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New Salespersons Qualifying Examination
to raise professional standards
In July 2006, EAA will introduce a new Salespersons Qualifying Examination (SQE) designed to raise professional standards among estate agents entering the trade and to protect consumers. This comes after EAA brought in a new format in July last year for the Estate Agents Qualifying Examinations (EAQE). In addition, the frequency of the paper-based SQEs and EAQEs will be increased, starting from 2007, to meet the needs of the trade.
The new arrangements for the SQE will entail three main changes:
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Candidates are required to pass both parts of the new SQE to qualify. Part I will test a candidate's knowledge of various sections of the syllabus. Part II will feature one or two comprehensive case studies portraying a real-life client situation that will test all the practical knowledge expected from a salesperson, including, in particular, interpretation of a land search. In the past, the SQE was assessed as a whole and a candidate with a high overall mark could pass even if he/she performed poorly in important areas such as land search. Under the new arrangement, candidates will be required to pass both parts in order to qualify.
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The examination time will be extended. To compensate for the more difficult features of the new examination and to allow sufficient time for comprehension of the case studies in Part II, the new SQE will be extended from its current length of 1 hour 15 minutes to 2 hours 30 minutes.
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The new SQE will be offered in a paper-based format only to accommodate the new SQE requirements (which include case studies). The computer-based SQE was abolished on 22 March 2006, the last time it was held.
The first new SQE, as well as the next EAQE, has been scheduled for 20 July 2006.
Since the number of people seeking an Estate Agent's Licence has risen considerably, the Authority will increase the frequency of the paper-based EAQEs and SQEs from the existing three times a year to four times a year, starting from 2007, to shorten the waiting time for candidates wanting to sit the examinations. Also, starting from next year, to accommodate those who wish to take both the EAQE and SQE, the two examinations will be held in the same month - in March, June, September and December - but on different dates. This means there will be a total of eight Qualifying Examinations (four EAQEs and four SQEs) a year.
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