NISM Series V-A asks for 50 out of 100 marks, with no negative marking. That sounds easy, and it is passable in three weeks of steady work. But it is not an examination you can take easily as recent trends in the examination questions indicate the understanding of concepts and application of concepts is required to pass the examination. The questions test whether you can apply rules and concepts (cut-off times, exit loads, tax treatment, investor-scheme fit), not whether you have heard of them.
This plan spreads the 12 chapters over 18 days in proportion to their marks, then keeps three days for full mocks and fixing weak spots. Plan on about 1.5 to 2 hours a day.
For the exam pattern and fee, see our NISM V-A Complete Guide.
#Where the marks are
Four chapters carry exactly half the examination weightage:
| Chapter | Marks |
|---|---|
| Ch 9 Investor Services | 15 |
| Ch 12 Mutual Fund Scheme Selection | 15 |
| Ch 4 Legal and Regulatory Framework | 10 |
| Ch 5 Scheme Related Information | 10 |
Give these four your best study hours. Also, they are mostly straightforward without many calculations to master. The plan below gives them two days each.
#The 21-day plan
| Day | What | Marks |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ch 1 Investment Landscape | 8 |
| 2 | Ch 2 Concept & Role of a Mutual Fund (includes SEBI's scheme categories, the base for Ch 12) | 6 |
| 3 | Ch 3 Legal Structure of Mutual Funds · start Ch 4 Legal and Regulatory Framework | 4 + … |
| 4 | Finish Ch 4 Legal and Regulatory Framework | 10 |
| 5–6 | Ch 5 Scheme Related Information | 10 |
| 7 | Ch 6 Fund Distribution and Channel Management Practices | 6 |
| 8 | Ch 7 NAV, Total Expense Ratio and Pricing of Units | 8 |
| 9 | Ch 8 Taxation | 4 |
| 10–11 | Ch 9 Investor Services | 15 |
| 12 | Ch 10 Risk, Return and Performance of Funds | 7 |
| 13 | Ch 11 Mutual Fund Scheme Performance | 7 |
| 14–15 | Ch 12 Mutual Fund Scheme Selection | 15 |
| 16 | Revise Chapters 1–6; redo every question you got wrong | — |
| 17 | Revise Chapters 7–12; redo every question you got wrong | — |
| 18 | Full mock 1: 100 questions in 2 hours, timed. Review every mistake. | — |
| 19 | Fix the two or three chapters the mock exposed | — |
| 20 | Full mock 2, same conditions | — |
| 21 | Light revision of numbers and rules. Check your test centre and ID. | — |
#Chapters that look easy but cost marks
Investor Services (Ch 9). Cut-off times, which day's NAV applies, and transaction timelines. Even experienced distributors who has run SIPs for their clients for years, still gets confused on the cut-off rules for liquid funds versus other schemes, because in daily work the AMC's system handles it for them. Learn the rules as rules, not as habits.
Scheme Selection (Ch 12). These questions describe an investor (age, goal, horizon, risk appetite) and ask which scheme or option fits. Practise them as cases, not definitions. It requires proper understanding of various categories and sub-categories of mutual funds schemes as defined by SEBI which are covered extensively in CHAPTER 2: CONCEPT AND ROLE OF A MUTUAL FUND. If You are not familiar with mutual funds and this is Your first appearance for the exam, it is better to start and go through all chapters sequentially to understand the concepts better.
Taxation (Ch 8). Only 4 marks, but rules change with Finance Acts. Study from current material, not an old workbook.
#Exam-day tactics
Answer every question. There is no negative marking, so skipping a question scores zero while a guess might score one. Before you submit, check that nothing is left unanswered. Before submitting your exam, You will be shown a screen which shows the number of questions answered, unanswered. Make sure that unanswered questions are showing as zero.
Two passes. Answer what you know first, marking anything slow or doubtful for review. Most students waste time on a difficult questions (most of the time involving calculations) and struggle to complete all questions in time. NISM Exam platform provides You an option to mark questions for later review. If You are not sure of any question, just mark it for review and move to next question. You can review these questions later once You complete all 100 questions. 100 questions in 120 minutes gives you just over a minute each which is more than enough for this examination.
Read the last line twice. Watch for NOT, EXCEPT and FALSE. These flip the answer, and they are easy to miss under time pressure. Most people (Including me) makes this mistake although they know the answer for the question and mark it wrong as they don't read the question stem diligently.
Read all given options before answering. One more common mistake is selecting the first answer if it appears correct. But NISM exam questions sometimes have options like A&B above and All of the above. If You read question and identified first option as correct without reading other options, You will lose marks as second/third options could be correct too.
#Already know mutual funds well?
If you work in mutual fund sales already, you can compress Days 1–9 into five days. Spend the time you save on Chapters 9 and 12, where experienced people still lose marks to rules they no longer think about.
Once you pass, your next step is the ARN application.
