CME-4A (ICWIM) Syllabus and Chapter Weightings

Last verified: 18 October 2026. Fees, dates and syllabus versions can change, so check the Financial Academy (FA) CME-4A page before you book or start studying. This is an independent study guide and is not affiliated with FA, the Capital Market Authority (CMA), CISI or any other government body.

CME-4A is the name the Financial Academy uses for the CISI International Certificate in Wealth & Investment Management (ICWIM). FA lists CISI as the exam provider, and the eight chapter weightings on the FA page match the CISI syllabus exactly. It is the same international exam sat around the world, not a Saudi edition: Saudi capital market rules are tested separately in CME-4B.

Exam format at a glance

The CISI exam page shows a current pass rate of 41% for the English exam and 30% for the Arabic exam, without saying which period these figures cover. In other words, fewer than half of candidates pass, so plan your preparation seriously.

Which syllabus version applies

• English exam: syllabus Version 7, for exams from 2 March 2025 to 1 March 2027.
• Arabic exam: Arabic syllabus Version 7a, for exams from 1 June 2025 to 31 May 2027.

Both versions share the same structure and weightings. The matching study text is the CISI workbook, 7th edition, and FA publishes the complete workbook free of charge as PDFs in Arabic and English under "study material" on its CME-4A page. An older Version 4 syllabus from 2019 can still be found online; its units and weightings are different, so do not study from it.

The eight units and their weightings

Every paper is built from a specification. The number of questions per unit can vary slightly from one paper to the next so that each exam stays at a consistent level of difficulty, but CISI states that the count for any unit should not change by more than two.

Four units (5, 7, 6 and 3) supply 71 of the 100 questions, so they deserve most of your time.

What "know", "understand" and "be able to calculate" mean

Each learning objective in the syllabus starts with one of three verbs that sets the level of skill tested:

• Know: bring facts, rules and principles back from memory.
• Understand: show that you can make sense of an issue, fact, rule or principle, not just repeat it; be ready to apply it to a situation.
• Be able to calculate: apply formulae to reach the figure yourself.

Where an objective says "main" or "basic", you need its core ideas, not its finer detail. The syllabus also says the exam has a practical bias, that some topics may be tested with diagrams and charts, and that accounting and investment analysis may be tested using a basic set of company accounts.

Calculations you can be asked to do

• A forward exchange rate using the interest rate parity formula (3.2.2).
• Arithmetic mean, geometric mean, median and mode (5.3.1, by simple calculation).
• Variance and standard deviation (sample and population) and range (5.3.2, by simple calculation).
• Present and future values of lump sums, regular payments, annuities and perpetuities (5.4.1).
• Simple and compound interest, and interpreting the results (5.4.2).
• Financial needs for retirement (8.1.3).

The financial ratios in unit 5, such as ROCE, interest cover, the acid test, EPS, price/earnings ratios and dividend cover, are listed at "understand the purpose" level. Practise them anyway, because questions can be built on a basic set of company accounts. Do your practice with a simple calculator, because handheld calculators are not allowed and in the exam you will use the system's on-screen calculator.

A study plan based on the weightings (a suggestion)

FA estimates about 100 study hours, while CISI recommends at least 152. The plan below is only a suggestion: it splits 85 hours roughly in proportion to the number of questions and keeps 15 hours for timed practice and review. If you have more time, scale every row up.

• Start with units 1 to 4: they introduce the markets, products and vocabulary that later units build on (unit 3 is one of the longest chapters in the workbook, so give it its full time).
• Split unit 5 into two blocks, economics first, then statistics, financial mathematics and ratios, and practise calculations in every session.
• Study units 6 and 7 back to back: risk and return feed directly into client suitability and recommendations.
• Do not skip the small units. The 9 questions from units 1 and 2 count exactly as much as any others.
• In the final two weeks, sit full 100-question papers in 120 minutes. CISI publishes a free 100-question sample paper for Version 7 (English only) whose answer sheet maps each question to a syllabus objective, which helps you find weak areas.

Study from the workbook in the language you will sit the exam in, so that you learn the terms in the form you will read them in the exam; the Arabic exam has its own Arabic syllabus (Version 7a) and Arabic workbook.