CISI Investment, Risk & Taxation Past Papers: What Exists (2026)
No public past papers exist for CISI Investment, Risk & Taxation. Here's the official material that does, and where to get current, weighted 80-question mocks.
Are there past papers for the CISI Investment, Risk and Taxation exam?
There are none, because CISI never releases previously sat papers, and the 80 questions come from a live, rotating bank. Official practice does exist: one specimen paper written to the live standard, plus end-of-chapter questions and a practice paper in the workbook. The exam runs 80 multiple-choice questions in two hours, computer based, 70% to pass, no negative marking. Because tax figures reset at Budgets, use material written to the current UK tax year rather than old PDFs.
- Official past papers
- None on the open web. CISI does not release previously sat papers
- What CISI does provide
- One official sample paper, plus end-of-chapter questions and a practice paper at the back of the workbook
- Questions
- 80, multiple choice, around 90 seconds each
- Time
- 2 hours
- Pass mark
- 70%, no negative marking
- Qualification
- Core unit of the Level 4 Investment Advice Diploma, taken with UK Regulation & Professional Integrity plus one technical unit
- Heaviest element
- UK taxation, out of eight elements
Searching for CISI Investment, Risk and Taxation past papers ends the same way for every Investment Advice Diploma candidate: there are none on the open web. CISI does not release previously sat papers, and the 80 questions you will face are drawn from a live, rotating bank the institute guards carefully.
That does not mean you are short of practice. This page covers what official material actually exists, why unofficial PDFs are uniquely dangerous for a tax-heavy paper, and how to get the past-papers experience with material written to the current UK tax year.
Test yourself on IAD: Investment, Risk & Tax
4 questions written to the current syllabus, in the format of the real paper. Pick an answer and the explanation appears. Nothing to sign up for.
An adviser comparing money market funds for a client's cash reads the dealing terms of a low-volatility net asset value (LVNAV) fund. Units may be traded at a constant price only while the fund's assets stay within what tolerance of face value?
Not quite. The answer is C.
LVNAV funds may deal at a constant price provided asset values do not deviate by more than 0.2% from face value, and they are authorised for a maximum of five years. A constant NAV (CNAV) fund, by contrast, always maintains its fixed price regardless of conditions.
A company has operating profit of £120,000, total assets of £900,000 and current liabilities of £300,000. Assuming capital employed is taken as total assets less current liabilities, what is its return on capital employed (ROCE)?
Not quite. The answer is B.
Capital employed is total assets minus current liabilities: £900,000 - £300,000 = £600,000, so ROCE is £120,000 divided by £600,000, or 20%. Dividing operating profit by total assets alone gives 13.3% and ignores the deduction of current liabilities.
For a given sum invested over a fixed term at a fixed annual rate, which method of paying interest produces the greatest future value?
Not quite. The answer is C.
Future value increases with the frequency of interest payments, reaching its maximum under continuous compounding, which uses the factor e^(RT). Annual compounding produces the lowest future value of the options shown.
How much dividend income can a UK taxpayer receive in 2025-26 before any dividend tax is due, whatever their other income?
Not quite. The answer is B.
The dividend allowance is £500 for 2025-26. £1,000 is the personal savings allowance for a basic-rate taxpayer, £2,000 was an earlier dividend allowance no longer in force, and £250 confuses it with the IHT small gifts exemption.
That is 4 of more than 10,800 questions in the PasskeyPrep bank. Chapter 1 of every exam is free, with the study notes and flashcards that go with it, and every answer is marked and explained the way these were.
The paper you are preparing for
| Qualification | Investment Advice Diploma (Level 4), compulsory core unit; the full diploma also requires UK Regulation & Professional Integrity and one technical unit |
| Questions | 80, multiple choice |
| Time | 2 hours |
| Pass mark | 70%, no negative marking |
| Format | Computer based |
Eighty questions in two hours works out at 90 seconds each, spread across eight elements that run from asset classes and risk statistics to the heaviest single element, UK taxation. The element-by-element weightings, and how to split your revision between the quantitative and tax halves, are covered in our guide to passing Investment, Risk and Taxation.
