People searching HKSI pass rate, hksi database or an hksi past paper usually want one thing: which of Papers 1, 7 and 8 is hardest in practice, and where should limited revision time go?
The three papers at a glance
| Paper | Questions | Practice answers | Correct rate | Reading |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paper 7 Financial Markets | 1,593 | 6,727 | 60.3% | Weakest |
| Paper 8 Securities | 1,558 | 4,200 | 65.9% | Middle |
| Paper 1 Fundamentals of Regulation | 2,207 | 157,625 | 67.1% | Relatively stable |
| Combined | 5,358 | 168,552 | 66.8% | Weighted practice rate |
The lowest practice rate belongs to Paper 7 at 60.3%, followed by Paper 8 at 65.9% and Paper 1 at 67.1%. Note that the combined 66.8% is essentially Paper 1's own figure: 157,625 of the 168,552 answers — 93.5% — come from that one bank. Do not read the gap as an official probability of passing.
The 8 weakest of 22 topics
The three banks publish 22 topics (a chapter needs at least 100 answers to appear). These are the 8 lowest rates, with question and answer counts in brackets.
| Rank | Topic | Paper | Correct rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Global Financial System (188 questions / 734 answers) | Paper 7 | 56.5% |
| 2 | Foreign Exchange and Derivatives Markets (311 questions / 1,292 answers) | Paper 7 | 57.0% |
| 3 | Debt Market (333 questions / 1,499 answers) | Paper 7 | 57.5% |
| 4 | Securities Analysis (265 questions / 674 answers) | Paper 8 | 58.8% |
| 5 | Equity Market (294 questions / 1,246 answers) | Paper 7 | 61.0% |
| 6 | Raising public capital (196 questions / 12,691 answers) | Paper 1 | 61.1% |
| 7 | Licensing, registration and subsidiary legislation (481 questions / 32,486 answers) | Paper 1 | 61.5% |
| 8 | Securities Investment Overview (237 questions / 671 answers) | Paper 8 | 62.7% |
The top of the table is dominated by Paper 7, which suggests cross-market relationships and product classification are the hardest to absorb in a single reading. Paper 1 is the steadiest overall, but its weakest topic — Raising public capital at 61.1% — already ranks 6th, and it rests on 12,691 answers, by far the firmest sample in the table.
Paper 7: currently the paper that loses the most marks
Paper 7's 7 topics span 56.5% to 67.5%, the lowest band of the three. The weakest is Global Financial System at 56.5% on 734 answers; the steadiest is Hong Kong Financial System at 67.5%. The weakness is paper-wide rather than concentrated, so work through it chapter by chapter instead of guessing at hot topics.
Paper 8 Securities: back from "hardest" to the middle
Paper 8 now sits at 65.9%, with 6 topics spanning 58.8% to 71.5%. Its weakest is still Securities Analysis at 58.8% on 674 answers, but that is no longer the lowest figure on the board. With 4,200 answers in total the paper remains far thinner than Paper 1, so these numbers will keep moving.
Paper 1: the firmest sample, so the most trustworthy weak spots
Paper 1 sits at 67.1% overall, with 9 topics spanning 61.1% to 80.0%. The weakest is Raising public capital at 61.1% on 12,691 answers; the strongest is Business operations and practice at 80.0%. Because every topic here carries tens of thousands of answers, this is the ranking worth revising straight off the table.
How to use these figures
- Check the sample first: The three papers still differ hugely in sample size, so read every cross-paper comparison alongside the answer counts.
- Compare practice only: never present 66.8% as an official pass rate.
- Work backwards from the weak spots: use topic rates to locate them, then record whether you missed a definition, a role, a deadline or a number.
learning_progress answers. Topics require at least 100 answers for publication; figures change as new answers arrive, and the paper ranking may change with them.
