RE5 exam preparation: a practical plan

Before the plan: what you are preparing for

The RE5 is 50 multiple-choice questions in 2 hours at a Moonstone venue, and the standard is 33 of 50 correct, which is 66% [FSCA, Regulatory Examinations FAQ]. It is written against the FSCA's published qualifying criteria: 47 criteria across 8 task areas [FSCA Preparation Guide 2026, Appendix A]. Those two facts are the whole basis of the routine below, and they are the only ones this page restates.

For the exam itself, who must write it, what it costs and how booking works, read what the RE5 exam actually is.

For what is examinable, task by task, Our RE5 study guide lists all 8 task areas with their criteria counts. This page assumes you have both of those and gets on with the preparation.

A preparation routine that survives a working week

Start with a baseline rather than with chapter one. You need to know which task areas are already sound, because re-reading what you know is the most common way to run out of time. The free readiness check measures all eight and takes about 15 minutes.

Then work weakest task first, in short sessions, with questions rather than only with reading. Answering a question and reading why the answer is what it is builds a different kind of recall from highlighting a paragraph, and it is closer to what the paper asks you to do.

Add timed practice once the weak areas have moved, not before. A timed mock taken too early measures your nerves rather than your knowledge. Closer to the sitting it tells you whether you can hold the standard for a full paper.

Re-measure before you book. The honest question is not whether you feel ready, it is whether you are at or above the standard across every task area, and that is a number rather than a feeling.

How long does RE5 preparation take?

There is no published figure, and any site quoting you a fixed number of hours has made it up. How long it takes depends on how much of the material your day job already covers, how many of the eight task areas are weak, and how much uninterrupted time you get in a week.

What can be measured is coverage. The useful question to ask each week is which of the eight task areas have moved, and starting early enough that a bad answer to that question still leaves time to act on it.

The other half of the answer is how long you have. Representatives have two years from their date of first appointment [FSCA FAIS Notice 86 of 2018, Annexure A, condition 2(1)]. Working backwards from your DOFA deadline turns that window into a booking plan, with room for results and for a rewrite.

What RE5 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.

The examination fee is separate and is paid to Moonstone, not to PassPath. If you want to see the material before you spend anything, the free RE5 mock exam is 20 questions with no signup and no card.

Travel can be one of them. Registration closes 11 working days before each sitting, the fee is R1 300 VAT inclusive per attempt [Moonstone, 1 October 2024], and sittings are concentrated in Gauteng and the Western Cape, so where you can write the RE5 may decide which date you take.

It is worth knowing what you are buying. The pass itself carries no stated expiry date; what lapses is your authorisation and your fit and proper standing, which depend on ongoing CPD and current FSP registration. Whether does the RE5 expire sets out the difference.

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