RE1 exam preparation for Key Individuals

Before the plan: what you are preparing for

The RE1 is 80 multiple-choice questions in 2 hours 30 minutes at a Moonstone venue, and on 80 questions the FSCA's 65% is exactly 52, so the standard is 52 of 80 correct [FSCA, Regulatory Examinations FAQ; FSCA Preparation Guide, section 8.11]. Those are the two numbers the routine below is built around.

Who has to write it, how booking works and what it covers are set out in full in what the RE1 exam actually is.

Booking runs through Moonstone on the same rolling schedule as the RE5, and registration closes 11 working days before each sitting. The fee is R1 300, VAT inclusive, per examination per candidate, payable within 24 hours of registering or the booking is cancelled [Moonstone, 1 October 2024]. Most sittings serve both papers, though a small number are RE5 only, so check before you book. The current schedule is on our RE1 exam dates page.

How the RE1 differs from the RE5

Three things differ, and only one of them is the paper. The RE1 is 80 questions in 2 hours 30 minutes against the RE5's 50 in 2 hours, and its standard is exactly 65% (52 of 80) rather than the 66% (33 of 50) the RE5 lands on after rounding [FSCA, Regulatory Examinations FAQ].

The second difference is the subject. The RE5 asks what a Representative must do; the RE1 asks what the person managing and overseeing an FSP must do, which pulls in licensing, governance, oversight of representatives, and the duties that sit with the Key Individual personally rather than with the firm. Our guide to key individual responsibilities sets out what that personal accountability covers once the exam is behind you.

The third is who writes it. Most RE1 candidates are running a business while they study, which is a scheduling problem more than a comprehension one. Preparation that assumes long uninterrupted evenings tends not to survive contact with the week.

A preparation routine for people with a business to run

Measure first. You almost certainly already hold parts of this syllabus from doing the job, and the parts you hold are the parts you must not spend evenings re-reading. The free readiness check gives you a score against the real standard and a per-topic breakdown.

Work in short sessions against specific gaps rather than in long sessions against the whole syllabus. Twenty focused minutes on an area you scored badly in beats a lost Sunday spent on the parts you already know.

Practice under time before you book. The RE1 is the longer paper, and concentration across the full sitting is its own skill. Leaving that until the day is a common and avoidable way to lose marks late in the paper.

Then re-measure. The question that matters before booking is whether you are at or above 52 of 80 consistently rather than once.

What RE1 preparation costs

PassPath RE5 is R299, RE1 is R399 and the two together are R549. Each is a one-time payment for 180 days of access, with no auto-renew. Signing up and the readiness check cost nothing.

If you are writing both papers, the bundle is the cheaper route. The examination fee is separate and is paid to Moonstone, not to PassPath: R1 300, VAT inclusive, per examination per candidate [Moonstone, 1 October 2024].

Full refund within 7 days of purchase if you have not started the course content. See the Refund & Access policy.