What CISI actually gives you
One official sample paper. CISI publishes a single specimen paper written to the live standard. Sit it once, properly timed, late in your revision, because you only get one clean read of it.
The workbook. The official workbook has end-of-chapter questions and a practice paper at the back. Do them, but they are a fixed set: once seen, re-sitting them measures your memory of the answers, not your knowledge of the syllabus.
Revision Express and the CBT demo. Revision Express is CISI's paid online revision add-on, and the free Prometric demo shows you how the on-screen test behaves. The demo is worth five minutes; nobody should lose marks to unfamiliar software.
For the full IAD, pair Investment, Risk & Taxation with UK Regulation & Professional Integrity and one Level 4 technical unit.
Why old PDFs cost you more on this paper than any other
Scribd, Docsity and the forums host plenty of documents titled something like "IAD tax mock consolidated". The problem is that no CISI syllabus moves faster than this one. Income tax bands, capital gains rates, the inheritance tax nil-rate bands, ISA and pension limits: they are reset at Budgets, and the workbook is revised to match. A paper written against last year's edition will confidently teach you numbers that are now wrong, and on a paper where a single figure flips the answer, a confidently wrong number is worse than a gap.
The alternative: current, weighted mock papers
What "past papers" really means is renewable, exam-standard practice in the real format. PasskeyPrep gives Investment, Risk and Taxation six full mock papers, each 80 questions in two hours, weighted element by element like the real paper, including later papers drawn from a reserved pool that practice mode never touches, so you can save genuinely unseen tests for close to your exam date. Every question is written from scratch against the current syllabus and the current UK tax year, every answer carries a full explanation, and the weak-spot tracker shows whether it is the tax half or the statistics half leaking marks.
Repeated mock scores give you evidence of progress rather than relying on a feeling.
Start free. Try a set of free Investment, Risk and Taxation practice questions.
Every Investment, Risk and Taxation revision resource, in one list
- The official CISI workbook, current edition, from the CISI shop. The single source of truth for the syllabus.
- The official sample paper, sat once, timed, late in your revision.
- CISI Revision Express (paid) and the free Prometric CBT demo.
- PasskeyPrep: the full question bank, six weighted 80-question mocks with a reserved unseen pool, explanations and weak-spot tracking. £59 once for this paper, or £89 for all fourteen exams, for 90 days from purchase; see pricing.
- Free Investment, Risk & Taxation practice questions.
- Our guide to passing Investment, Risk and Taxation, and if you are taking the planning route through the diploma, Financial Planning and Advice past papers.
PasskeyPrep is an independent study tool and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or accredited by the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment. For what exists across every paper, see CISI past papers: what's actually available.
Sit a whole paper for free. The free 80-question Investment, Risk & Taxation mock exam runs to the real time limit and the published element weighting, with a score, an element breakdown and an explanation for every answer. No sign-up.
Frequently asked questions
Does CISI publish past papers for Investment, Risk and Taxation?
No. CISI publishes one official sample paper and includes practice questions in the official workbook, but previously sat papers are never released. The live question bank rotates, so memorising any leaked set would not transfer to your sitting anyway.
What is the format of the CISI Investment, Risk and Taxation exam?
80 multiple-choice questions in 2 hours, computer based, with a 70% pass mark and no negative marking. It is a core unit of the Level 4 Investment Advice Diploma, taken with UK Regulation & Professional Integrity plus one technical unit.
Are the free IAD PDFs on Scribd or Docsity safe to revise from?
Treat them with real caution on this paper. Tax rates, allowances and pension limits are reset at Budgets, so anything written against an old workbook edition will teach you figures that are now wrong. The documents are also unofficial and unverified, so you cannot tell whether the answer keys were ever right.
How many mock exams should I sit before booking?
Sit several full, timed, weighted 80-question mocks and look for a consistent margin, with the tax and statistics elements holding up rather than being carried by the softer ones. Use those results alongside your timetable and remaining weak areas; no mock score can predict an individual result.