Part of the expanding PassProfessor catalog: FRM Part II is the second examination for GARP’s Financial Risk Manager certification: 80 multiple-choice questions in 4 hours across six topic areas covering market, credit, operational and liquidity risk, investment risk management, and current issues. GARP publishes no passing score — the FRM Committee sets the pass mark and results arrive as pass/fail with quartile rankings. PassProfessor’s Part II program carries 1,500 original practice questions with an explanation for every question.
Part II is where the FRM turns from tools to practice. The statistics, products and valuation models of Part I are assumed, and the examination asks how they are used inside real institutions: how market, credit, operational and liquidity risk are measured and managed, how portfolio risk is budgeted, and how the field’s current issues are reshaping all of it. Its questions are longer and more scenario-based, which is why 80 questions fill the same four hours that hold 100 in Part I. PassProfessor’s FRM Part II program is in the works as part of the expanding PassProfessor catalog, built to GARP’s published topic weights for Part II. The program carries 1,500 original practice questions with an explanation for every question, and every calculation question shows its complete computation. Preparing for the other part as well? The FRM Part I program page and the FRM Part I exam guide cover that examination.
Which examination is this?
This page covers one examination only: Part II of the Financial Risk Manager certification administered by the Global Association of Risk Professionals (GARP). The FRM is earned in two parts, taken in sequence — Part I first, then Part II, which presumes Part I mastery — together with two years of professional work experience in a risk-related field. Part I and Part II have different blueprints, different question counts and different characters, and they are separate programs here, exactly as GARP examines them separately. GARP alone awards the certification; this program is preparation for its Part II examination.
What will the program cover?
Practice mapped to the published blueprint, topic area by topic area. The program is built on GARP’s own published topic weights for Part II — 20, 20, 20, 15, 15 and 10 percent — so preparation time lands where the examination itself puts the emphasis, and results can be read area by area against the same structure GARP uses for its quartile reporting.
Original questions, written from the outline outward. Every question is an original PassProfessor practice question written to GARP’s published topic outline and current authoritative sources. None is an actual examination item, a recalled item, or another provider’s material, and no question asks you to recite a code, section number or citation — knowledge is tested, citations never are.
Calculations worked in full. Part II is calculation-forward, so the practice is too: every calculation question’s explanation shows its complete computation, with distractors built from the results of the wrong method, so a miss teaches the correction rather than merely recording the error.
Timed practice at the real sitting’s shape. The program includes a full timed simulation of 80 questions in 240 minutes — the real sitting’s length and time limit, at the published weights — so pacing is trained rather than discovered on the day. Only GARP-approved calculators may be used in the real sitting, and serious practice observes the same rule.
The real exam at a glance
| Fact of record | Detail |
|---|---|
| Credential | Financial Risk Manager (FRM), Part II of two examinations |
| Certifying body | Global Association of Risk Professionals (GARP) |
| Format | 80 multiple-choice questions, all equally weighted |
| Time | 4 hours (240 minutes) — about 3 minutes per question |
| Delivery | Computer-based testing, in May, August and November windows |
| Sequence | Part II presumes Part I mastery; candidates progress Part I, then Part II |
| Passing standard | Not published by GARP. The FRM Committee sets the pass mark for each administration; results are pass/fail plus quartile rankings per topic area |
| Calculators | Only GARP-approved calculators may be used (the TI BA II Plus and HP 10bII families) — confirm the current approved list at garp.org |
| Fees (GARP schedule) | Exam fee of $600 early or $800 standard per part on GARP’s 2026 schedule (the one-time $400 enrollment fee is paid at first Part I registration) — confirm current amounts at garp.org |
| Certification | Pass Part I and Part II, plus 2 years of professional work experience in a risk-related field |
How will practice map to the blueprint?
| Topic area (GARP FRM Part II) | Share of the examination | Practice questions |
|---|---|---|
| Market Risk Measurement and Management | 20 percent | 300 |
| Credit Risk Measurement and Management | 20 percent | 300 |
| Operational Risk and Resilience | 20 percent | 300 |
| Liquidity and Treasury Risk Measurement and Management | 15 percent | 225 |
| Risk Management and Investment Management | 15 percent | 225 |
| Current Issues in Financial Markets | 10 percent | 150 |
What does Market Risk Measurement and Management cover? (20 percent of the examination; 300 practice questions)
The measurement of market risk at institutional depth: advanced value-at-risk and expected-shortfall estimation, backtesting concepts, value-at-risk mapping, stress testing design, volatility smiles and skews, term-structure models, correlation and copula applications, liquidity-adjusted value at risk, the market-risk framework of the Fundamental Review of the Trading Book at concept level, and extreme value theory.
How should you prepare for Market Risk Measurement and Management? Practise mapping and aggregation items slowly first — they chain several Part I skills together, and errors compound along the chain.
