On September 30, 2015, FINRA announced that 208 Series 24 test takers were incorrectly assigned failing grades for that exam. The individuals affected by this issue all took the test between July 13 and September 24, 2015. A FINRA representative reports that this incident affected test takers who were close to the passing score of 70%.
The problem was caused by what FINRA called a “configuration error” in the new version of the Series 24 exam, which was introduced on July 13. During a review of the system, FINRA staff noticed a higher than usual number of failures, which alerted them to the error.
FINRA is currently in the process of updating the exam records and contacting any firms that were affected by this incident.
The Series 24 is the qualifying exam for general securities principals, and it is the only exam series that experienced this issue.