RE5 results: how long they take, how you are notified, and what happens next

RE5 results take a maximum of 20 working days from your exam date, roughly one calendar month, and Moonstone, the body that runs the exam for the FSCA, often releases them sooner. Results go by email to the address on your registration, not through the faisexam.co.za portal.

How long do RE5 results take from Moonstone?

Moonstone allows itself a maximum lead time of 20 working days from your exam date to the release of results. That is a ceiling, not a promise: many candidates hear back sooner, but nothing published commits to a faster date, so plan on the full window.

Working days exclude weekends, and every public holiday inside that window pushes the release date back further. Twenty working days is four Monday to Friday weeks, close to a calendar month, but a stretch crossing Easter, Youth Day, Heritage Day or the December break runs longer.

How are you notified?

Moonstone's Terms and Conditions for the regulatory examinations state that the e-mail address on your registration is what the examination body uses to communicate results and any other examination correspondence. Nothing on moonstone.co.za or faisexam.co.za describes results appearing inside the booking portal itself, so treat your registered inbox, not a portal login, as the channel to watch, and keep that address current.

What you receive is a pass or fail outcome, not a breakdown. Moonstone's rules say candidates lose access to their question paper and answer sheet once they hand them to the invigilator, and that block carries through afterward: there is no per-task account of where marks were lost, only the overall result.

Querying a result. Moonstone publishes two routes, and they are not interchangeable. A remark rechecks that your answer sheet was captured and scored correctly: lodge it, with proof of payment of R407 (VAT inclusive), within 5 working days of your result. Moonstone replies within 30 days, and the remarked score is final even if lower than the original. An appeal instead challenges a specific question as technically incorrect, ambiguous or unfair, up to three per form, at R407 with R318 refunded per question upheld, paid within 6 working days of the result; the outcome comes back within 20 working days, and an unsuccessful appeal can go on to the FSCA. Neither pauses your DOFA deadline.

What counts as a pass?

The pass mark is 65%, the FSCA's single figure for the regulatory exams. On the RE5's 50 questions there is no such thing as half a mark, so the real bar is 33 correct, which is 66%. How the RE5 pass mark works sets out why both numbers are correct and describe the same threshold.

If you passed: what happens next

A pass is your RE5 result, communicated by email, and it is the record your FSP files as proof you met the regulatory examination leg of the fit and proper requirements. Moonstone ties your name and ID number on that result to the FSCA's database, so give your name exactly as it appears on your ID at registration, since a mismatch holds up the paperwork later. The RE5 certificate covers what the result document proves, and what it does not.

Your FSP still has work to do once it has your result: recording it, your DOFA, and the supporting evidence in its competence register. What belongs in a representative competence register covers what your compliance officer needs on file.

If you failed: the rewrite clock

A fail starts a clock most people do not expect. You cannot see your result, rebook the next morning and write again next week, because the registration cut-off does not bend for rewrites. Results take up to 20 working days, then registration for the sitting you want closes 11 working days before it. Add the wait for a sitting with seats, and a realistic rewrite sits five to seven weeks out from your fail, not one.

There is no re-registration step: you log back in to the same faisexam.co.za profile, and the full R1 300 fee is payable again, same as a first attempt. How to pass an RE5 rewrite covers those weeks, and your RE5 deadline runs the same arithmetic against your DOFA.

Waiting with a DOFA deadline

Both outcomes cost time you may not have budgeted. A pass still took up to a month to confirm; a fail adds a rewrite's worth of registration lead time on top. If your DOFA deadline is close, that wait is not idle time on the calendar, it is part of the deadline itself, and belongs inside your plan rather than arriving as a surprise. Check the live RE5 exam dates schedule for sittings that leave room for both a results wait and, if needed, a rewrite.

RE1 results

Key individuals writing the RE1 go through the same release process published for every regulatory exam: up to 20 working days from Moonstone, by email to your registered address, with the same remark and appeal routes on request. The RE1 is the longer paper, 80 questions where 65% means 52 correct, but the timeline and how you are told do not change. The complete RE1 exam guide covers the exam itself, and the live RE1 exam dates schedule has current sittings.

The wait for results is dead time most candidates waste scrolling rather than working. If a rewrite turns out to be on the table, the fastest use of that gap is finding out which tasks cost you marks, since Moonstone will not tell you. The free PassPath readiness check samples every RE5 task in about 15 minutes, no card needed, and returns a red to green heat map. Check your readiness free.

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