Work the frameworks, not just the formulas: this area rewards knowing when expected shortfall answers the question value at risk cannot, and what a backtest exception actually evidences.
What does Credit Risk Measurement and Management cover? (20 percent of the examination; 300 practice questions)
Probability of default, loss given default and exposure at default, and the expected and unexpected loss built from them; ratings and rating migration; structural models in the Merton tradition and reduced-form concepts; credit value at risk; counterparty credit risk with credit valuation adjustment, netting and collateral; credit derivatives, centred on credit default swap mechanics and pricing concepts; securitisation structures and tranches; and wrong-way risk.
How should you prepare for Credit Risk Measurement and Management? Give counterparty risk its own pass: netting, collateral and wrong-way risk interact, and items test the interaction rather than any single piece.
Expected loss equals probability of default times loss given default times exposure at default — hold the decomposition in mind, because most credit items are that identity wearing a scenario.
What does Operational Risk and Resilience cover? (20 percent of the examination; 300 practice questions)
The Basel operational-risk framework and its event types, loss data and the loss distribution approach, the capital approaches, cyber risk, third-party and outsourcing risk, model risk management, operational resilience and business continuity, fraud and conduct risk, and key risk indicators and controls at concept level.
How should you prepare for Operational Risk and Resilience? Treat resilience as distinct from recovery: the examined idea is absorbing disruption while continuing critical operations, not simply restoring them afterwards.
Learn the Basel architecture as a mechanism — what each component is for — because items test purpose and interaction more than labels.
What does Liquidity and Treasury Risk Measurement and Management cover? (15 percent of the examination; 225 practice questions)
Market liquidity versus funding liquidity, liquidity risk measurement, the Liquidity Coverage Ratio and Net Stable Funding Ratio in structure with simple calculations, intraday liquidity, asset-liability management and maturity transformation, contingency funding plans, funds transfer pricing concepts, repo markets, and the liquidity lessons of the 2023 bank failures at concept level.
How should you prepare for Liquidity and Treasury Risk Measurement and Management? Study the failure cases alongside the ratios; the examination connects the rule to the run it was written to prevent.
Master the two ratios as structures: what counts in the numerator, what runs off in the denominator, and what the inflow cap does — the calculations are simple once the structure is secure.
What does Risk Management and Investment Management cover? (15 percent of the examination; 225 practice questions)
Portfolio construction and factor investing, risk budgeting and risk decomposition, performance measurement, hedge fund strategies, private markets, and enterprise risk management as practised in asset management.
How should you prepare for Risk Management and Investment Management? Keep performance measures from Part I fresh — they return here in portfolio dress, alongside measures such as M-squared and Calmar in the wider curriculum.
Risk budgeting is the hinge concept: items ask where a portfolio’s risk actually comes from, which is rarely where its capital sits.
What does Current Issues in Financial Markets cover? (10 percent of the examination; 150 practice questions)
The annually refreshed area: artificial intelligence and machine learning in finance, climate and environmental, social and governance risk, crypto and digital assets, cyber and geopolitical risk, nonbank financial intermediation, and monetary-policy and debt developments. This program teaches the area as durable risk mechanisms — how each development creates, transmits or concentrates risk — rather than as headlines, because the topic list is republished by GARP every cycle.
How should you prepare for Current Issues in Financial Markets? Cover this area last in each study cycle and revisit it closest to your sitting, since it is the one area whose emphasis moves year to year.
Ask of every current-issues topic the same three questions: what risk does it create, through what channel does it travel, and what control answers it? That frame survives each annual refresh.
How is FRM Part II scored?
GARP does not publish a passing score for the FRM. The FRM Committee sets the pass mark for each exam administration, and results are reported as pass/fail together with quartile rankings that show how a candidate performed in each topic area relative to other candidates. Any source quoting a specific score or percentage needed to pass is speculating — GARP has never published one, and this page does not repeat those guesses as fact. The honest preparation consequence is that there is no published line to aim at: the work is to be strong across every topic area, because the quartile report will expose the weak one and the Committee’s mark is set against the whole cohort’s performance on the form. Our practice reports results by topic area for the same reason — an overall practice figure can flatter a candidate whose weakness sits in a heavily weighted area.
Who can sit for FRM Part II, and what does it certify?
Part II presumes Part I mastery, and candidates progress through the parts in order. Certification itself takes three steps: pass Part I, pass Part II, and demonstrate two years of professional work experience in a risk-related field — risk management, trading, treasury, portfolio management, audit, risk consulting or technology, academia, and similar roles. After passing Part II, a candidate has up to ten years to submit that experience, and qualifying experience earned up to ten years before passing can count. If Part II has not been passed within four years of passing Part I, the enrollment fee applies again. On GARP’s 2026 schedule, first Part I registration carries a one-time enrollment fee of $400 plus an exam fee of $600 early or $800 standard per part; fees are set by GARP and change, so confirm current amounts at garp.org. After certification, GARP recommends continuing professional development of 40 hours per two years.
