Which CMFAS Exam First? RES5, M9, M9A & HI Order

Sit RES5 first, then M9, then M9A straight after it, and HI last. No rule forces that order: SCI lists no prerequisite paper, and runs all four on weekdays, so you can book them in any sequence. But RES5 is the paper every financial advisory role needs and the biggest of the four, M9A builds on M9, and HI stands on its own. Your firm's compliance team may set a different order, and theirs wins.

M5 is the old code for RES5. If a recruiter or an older forum post says "M5, M9, M9A and HI", they mean the same four papers. M5 was replaced by RES5 from 1 April 2024, and a pass in the old M5 is deemed a pass in RES5 under MAS Notice FAA-N26 paragraph 4.11.

Why these four papers

MAS Notice FAA-N26, Table 1, sets the CMFAS papers for each type of advice. To advise on or arrange life policies you need RES5, M9 and M9A. A footnote to that table adds the health insurance requirement: for a life policy with accident and health benefits, MAS Notice 117 requires the health insurance qualification, which is the HI paper, unless one of that notice's exceptions applies. The HI exam guide explains the main exception.

Instead of M9 and M9A you can sit CM-LIP, one combined paper covering both (FAA-N26, Table 2). The trade-offs are in the M9A exam guide.

How big each paper is

Study time follows the size of the paper and its pass mark. The four papers below add up to 350 questions and 7 hours 15 minutes of exam time.

As a share of the questions you will face, RES5 is 43%, M9 29%, M9A 14% and HI 14%. Split your study time roughly that way, then give RES5 extra. Its Part II needs 80%, and a strong Part I cannot rescue a weak Part II. How long to study for RES5 breaks that paper down further.

The order, paper by paper

• 1. RES5. Every route into financial advisory needs it, whatever products your firm gives you. It is also the largest paper and the only one with two pass marks, so it is the one to tackle while your study time is freshest. Sitting it first is safe: under FAA-N26 paragraph 4.15 a RES5 pass only lapses if you do not start as an appointed representative within three years.
• 2. M9. Life insurance and investment-linked policies (ILPs) across 17 chapters. It is long rather than tricky. See the M9 exam guide.
• 3. M9A, soon after M9. Its 6 chapters cover structured products, derivatives and structured ILPs. They assume the ILP chapters of M9 are fresh, so book M9A within days of M9 rather than weeks.
• 4. HI. Health insurance is a separate subject: Singapore's healthcare system, medical expense, disability income, long-term care and critical illness cover. It has the most time per question of the four. See the HI exam guide.

What you can sit back to back

SCI holds RES5, M9, M9A and HI daily on weekdays. Weekend sessions, where SCI offers them, depend on availability and are charged at the after-5pm rate. So the limit on how close together you sit them is your preparation, not the calendar. CM-LIP is different: SCI runs it once a week.

Two SCI rules make it costly to book a tight block and then slip:

• No cancellations and no refunds. Each paper is paid per attempt, and a re-sit costs the full fee again.
• Rescheduling 7 or more working days before the paper is free the first time and S$32.70 for each change after that. Between 7 and 2 working days before, every change costs S$32.70. Within 2 working days, no change is allowed.

A safer plan is to study one paper at a time, sit it, and book the next once your mock scores clear its pass mark with room to spare. You get each result on screen when you finish, so you know where you stand the same day. The amounts for every paper are in CMFAS exam fees.

Check your readiness for each paper

Each of the four papers has its own free mock on CMFASPrep: RES5, M9, M9A and HI. The free mock page lists every module. One CMFASPrep pass covers all four papers, so you can move from RES5 to HI without paying again.