A practical CSI IMT Exam 2 vignette study plan: 30-day intensive, 60-day balanced, and 90-day part-time schedules aligned to the official chapters and exam weightings.
IMT Exam 2 is vignette-style, so your plan should include cases from week 1.
Use this loop:
Read → build a one-page “case playbook” → drill case sets → review misses → repeat.
CSI lists 80 – 100 hours of study for IMT overall. Here’s a practical translation for Exam 2:
| Weekly study time | Timeline | Total hours (approx.) |
|---|---|---|
| 18–25 hrs/week | 30 days | 72–100 |
| 10–14 hrs/week | 60 days | 80–112 |
| 6–9 hrs/week | 90 days | 72–108 |
| Week | Chapters / topics | Case-first focus |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ch. 1–4 (IPS, risk profile, allocation, implementation choices) | Do 2–3 mini-cases/week: extract constraints → choose best next action. |
| 2 | Ch. 5–8 (Equities + analysis + technical) | Practice “what matters in the vignette?” and ratio/valuation interpretation. |
| 3 | Ch. 9–11 (Fixed income) | Make duration intuition automatic; do curve + strategy cases. |
| 4 | Ch. 12–18 (Products + intl/tax + risk + impediments + monitoring) | Mixed case sets daily; focus on fee drag, liquidity, after-tax, and monitoring triggers. |
| Weeks | Chapters / topics | Case-first focus |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ch. 1 (Process + IPS) | Build your “first actions” checklist; do 2 vignettes. |
| 2 | Ch. 2 (Behavioural + risk profile) | Bias diagnosis → best response; do 2 vignettes. |
| 3 | Ch. 3–4 (Allocation + implementation) | Rebalancing math + active/passive trade-offs; do 2 vignettes. |
| 4 | Ch. 5–8 (Equities) | Top-down + company analysis; do 3 vignettes. |
| 5 | Ch. 9–11 (Fixed income) | Duration/convexity + ladder/barbell/bullet; do 3 vignettes. |
| 6 | Ch. 12–13 (Managed + alternatives) | Fees/liquidity/structure; do 3 vignettes. |
| 7 | Ch. 14–17 (Intl + tax + risk + impediments) | Currency/tax + risk tools + compounding; do 3 vignettes. |
| 8 | Ch. 18 + mixed review | Benchmarks + return measures; full mixed case sets. |
| Weeks | Chapters / topics | Case-first focus |
|---|---|---|
| 1–2 | Ch. 1–2 | Build IPS + bias notes; 1–2 vignettes/week. |
| 3–4 | Ch. 3–4 | Allocation + implementation; 2 vignettes/week. |
| 5–7 | Ch. 5–8 | Equities; 2–3 vignettes/week. |
| 8–9 | Ch. 9–11 | Fixed income; 2–3 vignettes/week. |
| 10 | Ch. 12–13 | Products + alternatives; 2 vignettes/week. |
| 11 | Ch. 14–17 | Intl/tax + risk + impediments; 2 vignettes/week. |
| 12 | Ch. 18 + final review | Mixed case sets + miss log cleanup. |
Sources: https://www.csi.ca/en/learning/courses/imt/curriculum and https://www.csi.ca/en/learning/courses/imt/exam-credits