CISI Securities (CMP Level 3) Past Papers & Mock Exams
This page covers Securities in the Level 3 Capital Markets Programme, not the separate Level 4 IAD unit. Here is what CISI provides and where to get current 100-question mocks.
Looking for the Level 4 IAD Securities paper?Are there past papers for the CISI Securities exam?
No. CISI does not release previously sat Securities papers; the 100 questions come from a live, rotating bank. What you do get is one official specimen paper written to the live standard, plus end-of-chapter questions and a practice paper in the official workbook. The exam itself is 100 multiple-choice questions in two hours, computer based, with a 70% pass mark and no negative marking. This page covers the Level 3 Capital Markets Programme unit, not the separate Level 4 IAD Securities unit.
- Official past papers
- None released; real papers are drawn from a live, rotating question bank
- What CISI does provide
- One official sample paper for Securities, written to the live exam standard
- Official workbook
- End-of-chapter questions and a practice paper at the back
- Exam format
- 100 multiple-choice questions, computer based
- Time
- 2 hours, which works out at 72 seconds a question
- Pass mark
- 70%, with no negative marking
- Prerequisite
- You must pass IntegrityMatters before sitting any Capital Markets Programme exam in the UK
- Best substitute
- Seven full 100-question mock papers, each two hours and weighted element by element
This page covers the Level 3 Capital Markets Programme Securities unit, not the separate Level 4 Investment Advice Diploma unit. Searching for CISI Securities past papers ends the same way for everyone: there are none on the open web. CISI does not release previously sat Securities papers. The 100 questions you will face are drawn from a live, rotating bank, and the institute guards it carefully.
That does not mean you are short of practice. This page covers what official material actually exists for the Securities exam, why the unofficial PDFs circulating online are a liability for this paper in particular, and how to get the past-papers experience with material that is current.
Test yourself on CMP: Securities
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.
which are TRUE of the wholesale financial markets? I Bargains are struck between institutions. II Quoted spreads are finer than the spreads shown to private investors. III All business must be conducted on a recognised exchange. IV Participants keep the full retail conduct protections.
Not quite. The answer is A.
Wholesale business is firm to firm and dealt in large size, so the quoted spreads are narrower than those shown to private investors and proposition II holds alongside proposition I. Proposition III fails on the word must, because foreign exchange, money market and much bond business is conducted over the counter. Proposition IV is the closest trap: professional clients and eligible counterparties give up several of the conduct protections a retail client keeps.
What is the present value of a bond with a £100 face value paying a 6% annual coupon, if the required rate of return is 5% and there is exactly one year until maturity?
Not quite. The answer is C.
For a one-year bond: PV = (coupon + par) / (1 + r) = (6 + 100) / 1.05 = 106 / 1.05 = £100.952, rounded to £100.95. The coupon is £6 (6% × £100) and par repayment is £100. Because the required return (5%) is below the coupon rate (6%), the bond trades above par.
Which of the following decisions is NOT taken by the FCA?
Not quite. The answer is A.
Admitting a security to trading is the London Stock Exchange's own decision, taken under its admission and disclosure standards, and a company can be admitted to trading on a market without being listed at all. The other three all sit with the regulator: the FCA acts as the listing authority when it admits shares to the Official List, it approves prospectuses before they may be published, and it enforces the Listing Rules against issuers that break them.
Under which underwriting arrangement must a bank appointed to bring a company's shares to market buy the whole issue and carry the resale risk, giving the company certainty over its proceeds?
Not quite. The answer is C.
Under a firm commitment the bank contracts to take the entire issue at an agreed price, so the company has certainty of proceeds and the bank owns whatever it cannot place. The closest distractor is standby underwriting, where the bank agrees to take up only the shares left unsold, so its exposure is limited to the shortfall. On a best efforts basis the bank guarantees nothing and sub-underwriting merely spreads a risk already taken.
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 | Capital Markets Programme, technical unit |
| Questions | 100, multiple choice |
| Time | 2 hours |
| Pass mark | 70%, no negative marking |
| Format | Computer based |
A hundred questions in two hours works out at 72 seconds each, across asset classes, primary and secondary markets, corporate actions, clearing and settlement, accounting analysis and investment management. The element-by-element weightings, and how to revise to them, are covered in our guide to passing the Securities exam.
What CISI actually gives you
One official sample paper. CISI publishes a single specimen paper for the Securities exam, 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 Securities workbook has end-of-chapter questions and a practice paper at the back. Do them, but recognise they are a fixed set: once you have seen them, 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.
One more official hurdle worth knowing early: before you can sit any Capital Markets Programme exam in the UK you must pass IntegrityMatters, CISI's short online integrity test. Book it before it becomes a last-minute surprise.
Why old Securities PDFs cost you marks
Scribd, Docsity and the forums host plenty of documents titled something like "CISI Securities mock consolidated". The problem is not that practising is wrong. It is that this syllabus moves. Settlement cycles have been shortening across major markets, tax figures and regulatory detail shift, and the workbook itself is revised regularly. A paper written against an old edition will confidently teach you answers that are now wrong, and on a paper built on close distractors, a confidently wrong answer is worse than a gap. You also have no idea who wrote the PDF, whether the keys are right, or which edition it was written against.
The alternative: current, weighted mock papers
What "past papers" really means is renewable, exam-standard practice in the real format. PasskeyPrep gives the Securities exam seven full mock papers, each 100 questions in two hours, weighted element by element exactly like the real paper, with no overlap between papers. Every question is written from scratch against the current syllabus and current UK regulation, and every answer comes with a full explanation. Between mocks, you can drill any syllabus element on its own, and the weak-spot tracker shows where your marks are leaking.
Repeated mock scores give you evidence of progress rather than relying on a feeling.
Start free. Try a set of free CISI Securities practice questions. The first chapter of the Securities bank is free in the app.
Every Securities revision resource, in one list
- The official CISI Securities 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, seven weighted 100-question mocks, explanations and weak-spot tracking. One payment covers 90 days from purchase: £59 for this paper, or £89 for all fourteen exams.
- Free Securities practice questions.
- Our guide to passing the Securities exam and the Capital Markets Programme overview.
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 100-question Securities 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 the Securities exam?
No. CISI publishes one official sample paper for the Securities exam 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 Securities exam?
100 multiple-choice questions in 2 hours, computer based, with a 70% pass mark and no negative marking. It is a technical unit of the Capital Markets Programme, sat alongside UK Financial Regulation.
How many mock exams should I sit before booking the Securities exam?
Use repeated full, timed mock results alongside your timetable, confidence and remaining weak areas when deciding whether to book; no mock score can predict an individual result.
Are the free CISI Securities PDFs on Scribd or Docsity safe to revise from?
Treat them with caution. They are unofficial, unverified, and usually written against an old edition of the workbook. Securities content moves with regulation and market practice, so a stale paper can teach you answers that are now wrong.