The NISM Series X-A (Investment Adviser Level 1) exam is a 150-mark paper, not a 100-mark one, and its syllabus is organised into 6 modules covering 20 chapters. Module 1 alone carries 37 marks — roughly a quarter of the paper. This page gives the official module-wise marks from the NISM workbook, explains why chapter-level percentages for X-A do not exist, and sets out a study order built on the real weightage.
| Questions | 135 in total — 90 multiple-choice questions plus 9 case-based sets |
|---|---|
| Total marks | 150 |
| Duration | 3 hours |
| Passing score | 90 marks (60%) |
| Negative marking | 25% of the marks assigned to a question |
| Exam fee | Rs 3,000 plus payment-gateway charges (as published by NISM) |
| Certificate validity | 3 years from the exam date |
| Registration | Online at nism.ac.in; a PAN is needed to receive the passing certificate |
The mark split is worth understanding before you plan your time:
| Component | Breakdown | Marks |
|---|---|---|
| Multiple-choice questions | 90 questions × 1 mark | 90 |
| Case-based (1-mark) | 6 cases × 5 questions × 1 mark | 30 |
| Case-based (2-mark) | 3 cases × 5 questions × 2 marks | 30 |
| Total | 135 questions | 150 |
Sixty of the 150 marks come from just 9 caselets. That is 40% of the paper riding on nine passages you have to read carefully under time pressure — and the three 2-mark cases are worth as much as all six 1-mark cases combined. Practising isolated MCQs alone will not prepare you for this format.
Negative marking changes your strategy completely. Unlike V-A, a wrong answer on X-A costs you 25% of that question's marks. On a 2-mark case question, a guess you get wrong costs 0.5 marks. If you can eliminate two options, guessing is still worth it on expectation; if you have no idea at all, leaving it blank is the better play.
These are the official marks from the Syllabus Outline and Weightages table in the NISM-Series-X-A workbook (March 2026 edition).
| Module | Chapters | Marks | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Personal Financial Planning | 1–4 | 37 | 24.7% |
| 2. Indian Financial Markets | 5–6 | 10 | 6.7% |
| 3. Investment Products | 7–10 | 30 | 20.0% |
| 4. Investment Through Managed Portfolio | 11–13 | 23 | 15.3% |
| 5. Portfolio Construction, Performance Monitoring & Evaluation | 14–16 | 20 | 13.3% |
| 6. Operations, Regulatory Environment, Compliance & Ethics | 17–20 | 30 | 20.0% |
| Total | 20 chapters | 150 | 100% |
This is the single most common mistake made about the X-A syllabus, and it is worth being clear about.
NISM publishes marks for X-A at module level only. The workbook's Syllabus Outline table gives one figure per module — 37, 10, 30, 23, 20, 30 — and no figure for any individual chapter. There is no official source that says, for example, what Chapter 2 is worth on its own.
Several preparation sites show a neat percentage against each of the 20 chapters. Those numbers are estimates, usually inferred from someone's own question bank, and they are presented without saying so. We know the trap because an earlier version of our own free blueprint PDF did exactly this, and we corrected it in October 2026 after checking every figure against the workbooks.
What this means practically: plan by module, not by chapter. If a source gives you a confident chapter-level percentage for X-A, treat it as someone's guess rather than NISM's position.
