of the marking of short answer questions completed by human assessors engaged by ACER/FASEA,” he said.
“There would also need to be scope to offer feedback to those who pass, as based on my years of experience, there will be an interest from this cohort and they will want insight as to how they performed.”
The comments come as advisers face further uncertainty around when laws will be passed to allow an extension of the FASEA exam compliance date to 1 January 2022, with Parliament being scaled back as a result of the COVID-19 crisis and a Senate vote on the laws looking unlikely any time soon.
FASEA has also cancelled all exam sessions scheduled for April because of health concerns surrounding the crisis, with the options for advisers to take the exam remotely or postpone until June.
I agree with this article don’t get rid of the exam requirements for any Adviser, but provide us with study material, feedback so that we can fully prepare for the exam and if we do fail we can understand what areas we need to study more on
I have been informed by FASEA that they will be out during the week beginning the 6th of April.
The exam results or are they all quitting…(he said hopefully on all counts…)
Takes two months. I took it in November and results arrived early January
There were no exams held in November 2019. Sitting 3 was from 5 to 9 December.
Just appalled that the 13 to 18 February exam cohort does not have it’s results yet as of 3 April. Hopeless
In all seriousness does anyone know when we will get our results?
ANYBODY who knows 2+2 does NOT equal 5 knows that advisers, enmasse, ARE being set up to fail this FARCE of an exam. Ethics exam, can you believe it – an exam to prove you are ethical! What absolutely deluded poppycock! The drive to eliminate advisers from the product delivery system forges forward. The govt, industry powerbrokers and this scam of an organisation called FARCE-IA should hang their collective heads in shame over the massive dis-service they are doing the wider Australian community.
I write in 2 days via Procturing…and simultaneously expose my entire computer data to some US based entity….that is an issue….
?? So they can’t pass an exam about ethics on their business practices and compliance with current laws? Give me a break. These clowns should be OUT of the industry. GOVERNMENT incompetence? How about their clients ? I’m sure they’d be delighted to know their adviser can’t pass an exam on compliance and ethics..
Have you passed yet Big Trev?
Yup. Easy if you behave ethically and follow the rules.Did it last year.
Big Tool more like it.
I only asked if you passed the exam.
Right, the world according to ‘Big Trev’. Only children see things in such black and white, absolutist terms. Grow up.
Spot on. Big Trev is obviously a Big Tosser
just another example of incompetent Govt Dept. I sat the exam in Feb, I cannot understand the logic of having an exam that is more focused on interpreting questions as opposed to testing your ability to be a professional and competent adviser. It is like being treated like scum of the world. Perhaps FASEA should put through the pathetic Bank Execs through this type of treatment. From how it looks to me, the bank execs are made of teflon and they systematically passed all the blame to small FP businesses. Just a disgrace
Yes, indeed Teflon. Well said. We should add these next-to-useless-self-absorbed politicians to that exam room too! Hell, they’re only purporting to run the whole damn country – why would THEY need an ethics exam? The age old “one rule for them and one different rule for us” sadly. I’m so very over it – I was beyond disgusted with the whole thing many years ago. I’m out at end of 2021 – I refuse on principle to do this demeaning, punitive (to advisers) and very harmful (to our industry) scam exam. FARCE-IA should be abjectly ashamed along with that creature that runs the FPA, supporting it all.
Every RM of an AFSL should be made to sit the exam and do all the study as well
The Leaders of AFSLs need to taste and feel what advisers are going through so they can lead from the front
wasnt TEFLON cancerous…… paid our millions of dollars in claims for the sick and dying
This is seriously laughable and reeks of laziness on the part of FASEA. How simple would it be to simply return marked papers to candidates? What are they afraid of? What are they hiding about the marking process?
A dedicated textbook would help. Plenty of sample exam questions and solutions. Confirmation that the exam will be extended until the end of 2022, considering the crises we are in.
does anyone know when the results are due ?
FASEA is an absolute joke, the time required to provide results as well as the non existent feedback sums up how poorly this is administered – typical academics, politicians and lawyers getting their way.
You got that mostly right . . . allow me to make one correction: FARCE-IA, not FASEA. Accuracy is key in leaving comments!
I’m dumbfounded by the time it takes to get the results, did my exam ages ago and haven’t heard a thing. What a shambles the whole thing is.
I did it in December and go results late January. I passed thankfully. It was the weirdest exam I have ever sat.
I would urge you to do the ethics course first, as this makes up about 1/3 of the exam. I finished with 45 mins to spare and didn’t bother to review it and left early.
Don’t leave enrolling for too long, just get in and do it. Government may not pass legislation extending the due date as they have their hands full at present bankrupting Australia.
The FASEA exam is only in part (a third to half?) a knowledge exam. It actually tests if you understand ethical dilemmas and how to resolve them. If you never thought about these, you may struggle.
On the other hand, if you talk to someone experienced in passing simple multiple choice exams, do all the practice exams and trainings that are available and register for every exam, your chances of passing should be very high, no matter how difficult it seems at the start. Yes, it takes time we don’t have right now but that is how it is. The lobbying may work or we won’t even get an extension past the end of the year as Parliament won’t sit until October and many other things may happen.
Take it seriously and be aware that being emotional makes it much harder to learn and to pass. Really it is the same as success in investing – do your research and when you are emotional make it an absolute priority to stop being emotional rather than acting immediately.
Results for the February sitting would also be great!
The FASEA exam is the worst exam I have ever sat. The questions are definately ambiguous and the 1 mark for 3 questions is an example of how this exam has been set to trip candidates up. If you get 1 question wrong and the other two right, there are no marks. Furthermore, if you fail the exam this is the response you receive as part of your feedback and guidance;
[i]Should you wish to re-sit the exam, based on your responses to the questions in this attempt, you are encouraged to revise each of the knowledge/domain areas:
• Financial advice regulatory and legal requirements;
• Financial advice construction; and
• Applied ethical and professional reasoning and communication.
Please be aware that there are new questions in every exam sitting[/i][i][/i]
Then you go onto the FASEA website and this is what is written on the generic website page- https://www.fasea.gov.au/fasea-releases-december-exam-results/ under the heading “Additional Background.”
FASEA is having a lend of all of us as all and is accountable to NO-ONE. It disguises itself as a sympathetic beast that is there to help candidates pass the exam yet its actions contradict this completely!
I sat the exam in February. The results have still not yet been released and there are no updates on the FASEA website. Utterly pathetic that we are left in limbo.
To be fair there is a Pandemic going on, I would imagine a lot of organisations are running at reduced capacity and FASEA would be no different. The people that sat the exam in December got the same treatment
You aren’t fair ? The deadline for advisers has not been altered as a result of the Pandemic. And legislation intended to make for extensions have been put on the back burner. Do you even live in Australia ?
Totally agree. I’m actually dumbfounded that FASEA hasn’t even provided those who sat the February exam an indication on when they will receive their results. Given a majority of the questions were multi-choice, it really couldn’t take much time for markets to assess the limited short answer questions. Given the industry is focused on professionalism, what hope is there when bodies such as FASEA can’t even provide a professional service.
I sat the Feb sitting too. At the time they said it could take between 6 and 8 weeks to mark. We are almost at 6 weeks now but I am guessing nothing will come out until after Easter which is 8 weeks.