CISI Exam Dates 2026: What Is On Demand and What Is Fixed

There is no CISI exam timetable for multiple-choice papers. CISI's computer-based exams are available on demand, at test centres and by remote invigilation, so you choose your own date and time when you book. Only CISI's narrative (written) papers sit on fixed dates. The next sittings are on 25 and 26 November 2026, and booking for them closes on 7 October 2026, with a late closing date of 21 October.

That does not mean dates do not matter. Three kinds of date decide what you sit and what it costs you to change your mind: the day the syllabus you revised from stops being examined, the fixed sittings if your paper is a written one, and the notice periods for moving or repeating an exam. This page sets out all three, read from CISI's exam dates page, its Candidate Update page and its exam policies on 2 October 2026.

Multiple-choice exams: on demand, all year

CISI's own wording is that its multiple-choice exams are available on demand through its global network of test centres and through remote invigilation, and that its booking system shows every date available for your paper. That covers every paper PasskeyPrep prepares you for: the Introduction to Securities & Investment, the three Capital Markets Programme papers, the five Investment Advice Diploma units, Global Securities Operations, and the three risk and compliance awards.

One group has a date to work back from. Capital Markets Programme candidates in the UK must pass IntegrityMatters at least 24 hours before the exam, or CISI cancels the booking. Everyone else is limited only by the slots the booking system shows. Our guide to booking a CISI exam walks through the steps, and test centres and remote invigilation covers where you sit it.

The dates that matter: when each syllabus changes

Every CISI syllabus and workbook covers a stated window of exam dates. Sit the exam after that window closes and you are examined on the next version, whatever you revised from. These are the current versions of the fourteen papers PasskeyPrep covers, with the windows CISI has published.

Two of those windows close soon. Investment, Risk & Taxation Version 16 is examined until 30 November 2026; CISI moved that date back from 30 October 2026 in a candidate update. The Level 4 Securities unit follows on 30 December 2026. If you are revising either paper now, sit it inside the window or plan to revise from the next version. Investment, Risk & Taxation is the paper most tied to current UK tax rates and allowances, so the version you revise from matters more than usual.

These dates are not fixed for ever. CISI brought the final exam date for Combating Financial Crime Version 12 forward by a year, from 10 January 2028 to 10 January 2027. Two habits protect you. Do not buy a workbook late in its window, fail, and find the version has expired before your resit. And read CISI's Candidate Update page before you sit: it lists corrections to the current workbooks and changes to final exam dates, and those corrections are examinable.

Narrative exams: the fixed sittings

CISI's written papers sit twice a year. These are the Winter 2026 sittings, in UK time. Booking closes on 7 October 2026, the late closing date is 21 October 2026, and results are due on 4 February 2027.

The Summer 2026 sittings were held from 2 to 4 June 2026, and CISI had not published its 2027 written sittings when we checked. Two financial planning assessments run on their own calendars. Advanced Financial Planning was sat on 4 March and 2 September 2026. The Level 7 financial plan case study takes registrations until 19 November 2026 for plans due on 4 February 2027, and until 18 February 2027 for plans due on 6 May 2027.

PasskeyPrep does not prepare candidates for the written papers. The dates are here because people looking for CISI exam dates need to know which kind of paper they are sitting before the answer makes sense.

After you book: moving, cancelling and resitting

Four rules have dates attached, and they are worth knowing before you choose a slot.

• Moving your date is free with more than 14 days' notice. CISI calls this a transfer. Inside 14 days there is a charge, and inside 96 hours a higher one.
• Withdrawing returns nothing. Neither the exam fee nor the learning materials are refunded.
• A resit needs a 96-hour wait. You may attempt the same exam a maximum of six times in any 12 months, and a rest period applies once you have sat it three times inside 12 months.
• Results arrive quickly. For multiple-choice papers CISI says results are available online within 24 working hours through MyCISI, and they stay provisional until five working days after the exam. Written papers take about nine weeks.

The practical reading: book early, because a date you can move for free is worth more than a date you have not got. Then treat the 14-day line as your real deadline for deciding whether you are ready.

How to choose your own date

With no timetable to follow, the date is a decision, and it is better made with numbers than with a feeling. CISI recommends a minimum study time for every paper. Divide it by the hours you can honestly give each week and you have the earliest sensible date.

Those are minimums for a newcomer, and experience shortens them. The better test is evidence: when your scores on full, timed mocks sit above the 70% pass mark on more than one paper, the date is ready to be fixed. Until then, a booked exam is a deadline rather than a plan. Our guide to how hard each paper is lists the pass rate CISI publishes for each one, and how to pass a CISI exam sets out the method. You can sit a free timed mock today to see where you stand.