FRM Part 1: The Final Month Before the November 2026 Exam

The November 2026 FRM Part I window runs from 14 to 20 November, with Part II from 21 to 25 November. If you are sitting Part I, you have about six weeks. That is enough to move your score a long way, provided you spend the time on the right things.

This guide covers how the exam is built, how to plan the final month, and the calculations that come up again and again, each with a worked example you can check yourself against.

How FRM Part I is built

Part I is a computer-based exam with 100 multiple-choice questions, each with four options, in four hours. That is 2.4 minutes per question, more than CFA Level I gives you, but FRM questions are longer and more calculation-heavy, so the time goes quickly.

The four topic areas and their weights:

Sixty percent of the exam sits in the last two areas. If you are short of time, that is where the points are.

You need an approved calculator. GARP allows the Texas Instruments BA II Plus (including the Professional), the HP 12C family, and the HP 10bII, 10bII+ and 20b. Check GARP's current list before the exam and practise on the model you will bring.

Week 1: a full practice exam, then an honest error log

Take one complete practice exam under real conditions, four hours, before doing any more study. Then go through every question you missed or guessed, and label each one:

• Concept: you did not know the idea or the formula.
• Setup: you knew the formula but used the wrong input, such as annual volatility where daily was needed, or the wrong confidence level.
• Time: you ran out of time or rushed.

FRM candidates lose more points to setup errors than they expect. The formulas are not that many; the traps are in units, time scaling and sign conventions.

Weeks 2 and 3: Valuation and Risk Models, then Financial Markets and Products

Spend most of these two weeks on the two 30% areas, starting with whichever scored lower on your practice exam. Work through questions, not chapters. When you miss one, go back to the specific section and redo the calculation by hand.

The calculations below come up often. Make sure you can do each one in under three minutes.

Value at risk and expected shortfall

A portfolio is worth 10 million. Its daily returns are normally distributed with a mean of zero and a standard deviation of 1.2%. What are the one-day 99% VaR, the ten-day 99% VaR and the one-day 99% expected shortfall?

• One-day VaR = 2.326 × 1.2% × 10,000,000 = 279,120.
• Ten-day VaR, using the square root of time rule = 279,120 × √10 = 882,655.
• One-day expected shortfall: for a normal distribution, ES at 99% is about 2.67 standard deviations, so ES = 2.67 × 1.2% × 10,000,000 = about 320,000.

Two classic traps: using 1.645 (the 95% value) when the question asks for 99%, and scaling VaR by 10 instead of √10. Expected shortfall is always larger than VaR at the same confidence level, because it averages the losses beyond the VaR point instead of taking the threshold itself.

The minimum-variance hedge ratio

You want to hedge a 20 million equity exposure with index futures. The correlation between the portfolio and futures returns is 0.9. The portfolio's volatility is 2% and the futures' volatility is 2.5% over the same period. The futures price is 5,000 index points and the contract multiplier is 50. How many contracts?

• Hedge ratio h = ρ × σ(spot) ÷ σ(futures) = 0.9 × 2% ÷ 2.5% = 0.72.
• Value of one contract = 5,000 × 50 = 250,000.
• Number of contracts = 0.72 × 20,000,000 ÷ 250,000 = 57.6, so sell about 58 contracts.

The trap is to invert the volatility ratio, or to forget the multiplier.

Forward prices with carry

An equity index stands at 1,200. The continuously compounded risk-free rate is 5% and the dividend yield is 2%. What is the six-month forward price?

F = 1,200 × e^((0.05 − 0.02) × 0.5) = 1,218.14.

If the question gives annual compounding instead, the formula changes, so read which convention is used before you calculate.

Also make sure you can do

• Duration and convexity: the price change for a given yield move, including the convexity term with its one-half.
• Put-call parity: c + PV(K) = p + S, rearranged for any one part.
• The one-step binomial tree: risk-neutral probability and option value.
• CAPM and performance measures: Sharpe, Treynor, Jensen's alpha and the information ratio, and what each one is for.
• Regression output: reading coefficients, t-statistics and R² from a table.

Week 4: Quantitative Analysis and Foundations

Quantitative Analysis and Foundations are 20% each. Quantitative Analysis rewards practice with regression output and hypothesis tests. Foundations is mostly concepts, governance and case studies, such as the lessons from historical financial disasters and the GARP Code of Conduct. It is less calculation-heavy, which makes it a good place to pick up points with steady reading and short question sets.

Take a second full practice exam at the start of this week. Compare it area by area with the first one, and spend the rest of the week on whichever area has improved least.

The final days

No new material. Review your error log and redo the calculations you got wrong. Check your test centre, appointment time, identification and calculator. Then rest.

On exam day, watch the units in every question: daily or annual, percent or decimal, and whether the confidence level is one-tailed. If a question has no clear route after two minutes, mark your best answer, flag it and come back. There is no penalty for a wrong answer, so never leave one blank.

How JephAi helps

JephAi covers FRM Part I and Part II with:

• Full study chapters for every Part I chapter of the GARP curriculum, each with a formula sheet for that chapter beside the text.
• Exam-style questions with an explanation for every option.
• Timed mock exams with results by topic area.
• Jeph, an AI tutor you can ask about the chapter you are reading (Advanced plan).

Every plan starts with a 7-day free trial; Basic and Premium need no card. Start your free trial and take your first practice exam today.

Sources: GARP's FRM Part I topic weights and exam policies, including the calculator policy. Exam dates are those published for the November 2026 window; check your GARP account for your own appointment.