Nearly 40% of individuals who wrote the Certified Financial Planner examination on Nov. 15, 2008 passed the exam, the Financial Planners Standards Council announced on Thursday.

Of the 817 individuals who wrote the exam, 324, or 39.7%, passed. Of those writing the examination for the first time, 44.1% passed.

“Passing the CFP Examination brings these candidates one step closer to earning CFP certification,” said John Wickett, senior vp of standards certification at FPSC.

The six-hour CFP examination is administered in both official languages twice a year. It is one component of the CFP certification program, which also includes pre-requisite education, relevant work experience, ongoing adherence to the CFP Code of Ethics and fulfillment of annual continuing education requirements.

The next scheduled sitting of the exam is on June 13, 2009. Registration closes on May 13, 2009.

Changes to the CFP certification program, announced in November, are set to kick in July 1, 2010. Under the changes, a two-staged exam process will replace the single six-hour CFP Examination.

There are three remaining examination sittings for the current CFP examination format, in June 2009, November 2009 and June 2010.