RE5 pass mark: what score you actually need in 2026

The RE5 pass mark is 65%. The exam has 50 multiple-choice questions, so 65% of 50 is 32.5, and you cannot answer half a question. In practice you need 33 correct answers out of 50, which is 66%.

What is the pass mark for the RE5 exam?

The FSCA sets the pass mark for the regulatory examinations at 65%. That is the official figure, and it is the one quoted in the FSCA's own material on the regulatory exams. It applies to the RE5 and the RE1 alike.

You will also see 66% quoted, often on forums and in study groups, and people assume one of the two numbers is wrong. Neither is. The 65% is the rule. The 66% is what the rule works out to once you apply it to 50 questions: 65% of 50 is 32.5 marks, and because there is no half mark on a multiple-choice paper, the first whole score that clears the rule is 33. Thirty-three out of 50 is 66%.

Both numbers describe the same threshold. Plan your study around 33 correct answers rather than a percentage, because the count is what the marking actually does.

How many questions do you need right to pass the RE5?

Thirty-three of 50 for the RE5. Fifty-two of 80 for the RE1. Those are the whole numbers that clear 65% on each paper, and the ones worth memorising.

There is no partial credit. Every question is multiple choice and it is either right or it is not. You earn nothing for identifying the correct piece of legislation but the wrong timeframe, or for narrowing four options to two and then choosing the wrong one. On a 50-question paper each question is worth two percentage points, so one careless misread costs you a full two points.

There is also no scaling and no curve. The threshold does not move because a paper was hard or because the cohort you sat with did badly. Your result is your raw count against a fixed line, which is why 17 wrong answers on the RE5 is the entire margin you get. The eighteenth wrong answer is a fail.

You have 2 hours for the 50 RE5 questions, about 2 minutes and 24 seconds each. That is enough if you know the material and nowhere near enough to reason from first principles on topics you skipped. The complete RE5 exam guide covers the format and timing in more detail.

What is the RE1 pass mark, and how does it compare?

The RE1 pass mark is also 65%. The RE1 is the Key Individual exam and it is a longer paper: 80 multiple-choice questions rather than 50. Sixty-five percent of 80 is exactly 52, so there is no rounding argument on the RE1. You need 52 of 80, and 52 is 65% precisely.

That is the one place the two exams genuinely differ in how the threshold behaves. On the RE5 the arithmetic pushes you up to 66%. On the RE1 the numbers land cleanly on 65%. The rule is identical; only the question count changes what it means on the day.

Here is the side-by-side comparison of the two thresholds.

• Questions: RE1 has 80 multiple-choice questions. RE5 has 50.
• Correct answers needed: RE1 needs 52 correct. RE5 needs 33 correct.
• Percentage: RE1 is 65% exactly. RE5 is 65% as stated by the FSCA, which rounds up to 33 marks, or 66%.
• Wrong answers you can afford: RE1 allows 28. RE5 allows 17.
• Fee: R1 300 for either exam, VAT inclusive, per examination per candidate, set by the FSCA.

If you are writing the Key Individual paper, the complete RE1 exam guide sets out what the longer syllabus covers. If you are not certain which exam applies to your role, sort that out before you book, because the fee is per examination and you do not get it back.

Why the pass mark is harder than 65% sounds

Sixty-five percent reads like a soft target, and most people have cleared that level before without much difficulty. The RE5 is harder than the number suggests, and the reason is not the difficulty of individual questions. It is how the paper is built.

The exam samples across the whole syllabus. You cannot pick your topics. Questions are drawn against the FSCA qualifying criteria, covering the FAIS Act and its subordinate material, the duties of a representative, disclosure obligations, record keeping, complaints and the FAIS Ombud, product supplier and FSP responsibilities, and the fit-and-proper requirements. Whatever you skipped will appear on your paper.

That has an unpleasant arithmetic consequence: lopsided knowledge averages into a fail. A candidate at 90% on the topics they enjoyed and 40% on the two they avoided does not sit at 90%. They sit somewhere in the sixties, which is exactly where the line is. Being strong across most of the syllabus does not compensate for a weak slice, because that slice still generates questions and they count the same as the rest.

This is the most common shape of a near miss: a 60% or 62% result from someone who genuinely knew most of the content. The fix is not more hours on what you already know. Why representatives fail the RE5 covers the other recurring patterns, including misreading question stems and running out of time.

What happens if you fall short of the pass mark?

You rewrite, and you pay R1 300 again. The fee is per examination per candidate, so every attempt costs the same. You do not need to re-register: you log in and rebook. Payment must be made within 24 hours of registration or the booking is not confirmed, and you use the EB invoice number as the reference.

There is no stated limit on the number of attempts. What limits you is time. Under FAIS Notice 86 of 2018, a supervised representative must complete the applicable regulatory exam within 2 years of their date of first appointment. That clock does not pause because you fell two marks short. Results can take up to 20 working days from the exam to be released, although candidates often receive them sooner, and then you have to find a sitting and wait for that date. Two failed attempts can consume several months of a 24-month window. Working backwards from your DOFA deadline sets out that arithmetic.

Missing the DOFA deadline is the real cost, not the R1 300. A representative who has not completed the exam in time cannot remain on the FSP's representative register. If that is where you are now, how to pass the RE5 rewrite deals with the second attempt specifically, because preparing for a rewrite is a different job from preparing for a first sitting.

How to know whether you are above the pass mark before you pay to write

Measure it. That is the only honest answer. The threshold is a fixed count of correct answers across the whole syllabus, so the only way to know where you stand is to be tested across the whole syllabus and see the count.

Reading and re-reading material does not tell you. Familiarity feels like knowledge and is not the same thing: you can recognise every heading in the FAIS Act and still miss a question that turns on a specific timeframe or duty. Confidence is a poor instrument here, because the candidates who fail at 62% were usually confident going in. They had no measurement, so they could not see the two weak topics dragging the average down.

What you want before you spend R1 300 is a score against every qualifying criterion the exam tests, plus a topic-level view of where you are weak. Then you either study the specific gaps or you book the sitting, on evidence rather than a guess. Am I ready for the RE5? works through how to make that call.

PassPath's free readiness check takes about 15 minutes and needs no card. It scores you against every FSCA qualifying criterion the exam tests and returns a readiness score plus a topic-by-topic red-to-green heat map, so you can see whether you are above or below 33 of 50 before you commit the fee and the date.

PassPath is an independent study platform. The RE1 and RE5 are written through Moonstone; PassPath is not affiliated with Moonstone or the FSCA.