| Ch. | Chapter | Module | Free practice |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Introduction to Personal Financial Planning | 1 | Practice |
| 2 | Time Value of Money | 1 | Practice |
| 3 | Cash Flow Management and Budgeting | 1 | Practice |
| 4 | Debt Management and Loans | 1 | Practice |
| 5 | Introduction to the Indian Financial Markets | 2 | Practice |
| 6 | Securities Market Segments | 2 | Practice |
| 7 | Introduction to Investment | 3 | Practice |
| 8 | Investing in Stocks | 3 | Practice |
| 9 | Investing in Fixed Income Securities | 3 | Practice |
| 10 | Understanding Derivatives | 3 | Practice |
| 11 | Mutual Funds | 4 | Practice |
| 12 | Portfolio Manager | 4 | Practice |
| 13 | Overview of Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs) | 4 | Practice |
| 14 | Introduction to Modern Portfolio Theory | 5 | Practice |
| 15 | Portfolio Construction Process | 5 | Practice |
| 16 | Portfolio Performance Measurement and Evaluation | 5 | Practice |
| 17 | Operational Aspects of Investment Management | 6 | Practice |
| 18 | Key Regulations | 6 | Practice |
| 19 | Ethical Issues | 6 | Practice |
| 20 | Grievance Redress Mechanism | 6 | Practice |
One oddity worth knowing if you are cross-checking the workbook: the Syllabus Outline table lists Chapter 3 as Cash Flow Management and Budgeting, while the chapter heading inside the book reads Evaluating the Financial Position of Clients. Same chapter, two names, in the same NISM document.
Tier 1 (97 marks): Modules 1, 3 and 6. Personal Financial Planning at 37, Investment Products at 30 and Operations/Regulations/Ethics at 30 are together worth 97 of 150 — you clear the 90-mark pass bar almost entirely from these three if you score well. Module 1 deserves the most time of any single block in the paper.
Tier 2 (43 marks): Modules 4 and 5. Managed portfolios at 23 and portfolio construction at 20. These are conceptually heavier but narrower, and Module 5 in particular rewards working through calculations rather than reading.
Tier 3 (10 marks): Module 2. Indian Financial Markets is just 10 marks across two chapters. Cover it once; do not let it eat a week.
Because Module 1 contains Time Value of Money, it is also the most calculation-heavy block in the exam. If your arithmetic under time pressure is shaky, that is where to find out — our X-A numericals practice is built for exactly this.
A suggested plan for about an hour a day. X-A is a bigger paper than V-A, so give it more calendar time if you can.
| Week | Focus | Goal |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Module 1 (Chapters 1–4) | Finish the 37-mark block and be comfortable with time value of money calculations |
| 2 | Module 3 (Chapters 7–10), then Module 6 (Chapters 17–20) | Complete the rest of Tier 1 — the 97-mark core |
| 3 | Modules 4 and 5 (Chapters 11–16), then Module 2 (Chapters 5–6) | Cover every remaining chapter once |
| 4 | Full-length mocks with caselet practice | Two or three timed mocks; drill the 9-caselet format specifically |
In week 4, score your mocks by module rather than overall. A module where you are losing 8 of 37 marks matters far more than one where you are losing 3 of 10.
X-A is Level 1 of the Investment Adviser certification. To register as an investment adviser you generally need Level 2 as well — see X-A vs X-B for what each paper covers and which order to take them in. For how demanding the paper is in practice and who typically takes it, see X-A pass marks and pattern. Comparing across certifications? Start from the NISM certification guide.
The X-A certificate is valid for 3 years from the exam date. To renew, pass the relevant NISM CPE (Continuing Professional Education) programme or retake the certification exam before the certificate expires. The certificate is issued within about two weeks of passing, provided your PAN was submitted at registration.
20 chapters, grouped into 6 modules, from Introduction to Personal Financial Planning to Grievance Redress Mechanism.
Module 1, Personal Financial Planning, carries 37 of the 150 marks. Module 3 (Investment Products) and Module 6 (Operations, Regulatory Environment, Compliance and Ethics) follow at 30 marks each.
60 percent, which is 90 marks out of 150. There is negative marking of 25 percent of the marks assigned to a question.
135 questions in total: 90 multiple-choice questions of 1 mark each, plus 9 case-based sets containing 45 questions worth 60 marks. The exam runs for 3 hours.
No. The X-A workbook publishes marks at module level only, across 6 modules. Any site showing a percentage for each individual X-A chapter has estimated it, not taken it from NISM.
BullWiser has a free practice page for each of the 20 chapters, plus a free full-length X-A mock. The first mock needs no login.
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