The SEBI Investor Awareness Test is a free, 50-question online exam from SEBI and NISM with a 60-minute limit, a 25-of-50 pass mark, no negative marking and no age or education requirement. Three consecutive attempts are allowed before a three-month cooling-off period. Prepare from the January 2026 Financial Education and Securities Market booklets on NISM's portal, drill the personal-finance calculations and the primary-versus-secondary distinction, and register at the official NISM portal.
What the SIAT is and who can take it
The SEBI Investor Awareness Test (SIAT) is a free online financial-literacy examination introduced by SEBI in association with NISM, open to anyone with no age or educational qualification requirement.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), India's securities regulator, introduced this examination together with the National Institute of Securities Markets (NISM) to build financial literacy and investor awareness. Its stated aim is to equip prospective investors with basic knowledge of saving and investing so they can make informed choices in Indian markets.
Eligibility is unusually open. The official FAQ states that anyone keen on learning about Indian financial markets may take the exam, with no requirement regarding age or educational qualification. Unlike NISM's professional certifications, this credential targets the investing public rather than market intermediaries.
Keep the credential's scope in perspective: the study booklets describe themselves as general educational material, and they direct readers to SEBI's own regulations for specific securities-law questions. Passing SIAT demonstrates financial awareness; it does not confer a licence or a professional role.
Official sources: SEBI Investor Awareness Test — National Institute of Securities Markets (NISM) — Exam page: fees, duration, questions, marks, pass percentage, objectives; Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) — SEBI Investor Awareness Test (NISM, January 2026 PDF) — Eligibility, registration, pattern, fees, retakes, negative marking, languages, certificate; SEBI Financial Education Booklet, January 2026 — Chapters 1–3: personal finance concepts, compounding, Rule of 72, rupee cost averaging
Exam format, pass mark, and retake rules
The exam has 50 questions worth 50 marks, to be completed in 60 minutes, and you pass with at least 25 marks (50%). There is no negative marking, and the certificate is issued instantly after passing.
The official FAQ confirms the pattern: 50 questions within 60 minutes, a minimum score of 50% (25 of 50 marks), and no negative marking. Because wrong answers carry no penalty, answer every question rather than leaving blanks.
If you do not pass, you may make three consecutive attempts. After the third unsuccessful attempt, a cooling-off period of three months applies from the date of the last attempt, and you reuse the same login credentials.
Delivery is flexible. After registration, you can appear at your convenience from any location, using a desktop, laptop or Android mobile device. You may choose English, Hindi, Marathi or Bengali as your exam language when you appear.
What the exam objectives cover
SEBI and NISM list eight objectives, running from basic personal-finance concepts through market structure, investment risks, ethics and investor rights to dispute resolution.
These objectives are your syllabus map. Paraphrased from the official exam page, they are:
- Basic finance concepts: saving, investment, budgeting and inflation
- Information about various government schemes
- The structure of securities markets, including primary and secondary markets
- The roles of stock exchanges, depositories and regulatory bodies
- Investment risks such as credit risk, market risk and liquidity risk
- Risk management concepts, including hedging and diversification
- Due diligence, ethical behaviour and transparency in investment practices
- Investor rights and responsibilities, disclosure requirements and dispute resolution mechanisms
Official sources: SEBI Investor Awareness Test — National Institute of Securities Markets (NISM) — Exam page: fees, duration, questions, marks, pass percentage, objectives
The official study material and how far it goes
NISM's exam portal hosts two January 2026 booklets — a Financial Education Booklet and a Securities Market Booklet — with Hindi, Marathi and Bengali versions, and points candidates to SEBI's investor website as additional reading.
The registered study-material list includes the SEBI Investor Certification Examination Financial Education Booklet and the Securities Market Booklet in English, plus Hindi, Marathi and Bengali versions of related booklets. The Financial Education Booklet runs from personal-finance basics through financial planning, savings and investment products, insurance and pension products, government schemes, tax-saving options, cautions against Ponzi schemes and unregistered advisers, and grievance redressal. The Securities Market Booklet covers market structure and regulation, investing basics, account opening and KYC, investing in primary and secondary markets, mutual funds and ETFs, and grievance redressal through SCORES and related channels.
Read the scope warning before you rely on the booklets alone: NISM states that the study materials are for reference purposes only and does not guarantee that all questions will come from the shared materials. Treat the booklets as the core preparation, and use SEBI's investor website — recommended in the FAQ for its educational content — as supplementary reading.
Official sources: Study Material List — NISM SICE portal — Booklet list and reference-only disclaimer; Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) — SEBI Investor Awareness Test (NISM, January 2026 PDF) — Eligibility, registration, pattern, fees, retakes, negative marking, languages, certificate
Personal finance concepts worth drilling
Expect questions rooted in the savings-versus-investment distinction, inflation's effect on purchasing power, compounding, the Rule of 72 and rupee cost averaging — all concepts the Financial Education Booklet explains with worked numbers.
The Financial Education Booklet connects saving with the money left after expenditure and with short-term or urgent needs. Investing puts money into financial or non-financial assets with an expectation of a return. When comparing products, ask about risk, access to the money and the time horizon; avoid treating every product in either group as having identical liquidity or risk.
Inflation erodes a rupee's purchasing power, so the booklet urges you to think in terms of your real rate of return — the return left after inflation — and to aim for a return at least equal to inflation. Compounding is the companion idea: with compound interest you earn returns on the principal and on previously earned returns, while simple interest pays only on the original principal.
