RES 5 vs M5: what changed in 2024 and what it means now

RES 5 vs M5 comes down to size and scoring. On 1 April 2024, SCI renamed M5, Rules and Regulations for Financial Advisory Services, as RES5, Rules, Ethics and Skills for Financial Advisory Services. The paper grew from 100 questions in 120 minutes to 150 questions in 180 minutes, split into two parts with their own pass marks. An old M5 pass still counts, within FAA-N26's validity rules, but M5 notes won't prepare you for the paper as it is now.

What changed on 1 April 2024

The same change brought in three combined product papers, CM-CIS, CM-LIP and CM-LIC, covered further down. You still register and sit RES 5 at SCI, and a sitting costs S$185.30 to S$236.53, GST included, depending on your company's membership and the session.

Why the paper changed

MAS issued Notice FAA-N26 on 28 September 2023, and it took effect on 1 April 2024. SCI's announcement gives the aims behind it: to raise the competency of appointed representatives, to build a culture of high ethical standards, and to give representatives more flexibility in how they meet the requirements.

The new name says where the weight moved. "Regulations" became "Ethics and Skills", and those two words now have a part of the paper to themselves.

How the switchover ran

SCI published the timeline in advance:

1. 1 February 2024: the new study text was released, and registration for the new papers opened.
2. 25 March 2024, 12 noon: the deadline to register for M5.
3. 28 March 2024: the last day anyone could sit M5.
4. 1 April 2024: the first RES 5 sittings.

Anyone who hadn't passed M5 by 28 March 2024 had to register for RES 5 instead.

The two-part scoring

RES 5 marks two parts separately. Part I's 110 questions cover rules and regulations, chapters 1 to 13, and need 75%. Part II's 40 questions cover ethics and the advice process, chapters 14 to 27, and need 80%. You clear both in the same sitting or you fail the paper.

So a strong Part I can't carry a weak Part II. Score 90% on Part I and 77% on Part II and the result is a fail, even though your total looks comfortable. On Part II, 80% of 40 means 32 right, so 8 wrong answers is the entire margin. Our RES 5 pass marks guide works through more cases.

What Part II tests

Part II's 14 chapters fall into two groups:

• Ethics: why professional ethics matter, professionalism, ethical and unethical behaviour, conflicts of interest, fair dealing, and the ethical marketing and sale of financial products.
• Skills: building the client relationship, fact-finding and needs analysis, analysing a client's finances, developing strategies, presenting them, reviewing the client's portfolio, and a basic financial planning guide.

The questions read like short cases. A client says or wants something, and you pick what a representative should do. Several options can sound reasonable, and the right one is the one that fits the rules and the client's interest. See the style in our RES 5 sample questions.

Does an old M5 pass still count?

Yes, with conditions. Under FAA-N26, someone who passed Module 5 under the old notice is deemed to have passed RES 5.

That deemed pass follows the validity rules, though. It stops counting if you didn't start as an appointed representative within three years of passing, or if you stopped working as one and didn't return within three years. Then you sit RES 5 itself. If you passed M5 years ago and are only now joining a firm, ask the compliance team to check the dates before you assume you're covered.

Are old M5 notes still useful?

Partly. Part I still covers the Financial Advisers Act and its regulations, MAS notices and guidelines, anti-money laundering rules and CPF, so a good M5 summary of the law gives you a base, as long as it reflects the rules as they stand today.

The risk is everything M5 material wasn't written for:

• Part II's 40 questions and their 80% line.
• The current study text. RES 5 exams from 22 September 2026 use the 1st Edition, Version 1.3, and SCI lists every change in the Version Control Record at the back of the eBook.
• Practice scores. A question set built for M5 gives you one score out of 100, which says nothing about whether your Part II would clear 32 of 40.

Use old notes for Part I revision if you trust them. Learn Part II from the current eBook.

The combined product papers

The same change brought in combined papers on the product side. Each one lets you sit two or four product modules at once, and you need at least 70% in every part:

The single modules M8, M8A, M9 and M9A still run, and their 70% pass mark didn't change.

Is RES 5 harder than M5 was?

It's a bigger paper with a stricter rule. Fifty more questions, an extra hour, and a second pass mark that one weak part can miss on its own. How hard that feels depends on how you prepare, which our look at how hard RES 5 is covers.

What helps most is tracking Part I and Part II as two scores from your first practice session, and spending more time on Part II than its 40 questions suggest. Our RES 5 study plan is built that way.

Practise for the paper as it is now

Our RES 5 bank has 700+ questions written for the current two-part paper, chapter practice across all 27 chapters and an explanation on every answer. The full mock runs at 150 questions in 3 hours and is marked against 80%, the stricter of the two pass marks. See what's covered on the RES 5 page, or start RES 5 as a single paper.

Sources

• SCI, implementation of new CMFAS examinations, read 11 October 2026
• SCI, RES5 exam details and contents, read 11 October 2026
• SCI, release of new versions of study texts for regulatory examinations, read 11 October 2026
• MAS, Notice FAA-N26 on competency requirements for representatives of financial advisers, read 11 October 2026