Hardest CMFAS paper: all 9 papers ranked
Which is the hardest CMFAS paper? All 9 SCI papers ranked by pass mark, size, clock and calculation load, without pass-rate guesswork, and how to adjust it.
The hardest CMFAS paper for most recruits is RES 5. It's the biggest of the nine SCI papers, at 150 questions over 27 chapters, and it's the only one with two pass marks: 75% on Part I and 80% on Part II, both in the same sitting. M9 comes next on sheer size, and M8A and M9A are the hardest of the short papers because of their derivative sums.
No pass rates, so here's what we ranked on
SCI doesn't publish pass rates for any of these papers, so any ranking built on a "pass rate" figure is guesswork. We ranked on things SCI does publish and that decide whether people pass:
- Pass mark. Eight papers need 70%. RES 5 needs 75% and 80% on its two parts.
- Size. How many chapters feed the paper, and how many questions you face.
- Clock. Seconds per question, worked out from SCI's question count and time limit.
- Calculations. Papers with sums take longer per question than papers of pure recall.
The ranking below is our judgement from those four things, not an SCI figure.
The nine papers, ranked
| Rank | Paper | What makes it hard |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | RES 5 | 150 questions from 27 chapters; Part II's 40 questions need 80%, so 9 wrong fails the paper |
| 2 | M9 | 100 questions from 17 chapters, with ILP unit sums and the legal chapters at the back |
| 3 | M8A | Derivative payoffs and structured funds, 50 questions at 72 seconds each |
| 4 | M9A | Structured products and derivatives in 6 dense chapters, at the same pace |
| 5 | HI | 15 chapters in 50 questions, with exact scheme figures to remember |
| 6 | M8 | Time value of money sums, 50 questions at 72 seconds each |
| 7 | ComGI | Nine classes of commercial cover, each with its own terms |
| 8 | PGI | Exclusions and conditions on the personal policies |
| 9 | BCP | The fastest clock, 40 questions in 45 minutes, but the narrowest content |
Why RES 5 sits at the top
Two things make RES 5 the hardest paper. First, RES 5 is the largest by a distance, with 27 chapters and 150 questions in 3 hours. M9, the next biggest, has 17 chapters. Second, its two parts are marked separately, and Part II is unforgiving. Part II has 14 chapters but only 40 questions, so you can afford 8 wrong answers there. A candidate can score well over 80% across the whole paper and still fail on Part II alone.
Part II questions are also the hardest kind to prepare by reading. They're short client scenarios where you choose what the representative should do, and the wrong options are usually things a reasonable person might do. Our guide to how hard RES 5 is goes into the two-part marking, and the RES 5 exam traps show the wording that catches people.
Why M9 is second
M9 is the biggest product paper: 100 questions in 2 hours, drawn from 17 chapters that run from how premiums are set to wills and trusts. The policy types are the part everyone expects. The marks also sit in chapter 9's investment-linked policy sums and in the law chapters near the end, on the insurance contract, agency, income tax and nominations. Our M9 difficulty guide shows where candidates lose marks.
The short papers aren't easy
M8A, M9A and M8 each have only 50 questions in an hour, but that's 72 seconds a question, and their sums eat time. M8A and M9A share their first three chapter titles, on structured products, their risks and derivatives, and option payoff questions take longer than definitions. M8's fifth chapter is the time value of money, which means calculator work against the clock. If you're comfortable with finance maths, these papers move down the list for you. If you haven't touched a present value formula since school, they move up. Our guide to how hard M8A is covers the derivatives chapters in detail.
HI has a gentler clock, 90 seconds a question, but packs 15 chapters into 50 questions. Four of those chapters are products that are easy to confuse: medical expense, disability income, long-term care and critical illness insurance. The rest asks for exact figures, which is memory work.
The general insurance papers
BCP, PGI and ComGI are the lightest of the nine. BCP has the fastest clock, about 67 seconds a question, but its 9 chapters cover the basics of how insurance works. PGI and ComGI give you 90 seconds a question. ComGI is the harder of the two, because its nine areas of cover are business policies most recruits have never bought, while PGI covers motor, home and travel policies people already know. SCI still recommends at least 40 to 50 hours of study for each of the three.
Your background changes the order
The ranking assumes a career switcher with no finance or insurance background. Adjust it for yourself:
- From banking or investments: M8 and M8A drop down the list, and RES 5's regulation chapters may feel familiar.
- From compliance or law: RES 5's Part I and M9's law chapters get easier.
- From insurance claims or underwriting: the general insurance papers and HI get easier.
- Out of education for years: the papers with sums move up, and timed practice matters more.
What makes any paper easier
No paper here is hard in the sense of needing advanced maths or essays. They're precision tests: several options look right, and only exact recall of the rule separates them. The method that works for all nine is the same: test each chapter the day you read it, track your score per chapter, retest your mistakes and sit full timed mocks before you book. Our guide on how to pass CMFAS sets it out step by step.
Most recruits start with the hardest one. The RES 5 page has a free sample question from our bank, and you can start RES 5 as a single paper for full timed mocks and an explanation on every answer.
Sources
- SCI, RES5 exam details (format and passing grade), read 12 October 2026
- SCI, M9 exam details, read 12 October 2026
- SCI, M8A exam details, read 12 October 2026
- SCI, Health Insurance (HI) exam details, read 12 October 2026
- SCI, Certification in General Insurance exam details, read 12 October 2026
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Frequently asked questions
RES 5 for most recruits. It has 150 questions from 27 chapters and two pass marks, 75% on Part I and 80% on Part II, in the same sitting.
SCI doesn't publish pass rates for these papers, so we rank them by pass mark, size, time per question and calculation load instead.
M9 is bigger, with 100 questions from 17 chapters. M9A is shorter but denser, with structured products and derivative payoff questions at 72 seconds each, so it can feel harder if finance maths is new to you.
Of the nine SCI papers, BCP is the lightest: 40 questions on the basics of insurance, though at about 67 seconds a question its clock is the fastest.
