A Six-Week RE1 Study Plan for Busy Key Individuals

Key individuals are busy by definition. You are running a business while studying for an exam about how to run it. This plan assumes about six to eight hours a week for six weeks and puts the time where the marks are.

Before you start

• Book your exam date. A date makes the plan real.
• Read the FSCA's qualifying criteria for the RE1 once. The exam is written against its 16 tasks and nothing else.
• Sit one full 80-question paper cold. The score does not matter. You want to see the style and find your weak tasks.

How the marks are spread

The tasks are not equal. As a rough guide for an 80-question paper:

Area	Approximate questions
Maintaining the licence (Task 3)	16
Managing representatives (Tasks 12 to 15)	11
Codes of conduct (Task 6)	9
The compliance function (Task 7)	9
The key individual (Task 4)	8
Framework and definitions (Tasks 1 and 2)	6
Operational ability and financial soundness (Task 5)	6
Records, accounting and audit (Tasks 8 and 9)	6
Debarment (Task 16)	4
FIC Act (Task 10)	3
Complaints and the Ombud (Task 11)	2

Licensing and representatives together are about a third of the paper. Plan accordingly.

Week 1: The framework and the licence

• Tasks 1 and 2: the purpose of the FAIS Act, the Authority's powers, and the definitions of advice, intermediary service, financial product, representative and key individual.
• Start Task 3: applications, conditions, the display duties and reporting changes.
• Output: a one-page list of definitions in your own words.

Week 2: The licence continued, and your own role

• Finish Task 3: suspension, withdrawal, lapsing, undesirable practices, offences, levies and penalties.
• Task 4: the key individual's fit and proper requirements, class of business training, CPD.
• Output: a table of every time period you have met so far.

Week 3: Running the business

• Task 5: operational ability, governance, outsourcing, and the financial soundness rules. Practise the liquidity sums until they are routine.
• Tasks 8 and 9: record keeping, accounting records, financial statements and the auditor.
• Output: five worked calculations done from memory.

Week 4: Conduct and compliance

• Task 6: the General Code. Focus on conflicts of interest and financial interests, disclosures, suitability, replacements, advertising, direct marketing, complaints and waivers.
• Task 7: when a compliance officer is required, Phase I and Phase II approval, reports and visits.
• Output: a "who does what" sheet: FSP, key individual, compliance officer, auditor, Authority.

Week 5: People

• Tasks 12 to 15: appointing representatives, the register, supervision, the time limits for examinations and qualifications, CPD for representatives.
• Task 16: debarment, step by step.
• Tasks 10 and 11: FICA and the Ombud. Short, but learn the numbers.
• Output: a debarment timeline drawn from memory.

Week 6: Exam practice

• Three full timed papers, on separate days, each followed by a review.
• For every wrong answer write one line: the rule, and why your choice was wrong.
• Re-read your periods table and your "who does what" sheet daily.
• The day before: light revision only.

Daily habits that work

• Short sessions. Forty-five minutes before work beats three hours on Sunday night.
• Test, do not re-read. Close the notes and write down what you remember. The effort of recalling is what fixes it.
• Learn periods in families. Five days: notify a debarment, remove a debarred name from the register. Fifteen days: most changes, grounds for debarment, CPD evidence. Twenty-one days: representations on an undesirable practice. Sixty days: rectification.
• Use your own business. Ask of each rule: where is this in my FSP? Who does it? Where is the evidence? You will remember it, and you will find gaps worth fixing.

If you have less time

Cut reading, never practice. Do Tasks 3, 4, 6, 7 and 12 to 16 properly, skim the rest, and still sit two full timed papers.

Target scores

Aim for 75% or more in practice papers before the real exam. The pass mark is 65%, and a margin protects you from a bad day and an unfamiliar set of scenarios.