Registration Blues

Preparing for, and writing the regulatory exams, is enough of a challenge for the majority of candidates. You do not want to be burdened by concerns about administrative glitches, or misunderstandings when you finally make your fearful way to the exam centre.

Unfortunately, this happens. We provide some guidelines below to help you take this item off your worries-and-concerns list.

You can register in one of three ways: On-Line, telephonically (021 888 9796) or via fax (086 244 3376).

To register, you need to have your ID or passport number, your FSP number as well as contact and professional details on hand. The good news is that you only have to go through this schlep once, unless you change exam bodies.

The following conditions, laid down by the FSB, form part of the process, and need to be adhered to to avoid disappointment. Registration has to take place at least 15 working days before the date you actually wish to write.

1. Agreement to the terms and conditions of writing the regulatory examinations is a mandatory step in the registration process.
2. Once you register successfully, an e-mail is generated, confirming the date, time and location of your exam. You also receive an invoice which must be paid within 24 hours. Failure to do so will lead to the cancellation of your registration. Late payments can regrettably not be accommodated.
3. It is the responsibility of the candidate to ensure that he/she is registered for the correct examination. We often find that people register for the wrong exam. When they arrive at the venue, expecting to write the rep’s exam, they find a key individual paper waiting for them. The RE1 is the key individual exam, and the RE5 is the representative exam.
4. The best time to verify this is on receipt of confirmation of your registration, which is sent to you within 24 hours of registration. If you do not receive confirmation within 24 hours, please contact us urgently.

A common problem we experience is that people do pay, but do not use the correct invoice number, or omit it. This means that our finance department is unable to allocate your payment to your registration, and the latter is cancelled. Once the source of the payment is traced, we have to re-schedule the exam if it falls out of the 15 working day time frame.

Frantic requests for results, because “my colleagues all received theirs yesterday” inevitably stems from information supplied at registration. Those candidates either provided a faulty address, or possibly a private one, while looking in their work e-mail for their results.

Please check your details with us prior to the day of writing. In fact, check it well in advance to make sure there is no need for crisis management.

This applies even more to those candidates whose employers made use of the bulk registration system for corporate entities.

Finally: to avoid the panic of getting lost, make sure you know exactly how to get to the venue. We often receive frantic calls from candidates who discover that they do not know where to go when they actually leave home for the exam. This is not how you want to arrive at an exam venue. Full details are supplied on our list of dates and venues.

Adherence to the above guidelines will bring the peace of mind you get from knowing that all is in order, and it works wonder in settling your nerves before the big day.

Good luck!