CMFAS M8 & M8A Exam: Format, Pass Mark & Fee

CMFAS M8 and M8A are each 50 multiple-choice questions in 1 hour, and you need 70% (35 correct) to pass each one. M8 covers collective investment schemes: unit trusts, fund products and the investment basics behind them. M8A covers structured products, derivatives and structured funds. Both are SCI papers held daily on weekdays, and as at 12 Nov 2026 each costs S$130.80 for a daytime sitting at the non-member rate. SCI lists them, with RES5, for anyone who will advise on collective investment schemes. You can also sit both together as one paper, CM-CIS.

M8 and M8A exam format at a glance

What M8 tests: 8 chapters

• Chapter 1: Types of investment assets I
• Chapter 2: Types of investment assets II
• Chapter 3: Financial markets
• Chapter 4: Risk and return
• Chapter 5: Time value of money
• Chapter 6: Considerations for investments
• Chapter 7: Unit trusts
• Chapter 8: Fund products

The syllabus also carries a future value interest factor table, so expect time value of money questions that need a calculation, not just a definition. SCI's stated aim covers the features, advantages, disadvantages and risks of collective investment schemes, how unit trust funds are evaluated, market efficiency and modern portfolio theory.

What M8A tests: 6 chapters

• Chapter 1: Introduction to structured products
• Chapter 2: Risk considerations of structured products
• Chapter 3: Understanding derivatives
• Chapter 4: Introduction to structured funds
• Chapter 5: Examples of structured funds
• Chapter 6: Case studies

The first three chapters overlap with M9A, which also opens with structured products and derivatives. M8A then turns to structured funds where M9A turns to structured ILPs. If you sit both, study the shared chapters once.

You study from SCI's eBooks. SCI no longer issues printed study texts and records changes in the Version Control Record at the back of each eBook, so check you have the current version before you start.

Where candidates lose marks

• Time value of money. Present and future value, compounding periods and annuities. Practise with the factor table until the method is automatic.
• Risk measures. Standard deviation, beta and diversification: which risk diversification removes and which it cannot.
• Fund charges and pricing. Forward pricing, bid and offer, and the charges a unit trust investor pays.
• Derivative payoffs in M8A. Long versus short, call versus put, and what happens to a structured fund's investor when the underlying moves.
• Case studies in M8A. Several questions hang off one scenario, so misreading the client costs more than one mark.

See how much has stuck: sit the free CMFAS mock exam, 5 questions with no sign-up. Or see the passes for the full question bank.

Fee, booking and rescheduling

• Each fee includes a non-refundable registration fee of S$21.80.
• A re-sit costs the full fee again. There is no limit on attempts.
• No cancellations or refunds once you have paid.
• Rescheduling 7 or more working days before the paper is free the first time, then S$32.70 per change. With less than 7 but more than 2 working days' notice, each change is S$32.70. Within 2 working days, no change.
• The member rate needs a member company: you register through its corporate account, or with your company email and its UEN.
• SkillsFuture Credit cannot be used for CMFAS exams.

Every SCI module's fee is in CMFAS exam fees.

M8 + M8A or CM-CIS?

CM-CIS covers the M8 and M8A syllabus in one sitting: Part I is the M8 syllabus and Part II the M8A syllabus. The exam time is the same either way. The differences:

For most candidates the separate papers are the better booking: cheaper, more sitting dates, and a slip on one paper does not fail the other. CM-CIS suits someone who wants one exam day and is ready on both halves at once.

Sitting CM-CIS? A CMFASPrep pass includes a CM-CIS exam-format mock: 100 questions in 2 hours, Part I from our M8 questions and Part II from our M8A questions, each part marked against 70%. Insurance agents adding unit trusts: see CM-CIS for insurance agents selling unit trusts.

Who needs M8 and M8A

SCI lists M8 and M8A (or CM-CIS), together with RES5, for representatives who will advise others on collective investment schemes. The module requirements and any exemptions are set by MAS in Notice FAA-N26, not by SCI, and your firm's compliance team confirms which papers your role needs. If you are unsure where M8 fits among the other papers, see CMFAS exams: all modules.

Study plan and free mock papers

Both papers are short, so they reward drilling. Read a chapter in the eBook, practise that chapter until you score 80% or better, then finish with timed 50-question mocks. Sit M8 first if you take them separately: M8A's structured funds build on M8's fund basics.

Start with the free M8 mock paper or the free M8A mock paper, or see M8 practice questions and M8A practice questions. Free mocks for every other module are on free CMFAS mock exams by module. One CMFASPrep pass covers M8 and M8A along with RES5 and every other module.