IMT Exam 1 Overview — What’s Tested and How to Prepare

Official exam snapshot (CSI)

Official exam weightings (IMT Exam 1)

What IMT Exam 1 is really testing

IMT Exam 1 rewards candidates who can do three things quickly and consistently:

• Build a disciplined process: investment policy → asset mix → implementation → monitoring.
• Use core math correctly: returns, weights/rebalancing, and fixed-income sensitivity (duration intuition).
• Explain and justify: why an allocation/product/security fits the client’s objectives and constraints.

High-yield focus areas

• Risk profile: tolerance vs capacity, behavioural biases, and questionnaire limitations.
• Asset allocation: diversification logic, policy ranges, and rebalancing mechanics.
• Equity + fixed income: core drivers, valuation intuition, and risk trade-offs.
• Managed products: fees/turnover, structures, and after-tax thinking.
• Monitoring: benchmark selection, return measures, and what triggers a review.

How to prepare

1. Work the Syllabus like a checklist (coverage beats “reading twice”).
2. Build a formula sheet from the Cheatsheet and drill it until it’s automatic.
3. Do weekly mixed sets and keep a miss log: what concept, what formula, why the wrong choice was tempting.

Sources: https://www.csi.ca/en/learning/courses/imt/curriculum and https://www.csi.ca/en/learning/courses/imt/exam-credits