CISI Test Centres and Remote Invigilation: Where You Actually Sit the Exam

Almost everything written about CISI exams stops at "book it and turn up". That is fine until the morning of the exam, when you discover that the driving licence in your wallet is the old paper one, or that the room you planned to sit in has a glass wall behind you. Both of those will end your exam before it starts.

This guide covers the part nobody writes about: where you actually sit a CISI paper, who runs the two options, exactly what the invigilator will check, and which route to pick. Everything below comes from CISI's own examination regulations and the Prometric ProProctor candidate guide, not from forum hearsay.

Where do you sit a CISI exam?

There are two routes and you choose between them when you book. You can go to a physical test centre, or you can sit the paper at home under remote invigilation. CISI describes its exams as available "online via remote invigilation or at one of our global test centres", and for the multiple-choice papers most candidates take, either route is available.

The exam itself is identical. Same questions, same clock, same 70% pass mark. What changes is who is watching you and what you have to prepare beforehand.

The test centre route is the low-effort one. You turn up, show ID, lock your things in a locker and sit at a machine that someone else has already made compliant. The remote route saves you the journey but moves all of the setup work onto you, and the rules about your room are stricter than most people expect.

Who actually runs the remote exams?

Two different systems, and which one you get is not your choice. CISI's regulations say the provider is named in your exam confirmation letter, so read it rather than assuming.

ProProctor is operated by Prometric. It is the one most multiple-choice candidates meet. On ProProctor the calculator is provided on screen.

TestReach is the other platform CISI uses. The rules differ in a small but important way: on TestReach you are allowed to use your own non-programmable scientific calculator for a multiple-choice paper, where on ProProctor you are not, because you are given one on screen.

That single difference catches people out. If you have spent six weeks practising on your own calculator and you get ProProctor, you will be using an unfamiliar on-screen one under time pressure. It is not a disaster, but it is worth ten minutes of rehearsal rather than a surprise.

What does your computer need for a remote CISI exam?

These are the ProProctor requirements. Check them properly a few days out, not the night before, because a failed system check at the wrong moment cannot be fixed in the ten minutes you have left.

The one-monitor rule is the one that bites people who work from home. If you have a laptop plugged into an external screen, you are running two displays whether you are using both or not, and you will be asked to disconnect one.

What are the rules about the room?

Stricter than most candidates imagine. Under the ProProctor rules your testing location must be indoors and walled, well lit and free from background noise. Any glass walls in the room have to be covered. Your workspace must be entirely clear: no pens, no paper, no electronic devices anywhere on the desk.

You are allowed two tissues and a clear bottle or glass of water with no label on it. That is the whole list.

Check-in is a genuine search, conducted over your webcam. You show photo ID, have your own photo taken, then complete a 360 degree environmental check of the room. You will be asked to raise your shirt sleeves, empty your pockets, and remove jewellery and any watch. If that sounds uncomfortable, the test centre route exists for a reason.

What ID do you need?

Whichever route you take, the name on your ID must match the name on your booking exactly, the document must be in date, and it must be the original. Photocopies are rejected.

At a test centre, CISI accepts a valid passport of any country, a valid full or provisional new-style UK driving licence issued by the DVLA or DVLNI, a valid driving licence carrying a photo issued by the country you are sitting in, an EU driving licence with a photo if you are sitting in the EU, an EU or country-specific national identity card, a valid UK Residence Card, or an employer declaration on official stationery carrying your photo.

For remote invigilation the list is shorter and the language requirement is explicit: a valid passport of any country, a valid national driving licence with photo and signature in English, or a valid national identity card in English.

Two practical points. The old-style paper UK driving licence is not on the list, so if that is what you have, use your passport. And "matches exactly" means exactly: if you booked as a shortened first name and your passport carries the full one, sort it out with CISI before exam day rather than arguing with an invigilator.

What can you take in with you?

For a multiple-choice paper, effectively nothing. No books, no notes, no mobile phone, no bag, and no watch. The calculator question depends on the platform, as above: provided on screen under ProProctor, your own non-programmable scientific calculator under TestReach.

Note that the rules for CISI's narrative papers, the written Diploma-level exams, are different and more generous. If you are sitting one of the multiple-choice papers, which is every exam Passkey covers, assume nothing goes in with you.

How early do you have to be there?

At a test centre, at least 30 minutes before your start time. Remotely, at least 15 minutes before, which is also when you should launch the ProProctor application.

Treat both as hard floors rather than targets. The 15 minutes for a remote exam is consumed almost entirely by check-in: ID, photo, room scan, pockets, sleeves. It is not spare time.

Test centre or remote: which should you pick?

Pick the test centre if you want the setup to be somebody else's problem, if your home has flatmates, family, a glass partition or an unreliable connection, or if you know that being watched through a webcam will rattle you more than a room full of strangers will.

Pick remote if the nearest centre is a real journey, if you want the widest choice of slots, or if you simply concentrate better at your own desk. It is a genuinely good option. It just is not the lazy option, whatever it looks like from the outside.

One quiet argument for the test centre that nobody makes: it removes an entire category of things that can go wrong on the morning. A router that drops, a Windows update that decides to install itself, a neighbour with a drill. If your exam is the last hurdle before a role or a promotion, paying for that certainty with a train journey is usually a good trade.

The IntegrityMatters trap, if you are sitting a Capital Markets paper

This one costs real money. The Capital Markets Programme is completed with two exams, a regulatory unit and a technical unit, and before you sit the level 3 exam you must have passed IntegrityMatters, CISI's short online integrity test.

If you have not completed IntegrityMatters at least 24 hours before your scheduled exam time, CISI cancels the booking and charges a £50 rebooking fee. It is entirely avoidable and it catches people every intake, because IntegrityMatters feels like an administrative afterthought until it deletes your exam slot.

Do it the week you book, not the week you sit.

How long should you have been revising by then?

CISI publishes a total qualification time for each award, which is its estimate of everything: reading, practice and the exam itself. The Introduction to Investment award is listed at 81 hours. The Capital Markets Programme certificates come in at 183 hours.

Treat those as the shape of the commitment rather than a promise. What matters far more than the hours is how you spend them, and the single best predictor of your result is your average across full, timed, correctly weighted mocks. Booking a slot is the easy part. Knowing you should be in that slot is the part worth getting right, and our guide on how hard the CISI exam really is goes through what the papers actually demand.

A note on fees

We deliberately do not quote CISI exam prices here. They vary by paper and by country, CISI revises them, and a stale number on a page like this one is worse than no number at all. The current price for your paper is in the CISI exam shop at the point of booking, and that is the only figure worth trusting. Our guide to booking a CISI exam walks through the order you do things in.