Clarification around Standard Set B exams

There has been some clarification around how the Standard Set B exams work, plus we have full details about how many advisers have sat and passed exams.

Thursday, December 16th 2010, 7:31AM

by Benn Bathgate

Institute of Financial Advisers (IFA) chief executive Peter Lee has clarified comments in the latest IFA CEO Newsletter in which he said ETITO had made changes to the Set B exam.

In the December 9 newsletter he said "ETITO has just announced a number of changes to the Set B exam, based on feedback from many advisers [that] have been confused by the structure."

ETITO confirmed no changes have been made to the exam and Lee agreed that in fact no changes had been made, citing "a bit of mis-communication from ETITO."

Lee said the training organisation had in fact clarified the structure and pass requirements for the exam.

He said there had been some initial confusion among advisers sitting the exam about how the sections were divided and structured.

"I don't think ETITO was very clear about which parts you had to pass. They've now finally made it clear," he said.

The Set B exam has 30 questions, covering four sections of the unit. Those sitting the exam are required to achieve a preset pass mark in each section, which varies from section to section but in all cases is a minimum of 50%, with an overall pass mark of 70% is required.

Separately ETITO has issued figures for active and pending candidates who have registered, numbers of candidates booked for the Set B exam, the Set C assessment and pass rates for both.

The figures, from October 4 to December 6, reveal a steady increase in candidates booked for both exam and assessment. The Set B exam had 297 candidates booked on October 6, with 29 sitting the exam and a pass rate of 94%. By December 6 2,399 candidates were booked, 968 had sat the exam and the pass rate was 78%.

Standard Set B

However the pass rate for Standard Set B exams was falling. Initially 94% of candidates were passing the exam, but that percentange has been falling steadily to hit 78% in the first week of December.

Standard Set B Pass Rate

Take up for the Set C assessment has been slower however.

Despite a total of 737 candidates booking for the assessment between October 4 and November 1 only five completed the assessment. From October 4 to December 6 a total of 72 candidates completed the Set C assessment.

Standard Set C