How to Pass the CISI International Introduction Exam
This guide covers the international unit, not the UK Introduction to Securities & Investment. Pass it first time: 50 questions in one hour across ten elements, with equities and bonds worth 16 marks between them.
Sitting the UK Introduction instead?The International Introduction to Securities & Investment is the foundation unit of the CISI Level 3 Certificate in Investment Operations. It is sat all over the world, often as a first qualification and often in a second or third language. It is not the UK Introduction to Securities & Investment, which is a separate paper with its own workbook and its own examiner. Two of the ten elements here carry close to a third of the marks.
The exam is 50 multiple-choice questions in one hour. The pass mark is 70%, which means 35 correct answers. It is computer based. There is no negative marking, so a wrong answer costs no more than a blank one. Answer all 50. The current workbook is edition 18. CISI publishes that workbook and a free specimen paper, and no past papers.
Candidates are usually new to the industry, or arriving from another job. The paper is used as a regulatory qualification in several markets and is common in the Gulf, so check what your own employer or regulator asks for before you book.
Know the weightings before you revise
Fifty questions across ten elements. No element is worth more than nine marks, which makes the paper look flatter than it is.
| # | Element | Questions |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Introduction | 3 |
| 2 | The Economic Environment | 4 |
| 3 | Equities/Stocks | 9 |
| 4 | Bonds | 7 |
| 5 | Other Markets and Investments | 5 |
| 6 | Derivatives | 4 |
| 7 | Investment Funds | 6 |
| 8 | Regulation and Ethics | 5 |
| 9 | Other Financial Products | 4 |
| 10 | Financial Advice | 3 |
Equities/Stocks is the largest at nine marks and Bonds is next at seven. That is 16 of the 50, close to a third of the paper, and it is where the exam is won. Investment Funds is six, and the rest are three, four or five marks each.
What each element tests
Introduction (3 questions)
Who does what in the industry: banks, investment banks, custodians, insurers, pension funds, fund managers and platforms. Then how an investment reaches a client: advice, execution only or an automated service.
The Economic Environment (4 questions)
State-controlled, market and mixed economies, and the stages of the economic cycle. Fiscal policy is tax and government spending. Monetary policy is interest rates and the money supply. Then central banks, and the data they watch: inflation, gross domestic product and unemployment.
Equities/Stocks (9 questions)
The largest element. An ordinary share carries a vote and a dividend that is not guaranteed. A preference share pays a fixed dividend and ranks ahead of it. Then corporate actions: rights issues, bonus issues, stock splits and dividends, and what each does to the share price. Then listing, order-driven and quote-driven trading, depositary receipts, indices and settlement.
Bonds (7 questions)
A bond is a loan to a government or a company on fixed terms. Three things define one: nominal value, coupon and redemption date. Government bonds carry local names: Treasuries are American, gilts are British, bunds are German. Then corporate issues, floating rate notes, zero coupon bonds and credit ratings. Be able to work out a flat yield, and to say why a bond price falls when rates rise.
Other Markets and Investments (5 questions)
Cash deposits, and what inflation does to them in real terms. Money market instruments are short-term borrowing: Treasury bills, certificates of deposit and commercial paper. Foreign exchange, spot against forward. Property and crypto are here too.
Derivatives (4 questions)
Definitions are as far as this element goes. A future is an obligation to buy or sell at a set price on a set date. An option is a right rather than an obligation, and the buyer pays a premium for it. Then call against put, holder against writer, and what a swap does.
Investment Funds (6 questions)
Most of the marks turn on open-ended against closed-ended. An open-ended fund creates and cancels units. A closed-ended company has a fixed number of shares, which trade at a discount or a premium to the value of its holdings. Then exchange-traded funds, and active against passive.
Regulation and Ethics (5 questions)
Why regulation exists and what regulators aim to do. This element is international, so it deals in common aims rather than the rulebook of one country. Money laundering and its three stages come up reliably, with insider dealing and market abuse. Then ethics and the CISI code.
