FRM-P1-2026Intermediate

FRM Part I exam guide

The first of two exams for the Financial Risk Manager designation: the quantitative and market foundations every risk professional is expected to know.

Start studying for free What we offer for FRM Part I
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Topics
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Study lessons
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Practice questions
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Flashcards

What is the FRM Part I exam?

The Financial Risk Manager (FRM) is the leading global certification for risk management professionals, awarded by GARP. Earning it requires passing two exams, Part I and Part II, and then demonstrating two years of relevant work experience. Part I is the entry point and can be sat with no prerequisites.

Part I tests the tools of risk management rather than their application: probability and statistics, regression and time-series methods, how the major financial products work, and the standard models used to value them and measure their risk. Every question is multiple choice and computer-based, and a good share of them require calculation.

Candidates typically describe Part I as the more mathematical of the two parts. Passing it is less about memorising formulas and more about being fast and accurate with them under time pressure, which is why practice volume matters so much.

Who sits it

  • Analysts and associates in market, credit or enterprise risk at banks, asset managers and insurers
  • Treasury, ALM and trading-desk professionals who want a formal risk credential
  • Finance, economics and quantitative graduates entering risk roles
  • CFA charterholders and candidates adding a risk-specific qualification

Exam format at a glance

Questions
100 multiple-choice
Duration
4 hours
Delivery
Computer-based at Pearson VUE test centres
Exam windows
May, August and November
Fees (USD)
One-time enrollment $400, plus exam registration from about $600 (early) to $800 (standard)
Passing standard
No fixed pass mark; GARP sets it per sitting relative to the top-scoring candidates
Recent pass rate
47% (November 2025 sitting, the latest GARP has published)
Recommended study
GARP suggests around 240 hours

Exam-body facts last checked September 2026. Fees, dates and formats change; confirm the current details with Global Association of Risk Professionals (GARP) before registering.

FRM Part I pass rates by sitting

SittingPass rate
November 202547%
November 202455%
August 202456%
May 202456%
November 202345%
May and August 202347%
November 202250%
May and August 202251%
November 202145%
May 202147%

GARP reports a single figure when two windows are graded together. Figures up to August 2023 and for November 2025 come from GARP's own published results; the 2023 and 2024 rows in between are as reported by exam-prep publishers, because GARP has not kept its historical table up to date. GARP has not published rates for the 2025 May and August sittings or for any 2026 sitting.

Syllabus and topic weights

  • 1.Foundations of Risk Management20% · 45 lessons · 176 questions · 194 cards
    1. The Building Blocks of Risk Management
    2. How Do Firms Manage Financial Risk?
    3. The Governance of Risk Management
    4. Credit Risk Transfer Mechanisms
    5. Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT) and the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM)
    6. The Arbitrage Pricing Theory and Multifactor Models of Risk and Return
    7. Principles for Effective Data Aggregation and Risk Reporting
    8. Enterprise Risk Management and Future Trends
    9. Learning from Financial Disasters
    10. Anatomy of the Great Financial Crisis of 2007-2009
    11. GARP Code of Conduct
  • 2.Quantitative Analysis20% · 62 lessons · 312 questions · 249 cards
    1. Fundamentals of Probability
    2. Random Variables
    3. Common Univariate Random Variables
    4. Multivariate Random Variables
    5. Sample Moments
    6. Hypothesis Testing
    7. Linear Regression
    8. Regression with Multiple Explanatory Variables
    9. Regression Diagnostics
    10. Stationary Time Series
    11. Non-Stationary Time Series
    12. Measuring Returns, Volatility, and Correlation
    13. Simulation and Bootstrapping
    14. Machine-Learning Methods
    15. Machine Learning and Prediction
  • 3.Financial Markets and Products30% · 81 lessons · 367 questions · 307 cards
    1. Banks
    2. Insurance Companies and Pension Plans
    3. Fund Management
    4. Introduction to Derivatives
    5. Exchanges and OTC Markets
    6. Central Clearing
    7. Futures Markets
    8. Using Futures for Hedging
    9. Foreign Exchange Markets
    10. Pricing Financial Forwards and Futures
    11. Commodity Forwards and Futures
    12. Options Markets
    13. Properties of Options
    14. Trading Strategies
    15. Exotic Options
    16. Properties of Interest Rates
    17. Corporate Bonds
    18. Mortgages and Mortgage-Backed Securities
    19. Interest Rate Futures
    20. Swaps
  • 4.Valuation and Risk Models30% · 54 lessons · 328 questions · 261 cards
    1. Measures of Financial Risk
    2. Calculating and Applying VaR
    3. Measuring and Monitoring Volatility
    4. External and Internal Credit Ratings
    5. Country Risk: Determinants, Measures, and Implications
    6. Measuring Credit Risk
    7. Operational Risk
    8. Stress Testing
    9. Pricing Conventions, Discounting, and Arbitrage
    10. Interest Rates
    11. Bond Yields and Return Calculations
    12. Applying Duration, Convexity, and DV01
    13. Modeling Non-Parallel Term Structure Shifts and Hedging
    14. Binomial Trees
    15. The Black-Scholes-Merton Model
    16. Option Sensitivity Measures: The “Greeks”

