Decode your own NISM module
NISM isn’t a fixed answer but a tool you apply, because it certifies many separate roles. Each role has its own module, question format, penalty rule and pass mark, so find the module that matches the role you’re certifying for, and read that module’s current workbook and examination information as your syllabus and your rulebook — a fact true of one module is not assumed true of another.
Most modules are computer-based, objective papers of case-based and direct questions, and you work them at speed once you know that module’s penalty rule: work carefully and skip a stuck item if a wrong pick costs marks, or attempt everything if it doesn’t. The module’s numbers sit in the box below.
A module’s workbook is a body of applied material, not a set of facts you memorise cold, so the practice that pays you is working case-based questions against that workbook, module by module, rather than one general run at securities-market knowledge.
Your module’s certificate also lapses on its own cycle and must be renewed. Run a short, focused week against the current workbook for the module you’re sitting or renewing, not an open-ended read. The module’s own numbers are in the box below.
Find the workbook for the module you are certifying for. Work three case-based questions from it, checking each against the workbook’s own explanation rather than your first instinct. Then read that module’s stated penalty rule, and note whether it changes how you would answer a question you are unsure of.
If I already know one NISM module’s rules, another module should work much the same way.
It usually does not. Each module sets its own question mix, its own penalty rule and its own pass mark, independent of every other one NISM offers, so a rule you learned for one certificate can be wrong for the next. Read the current workbook and examination information for the exact module you are sitting before assuming anything carries over — that is the only place the format and the penalty rule for that module are actually stated.
NISM Research Analyst: check the current notice
As read on 28 September 2026 on NISM’s own site, nism.ac.in, for the NISM-Series-XV Research Analyst module only; every other module has its own separate workbook, unread here. 100 questions in 2 hours — 80 MCQs plus 5 case scenarios of 4 sub-questions each — passing at 60 out of 100 marks, with 25% of a question’s marks deducted for each wrong answer. The certificate is valid 3 years, then renewal by NISM’s own separate Renewal Examination. Confirm in the current notice: the registration fee and centres, and every other module’s own rules separately.