Other Financial Products (4 questions)
The products a person holds outside a portfolio. Pensions, and the difference between a promised benefit and a pot worth whatever it has built up. Loans, overdrafts and credit cards, and why a quoted rate and an effective annual rate differ. Mortgages, and Islamic finance, where interest is not permitted.
Financial Advice (3 questions)
The quickest chapter to learn. The order of a plan: budget, then protection, then saving and investing, then later life and estate planning. Affordability, attitude to risk and suitability. Then wills, attorneys and trusts.
Where people slip
The first problem starts before the revision does. Two CISI papers are called Introduction to Securities & Investment. One is international and one is written for the UK market. Different workbooks, different examiners, different syllabuses. Material for the UK paper will teach you rules that are not on yours. Check the cover says International, and edition 18.
The second is spreading revision evenly. Equities/Stocks and Bonds are 16 of the 50 marks and nothing else is close. If those two are solid you are most of the way to a pass. If they are not, the small elements cannot make up the ground.
The third is derivatives. It worries more foundation candidates than anything else on this syllabus, and it is worth four marks. Get the definitions clean in an evening, then stop. Hours there come out of the 16 marks that decide the result.
The fourth is the clock. Fifty questions in 60 minutes is 72 seconds each, and the reading sits inside those 72 seconds. Practise at that speed. When a question stalls, pick your best answer, flag it and move on.
How long it takes to prepare
A single figure for study hours does not help on a first qualification. It depends on how much of this you meet at work, and on how easily you read finance in English. What matters is where the hours go.
Give a third of your time to Equities/Stocks and Bonds, and bonds the larger share, because the vocabulary is less familiar and there is arithmetic in it. Investment Funds and Other Markets and Investments take about a fifth. Derivatives, Introduction and Financial Advice are ten marks, and none is hard. Keep the last two sessions for timed mocks.
How to revise it
Start with Equities/Stocks and Bonds while you are fresh, and come back to both at the end.
Treat this as a vocabulary exam as much as a finance exam. Nominal value, coupon, redemption, premium, discount: each has one meaning here, and not always the everyday one. Keep a list of terms with a one-line definition in your own words, written in English rather than translated.
Build small tables for the pairs that are easy to swap: ordinary against preference shares, rights issue against bonus issue, open-ended against closed-ended, future against option.
Then revise by being tested rather than by rereading. Finish with timed 50-question mocks weighted like the real paper, and use several results to decide whether to book. No mock score can predict an individual result. If you are not sure where to start, the Introduction diagnostic shows which elements are costing you most.
Drill it for free. Sit the free 50-question International Introduction mock exam, or try a set of free International Introduction practice questions. For the full method, see the complete guide to passing your CISI exams.
Hunting for past papers? Read International Introduction past papers: what actually exists. Passkey is an independent study tool and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or accredited by the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment.
Frequently asked questions
How many questions are on the CISI International Introduction to Securities and Investment exam?
50 multiple-choice questions in one hour, with a 70% pass mark, so you need 35 correct answers. It is computer based with no negative marking, so answer every question. That is 72 seconds per question.
Is this the same as the UK Introduction to Securities and Investment?
No. This is the international paper, sat worldwide and examined against workbook edition 18. The UK version has a different workbook, a different examiner and a syllabus built around one market rather than markets in general, so notes or question banks written for one will not calibrate you for the other. Check that your workbook says International before you read a page.
Which element should I revise most?
Equities/Stocks, at 9 of the 50 questions, and then Bonds at 7. Between them those two elements are 16 marks, close to a third of the paper. They cover ordinary and preference shares, corporate actions such as rights and bonus issues, how shares are traded and settled, and how coupon, redemption and yield work on a bond.
How much of the exam is derivatives?
4 of the 50 questions, and they stay at the level of definitions: what a future is, what an option is, and what interest rate and credit default swaps do. It is the element foundation candidates fear most and over-revise. An evening on it is enough.
Find your weak spots before exam day.
Start free with chapter 1 of every supported exam, take the free Introduction diagnostic for a short foundation-level snapshot, then unlock everything for one payment of £59.