If I need to take more than one paper for the HKSI LE exam, which paper should I partake in first? In what order should I take them?

Many students who did not have a business background would ask us: “ Which paper should I take first when The Hong Kong Licensing Examination for Securities and Futures Intermediaries (HKSI LE) has that many papers? “

Which exam paper should I take first?

The SFC has no requirement for the order of passing the exam in all the qualification exam papers. Candidates can apply for different exam papers according to their needs and decide the order on their own. We recommend that students start with the paper 1 exam, because the paper 1 exam is the foundation, and many of the other papers are part of the content of the paper 1 exam, or an extension of a certain chapter of the paper 1 exam. Studying paper 1 allows the candidate to have a relatively macro and clearer mind map of various concepts, hence it is easier for the candidates to connect the different concepts.

A short comment on the licensed representative exam papers’ contents:

• The concept for paper 7 is quite broad, with categories covering topics such as economics, finance, law, mathematics etc. Within paper 7 there are also topics that require more mathematical skill sets, such as simple interest calculations, compound interest calculations, nominal interest rate, rights issues, bonus shares, joint stocks and allotment etc. The more advanced mathematical calculation questions involved in paper 7 include forward interest rates,standard deviation and variance etc. 

• The content of paper 8 is relatively short, it mainly evaluates a candidate’s knowledge on stocks; some parts of paper 8’s content overlaps with paper 7; For example, paper 8 also consists of contents relating to simple interest calculations,nominal interest rate, rights issues, bonus shares, joint stocks and allotment etc. For chapter 6, candidates need to memorise more than 10 formulas; and apply the correct formulas accurately in the exam.   

• Paper 9 is all about derivatives, it contains questions that require candidates to do certain calculations. It is viewed as a difficult paper to obtain a passing grade; with that said, the passing rate of paper 9 in the past is relatively low. Nowadays, it is believed that HKSI has very likely adjusted the difficulty level of the exam paper, in hopes to boost paper 9’s pass rate. 

• Paper 11’s exam  is about corporate finance and merger and acquisitions. If candidates do not have any accounting background or have a relatively limited ability in information processing, we recommend you to spend more time conducting your revision. Please note that paper 11 contains more application based problem solving questions. 

• Paper 12 is relatively shorter, but the examination content is more challenging compared to other papers. If you have a background in statistics, you will find paper 12 easy to understand. 

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