Making adjustments for the financial adviser exam
Mindset management is one of the most important factors to financial adviser exam success, according to a Griffith University lecturer, and something that can be easily alleviated by seeking reasonable adjustments.
Griffith University financial planning lecturer, Katherine Hunt, said the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) candidate information booklet was very helpful because it set out the conditions for reasonable adjustment.
Factors eligible included a physical disability, hearing impairment, neurological condition, mental health condition or long-term medical condition such as diabetes.
“An easy way to take a little bit of the weight off our own shoulders is to apply for extra time which they call reasonable adjustments,” Hunt said.
“Turns out, pretty much everyone can get extra time if they need it.
“Think about it, there’s no downside, applying for extra time doesn’t mean you have to use the extra time.”
Hunt said common reasonable conditions included anxiety caused by the exam, which could be proven by a doctor’s certificate, and vision impairment.
“Bottom line, 54% of Australians have an eye disorder which results in them wearing glasses,” she said.
“I have a lot of friends who wear glasses, and they tell me that wearing glasses and looking at computer screens is not a good mix. They tell me that they get headaches, blurred vision, they get the inability to concentrate when they look at a computer screen too much.
“So just consider if you do want extra time for the exam… and you wear glasses then then that's quite a simple process to follow.”
If a candidate was thinking of seeking reasonable adjustments, Hunt suggested they clearly specified what adjustment they required, such as asking for a 20-minute break per hour to look away from the exam.
Reasonable adjustments did not affect exam results, however, and scores were not adjusted for disadvantages.
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