FRM Minimum Passing Score: Our Best Estimates So Far

[Updated for Nov 2023 results. Help our FRM MPS research by submitting your Part 1 and Part 2 results!]

Not to be confused with pass rates, GARP does not release FRM minimum passing score information to candidates.

We understand GARP’s reasons for doing this, as FRM candidates should aim to acquire the necessary knowledge as a competent finance professional, rather than aiming for a specific score to beat since an exam’s difficulty can vary.

That said, we think knowing a range of passing score can be a useful reference point for FRM candidates to gauge their performance when doing practice questions.

In this article, we attempt to estimate the FRM minimum passing scores for the recent computer-based exams. More importantly, we explain why FRM passing scores are tricky to estimate (with some examples), and our estimate should be treated as such – a rough guide to help your FRM study preparation.

Ready? Let’s dive in!

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What is the FRM results format like?

Your FRM exam results are released only with a pass or fail grade, just like this example screenshot below for a Part 1 candidate:

Additionally, quartile data is provided as a guide to show your topic mastery relative to your peers taking the same exam. This can be useful information if you failed your exam, so you can concentrate your efforts on improving weaker topics if you decide to retake.

Here’s an example of a quartile data information found in the results PDF for a Part 2 topic (Market Risk Measurement and Management):

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3 factors why FRM passing scores are difficult to estimate

Quartiles only show your topic’s strength relative to other candidates

In the FRM results letter, candidates receive the following quartile information for each topic:

Topic mastery	Results percentile	Usually summarized as
Excellent	76th – 100th percentile	1
Good	51st – 100th percentile	2
Fair	26th – 50th percentile	3
Poor	0 – 25th percentile	4

For example, it may be common to hear FRM candidates’ declaring their Part 1 results as “1, 2, 3, 1”, which simply translates to the following results:

• Foundations of Risk Management = Excellent
• Quantitative Analysis = Good
• ​Financial Markets & Products = Fair
• Valuation & Risk Models = Excellent

Note that quartiles simply breaks up a data set into 4 parts. This just shows your relative strength of the topic compared to other candidates taking the same exam. They cannot be used to make comparisons to other candidates’ overall score, as we can see in an example later, further below.

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There is a wide range of scores in a quartile

Having a wide range of 25% in each quartile makes it hard for comparison, since obtaining 76% and 100% both belong in the same quartile.

That’s a huge score difference for a topic, let alone 4-6 topics for the overall score for FRM candidates.

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Topic weights matter, too

In addition to the limitations of the quartile statistic – and this may sound obvious – scoring well for higher weighted topics would have a greater positive impact on your overall score, and vice versa.

Here’s a quick recap of the latest topic weights for FRM Part 1 and Part 2:

FRM Part 1 Topics	Topic Weight
Foundations of Risk Management (FRM)	20%
Quantitative Analysis (QA)	20%
​Financial Markets & Products (FMP)	30%
Valuation & Risk Models (VRM)	30%

FRM Part 2 Topics	Topic Weight
Market Risk Measurement & Management (MR)	20%
Credit Risk Measurement & Management (CR) ​	20%
Operation Risk & Resiliency (ORR)	20%
​Liquidity and Treasury Risk Measurement and Management (LTR)	15%
​Risk Management and Investment Management (IM)	15%
Current Issues in Financial Markets (CI)	10%

Let’s go through an example in the next section to see how all these 3 factors work when it comes to estimating an FRM minimum passing score.

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A numerical example

Given the 3 factors discussed above, this means that there are many candidates that may have very similar quartiles, yet with some passing and some not, since their actual overall scores can vary widely.

As mentioned earlier, quartile data cannot be used to make comparison with other candidates’ overall score.

Let’s look at a simple example with Part 1 results to better clarify this:

Assuming an FRM Part 1 passing score of 55%, the example above shows that:

• Even though Candidates A and B have similar quartile scores across 4 topics (3,3,2,2 and 2,2,3,3), the topic weight and wide range within a quartile affects the final overall score. Candidate A’s individual topic results are stronger within its quartiles, whereas Candidate B’s results are at the bottom range of each quartile it scored in.
• That said, even though Candidate B and C have the same quartile results for each topic, the wide range of 25% within a quartile results in a wide margin in the overall score, in this extreme example comparing Candidate B and C.

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FRM minimum passing score: Our estimates

FRM Part 1 passing score estimates

IMPORTANT: Just like our CFA passing score estimates, our FRM minimum passing score (MPS) estimates are just that – a best estimate of the passing score. Your individual MPS may also vary depending on exam version taken.

Based on our FRM results survey (see next section), here are the latest FRM Part 1 passing score estimates for Part 1 computer based exams, which seems relatively stable at 50-57%:

• Nov 2023 = 50%
• Aug 2023 = 51%

This means that on average, you’ll need to get 50-53 questions correct in FRM Part 1 exam (out of 100 questions) to just make the cut-off score.

That said, aiming for a score of 65% and above in practice exams is a good position to be in, since passing scores can vary by exam as they get recalibrated.

FRM Part 2 passing score estimates

Thanks to our readers’ P2 results submission, we are able to increase our dataset distribution – and hence confidence – to provide estimates for FRM Part 2 minimum passing scores (MPS).

Here are the latest FRM MPS estimates for FRM Part 2:

• Nov 2023 = 52%
• Aug 2023 = 50%

This means that on average, you’ll need to get 40-43 questions correct in FRM Part 2 exam (out of 80 questions) to just make the cut-off score.

But that’s too close a margin to aim for typically, and a safer score is to target getting around 48 questions correct in your Part 2 practice exams to ensure a high chance of passing the actual exam.

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Got your FRM exam results? Send us your results details for research!

In order to help all FRM candidates better, we would like to collect results data from our FRM readers who recently completed their exams, especially if you know your computer-based exam score.

It’s important to us that you share your results, fail or pass, so that we get a decent distribution of scores and are able to improve our FRM MPS predictions for you.

Please share this article with your friends to help us all out! Thank you 🙂

All you need to do is complete and submit this form below, and you will be notified once we have completed our FRM passing score analysis – thanks!

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Thanks for sharing your FRM results with us for research, we will continuously update this article as more data comes in!

Meanwhile, you may find these related articles of interest:

• FRM pass rates: How hard are FRM exams?
• When are FRM exam results released?
• What if the FRM exams? A beginner’s guide
• FRM vs PRM: Which risk management qualification is better?
• CFA vs FRM: Which is better for my career?