Lesson, question and flashcard counts are StudyOptima's published content for each topic. Expand a topic to see its subtopics.

How to prepare for FRM Part I

  1. 1

    Do not treat Foundations of Risk Management as easy marks. It is 20% of the paper and mostly qualitative (risk governance, CAPM and factor models, the history of financial disasters, GARP's Code of Conduct), so it rewards careful reading of the case studies and definitions rather than calculation practice.

  2. 2

    Then work through Quantitative Analysis. It is also 20% of the paper, but its methods (distributions, hypothesis tests, regression, volatility estimation) underpin the two 30% topics.

  3. 3

    Financial Markets and Products rewards breadth. Know how each instrument is priced and hedged well enough to answer a calculation question on any of them.

  4. 4

    Valuation and Risk Models is where VaR, bond pricing, option Greeks and credit ratings live. Practise the calculations until the arithmetic is automatic; the exam gives you 2.4 minutes per question.

  5. 5

    Do timed sets of 100 questions in the final month. Most failures are pacing failures, not knowledge failures.

  6. 6

    Keep a formula sheet as you go and review it daily in the last two weeks. Our formula reference for FRM Part I is organised by reading to make this easier.

Study for FRM Part I on StudyOptima

242 study lessons

Condensed notes for every topic, organised by learning objective, with read-progress tracking.

2,722 practice questions

Exam-style questions with worked explanations, timed mocks, and re-drills of what you got wrong.

1,011 flashcards

Spaced-repetition review of the definitions and formulas the exam keeps coming back to.

Free lessons to start with

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FRM Part I FAQ

Do I need to pass FRM Part I before registering for Part II?

You can register for both on the same day, but Part II is only marked if you have already passed Part I. Most candidates sit them at separate windows, roughly six months apart.

How long do I have to pass Part II after Part I?

GARP gives you four years from passing Part I to pass Part II, and a further five years after that to submit the work-experience requirement.

Is a calculator allowed?

Yes, but only GARP-approved models: the Texas Instruments BA II Plus (including the Professional) and the Hewlett Packard 10B II, 10B II+, 12C and 20B.

How does StudyOptima's FRM Part I question bank compare to GARP's practice exam?

GARP publishes one practice exam per part. Our bank has more than 2,700 published questions mapped to the 2026 learning objectives, with worked explanations, so you can drill each reading rather than one mixed set.

Related exams

FRM Part II

The second and final FRM exam: applying risk measurement and management to real portfolios, balance sheets and current market issues.

CFA Level I

The first of three levels of the Chartered Financial Analyst Program, testing a broad foundation in investment tools, asset classes, portfolio management and ethics.

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