What makes this exam demanding?
Judgement about frameworks, not only fluency with formulas. Part II rewards the candidate who knows which tool fits which situation — when expected shortfall answers what value at risk cannot, why netting changes an exposure, what a ratio’s inflow cap does to the number it produces — across six topic areas that each carry real weight. There is no dominant area to hide behind: three areas at 20 percent and two at 15 percent mean a neglected area is a fifth or more of the paper gone. Breadth with depth, practised at full length, is the preparation this examination rewards.
How should you use this page while the program is in the works?
- Join the notify list today. Enrollment is not open yet, and the notify list is how you hear the moment it is. While you wait, read the exam guide — it walks the blueprint area by area and lays out scoring, fees and study planning in full.
- Study from the official outline now. GARP’s published topic areas and weights, summarised on this page, are the syllabus; organising your reading by them is useful work today, before any practice program opens.
- When the program opens, survey every area first. Early practice should touch each topic area, so your first area-by-area picture of yourself is honest rather than flattering — the same picture GARP’s quartile report will eventually give you.
- Drill the area that costs you. Let results, not preferences, set the next block of study, and keep the calculations timed from early on.
- Finish with full-length simulations. Sit 80 questions in 240 minutes with an approved calculator only, and test when your practice is consistently strong across areas. If you are also preparing for the other examination, the FRM Part I program follows the same structure.
Frequently asked questions
How many questions are on FRM Part II, and how long is it? 80 multiple-choice questions in 4 hours, all equally weighted, delivered by computer-based testing in May, August and November windows. That is about 3 minutes per question — more than Part I, because Part II questions are longer and more scenario-based.
What score do I need to pass FRM Part II? GARP does not publish a passing score. The FRM Committee sets the pass mark for each exam administration, and results are reported as pass/fail with quartile rankings per topic area. Any website quoting a specific percentage needed to pass is speculating.
How is Part II different from Part I? Part I (100 questions) builds the toolkit — quantitative methods, markets and products, valuation models. Part II (80 questions) applies that toolkit inside institutions: risk measurement frameworks, regulation-shaped practice, portfolio risk management, and current issues. The companion Part I program page and Part I exam guide cover the first examination.
What does FRM Part II cost? On GARP’s 2026 schedule the exam fee is $600 early or $800 standard per part; the one-time $400 enrollment fee is paid at first Part I registration. Fees are set by GARP and change — confirm current amounts at garp.org.
How do I earn the FRM certification? Pass Part I and Part II and demonstrate two years of professional work experience in a risk-related field — risk management, trading, treasury, portfolio management, audit, risk consulting or technology, academia and similar roles. After passing Part II you have up to ten years to submit the experience, and experience earned up to ten years before passing can count.
Which topic areas carry the most weight in Part II? Market Risk, Credit Risk, and Operational Risk and Resilience carry 20 percent each. Liquidity and Treasury Risk and Risk Management and Investment Management carry 15 percent each, and Current Issues in Financial Markets carries 10 percent.
Are these GARP’s actual examination questions? No. Every question in this program is an original PassProfessor practice question written to GARP’s published topic outline. None is an actual examination item, a recalled item, or another provider’s material.
Does every practice question include an explanation? Yes. The program carries 1,500 original practice questions with an explanation for every question, and every calculation question shows its complete computation.
How is the practice simulation scored? The timed simulation presents 80 questions in 240 minutes at the real sitting’s shape, weighted to the six topic areas, and reports a 70 percent practice benchmark as a study gauge together with results by topic area. That benchmark is a PassProfessor study aid, not a GARP standard — GARP does not publish a passing score.
How does the Current Issues area stay current? GARP republishes the curriculum annually, and Current Issues is its most perishable area. This program teaches the area’s durable risk mechanisms — how artificial intelligence, climate risk, digital assets and geopolitical developments create and transmit risk — rather than dated headlines.
When will enrollment open? The program is in the works as part of the expanding PassProfessor catalog. Join the notify list on this page and we will email you when enrollment opens.
Disclaimer
PassProfessor is an independent exam-preparation provider; this program is not endorsed by, affiliated with or sponsored by GARP. FRM and Financial Risk Manager are marks of the Global Association of Risk Professionals, used on this page as a factual reference to the certifying body’s examination. This program is examination preparation only: examination details on this page are drawn from the official sources recorded in the companion guide and are current as of November 2026; the certifying body’s official publications govern if anything here differs from them. The certification is awarded by GARP alone when its requirements are complete; this program confers no certification.