Financial Adviser Exam Study Guides and Materials: Every Free ASIC and ACER Resource, and What Each Is For

6 min read · facts checked 1 Nov 2026

As at 1 November 2026, ASIC's Resources page lists three free PDFs for the financial adviser exam: the Exam preparation guidance (version 6.0, published 29 September 2026), the Exam policy (version 4.2, published 19 December 2025) and the Practice question guidance (version 16.1, published 17 July 2024), plus three short exam preparation videos. ACER adds a free online practice test once you have registered for a sitting (ACER Preparation). There are no past papers. Everything below is free; to practise under exam timing now, sit our free mock.

Every free resource at a glance

Which to use when

• First week: read the Exam preparation guidance's curriculum and skim its reading list, then sit a timed practice paper cold to find your weakest area. The reading list guide summarises the guidance's learning outcomes and reading, area by area.
• Study weeks: work through the reading for each area against the learning outcomes. You are not expected to memorise it: statutory extracts come with the questions, but regulatory guides do not, so know those well. Our study notes follow the same three areas.
• Last three weeks: do ASIC's 64 practice questions in one timed sitting, then ACER's practice test once you are registered, and check every miss against its source. The practice questions guide explains how.
• The week before: read ACER's test day and remote proctoring pages again and run the equipment check on the computer and connection you will use. The exam day guide has the checklist.

The study plan guide turns this into a 10-week plan.

See how much has stuck: sit the free timed mock: try 5 questions with no sign-up. Or see the passes for the full question bank.

What is not free, or does not exist

• Past papers: ASIC publishes none, and its exam policy says questions are changed regularly. Be wary of anyone selling past or live exam questions.
• Worked explanations for ASIC's practice questions: the PDF gives the answer only.
• A per-area question count or a published pass mark: ASIC publishes neither; the pass mark is standard-set each sitting.
• Textbooks and paid courses: the guidance's extension reading includes textbooks, and paid courses run from short on-demand programs to tutored ones: see prep courses compared.

Older documents to treat with care

• Candidate information booklet and remote proctoring guide: ASIC's exam policy (v4.2) still points to both on the Resources page, but the page no longer links them (checked 1 Nov 2026). Older copies may be out of date, so use ACER's current test day and remote proctoring pages instead.
• FASEA-era material: before January 2024 the exam had written-response questions, and the law has changed since (for example, the Delivering Better Financial Outcomes changes in January 2025). Check the date on anything you are given. See the FASEA exam is now ASIC's.
• ASIC's practice PDF itself is dated July 2024: check any answer that turns on law changed since.

Practise with our free material

Our free financial adviser practice exam is a timed mock of 20 original questions in 30 minutes across all three areas, mostly on client scenarios. You can try 5 questions with no sign-up, each marked with a worked answer; the full timed mock needs a free account. Then try the free sample questions, each with a worked answer. Our mocks report a pass or fail against a 70% practice line (49/70), the middle of the 65–74% credit band. That line is ours, not ASIC's: ASIC sets the real cut-off for each sitting and does not publish it. If you want the full bank and full timed mocks, see our one-off passes.