Try the practice example below. It uses only the booklet's own concepts, with every assumption stated so the answer is unique.
Practice example
Assume you invest ₹5,000 in a deposit that earns 8% per year, compounded annually, with interest reinvested each year, no fees and no taxes, and the rate constant for the whole period. (a) Using the Rule of 72, approximately how many years until the deposit doubles to ₹10,000? (b) If the same deposit instead paid 8% simple interest, how much would you have after the same number of years, and why is it different?
Show answer
(a) About 9 years, because 72 ÷ 8 = 9. (b) Simple interest pays 8% only on the original ₹5,000, which is ₹400 per year. Over 9 years that is ₹3,600 of interest, giving ₹8,600 in total — less than the ₹10,000 target.
The Rule of 72, as the booklet presents it, approximates doubling time by dividing 72 by the annual interest rate. The gap in (b) comes from compounding: under annual compounding, each year's return is added to the principal, so later years earn interest on a larger base, whereas simple interest keeps the principal fixed at ₹5,000. At 8% the approximation is very close — actual compounding at 8% doubles the deposit in about 9.0 years.
Official sources: SEBI Financial Education Booklet, January 2026 — Chapters 1–3: personal finance concepts, compounding, Rule of 72, rupee cost averaging
Securities market concepts worth drilling
Focus on how the market is structured — primary versus secondary markets, equity and debt products, SEBI's regulatory role — and on the investor-facing processes the Securities Market Booklet teaches: KYC and demat accounts, ASBA, contract notes, consolidated statements, mutual funds and grievance channels.
Use the distinction between a new issue and later trading. In the primary market, an issuer raises funds by issuing securities; an IPO is one example. In the secondary market, investors trade securities that have already been issued. The two transactions in the original example below make that distinction concrete.
Know the regulator's place. SEBI regulates dealing in securities, stock exchanges and depositories under the SEBI Act, 1992, with a mandate to protect investors' interests and to promote development of, and regulate, the securities market. The booklet also names the Depositories Act, 1996, the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Act, 1956 and the Companies Act, 2013 as key legislation — the kind of framework detail that makes objective (d) testable.
Then work through the booklet's modules as a checklist: risk appetite and key risks (Module B), account opening and KYC, the Basic Services Demat Account, nomination, ASBA for primary-market applications, trading days and settlement, contract notes, statements of accounts and the Consolidated Account Statement (Modules A–D), mutual funds and ETFs (Module E), and grievance redressal through SCORES, ODR, exchange investor service centres and the investor protection funds (Module F). For grievance topics, learn what each channel is for from Module F itself rather than from secondary summaries.
A second practice example tests the market-structure distinction.
Practice example
In the same month, Meera does two things. First, she applies for a company's newly issued shares through its IPO. Second, she buys 50 shares of a different company that is already listed, through her registered stock broker. State which transaction took place in the primary market and which took place in the secondary market, and why. Assume both transactions complete normally.
Show answer
The IPO application took place in the primary market; the broker-mediated purchase of listed shares took place in the secondary market.
The booklet's structure is the test: the primary market involves issuance of new securities to raise funds — which is what an IPO does — while the secondary market is further trading of securities already offered to the public. In the second transaction no new securities are created; Meera buys from another holder through a registered broker, which is the defining feature of secondary-market dealing.
| Booklet module | Preparation focus |
|---|---|
| A — Introduction to the securities market | Regulatory framework; market structure; primary vs secondary; intermediaries |
| B — Basics of investing | Investment objectives, risk appetite, key risks, risk mitigation |
| C — Account opening | KYC process, Basic Services Demat Account, nomination |
| D — How to invest | Primary market process, ASBA, secondary market trading, settlement, contract notes, CAS |
| E — Mutual funds and ETFs | Mutual funds, product labelling, ETFs, derivatives market |
| F — Grievance redressal | SCORES and ODR, investor service centres, investor protection funds |
Registering and taking the exam
Register online at the official NISM portal (sice.nism.ac.in) with Aadhaar-verified personal details; login credentials arrive by email, you download the study material, and you appear for the exam through the Start Exam tab at any time.
Registration is fully online. You fill in your full name, mobile number, email, date of birth, state, district, professional status, educational qualification and Aadhaar number, verify the Aadhaar number on the portal, and submit. Keep this step on the official NISM portal only — never enter Aadhaar or banking details on third-party sites, including this one.
After registration you receive login credentials by email (check your spam folder if they do not appear), your exam link is activated instantly, and you can download the study material from the portal and appear for the exam through the Start Exam tab.
One operational caution from the FAQ: if you open the exam link and view at least one question before closing the window, the system may register you as having appeared. If you accidentally close the window, contact NISM's certification helpdesk at +91-8080806476 or certification@nism.ac.in to reset it; incomplete exams automatically reset at 8:00 AM the following day. Once you pass and submit, the certificate is available instantly under the Download Certificate tab, and your marks are emailed to you.
- Register at https://sice.nism.ac.in/ and verify your Aadhaar number on that portal
- Download the study material after logging in
- Appear anytime via the Start Exam tab; choose your language at that point
- Contact the helpdesk if a window closes mid-exam
Preparation checklist and next steps
Register first so you can download the official booklets, work through the eight objectives against the two booklets, drill the calculations, and appear when you are ready — your exam link activates instantly after registration, so there is no separate scheduling step.
A simple sequence, offered as advice rather than an official requirement: register and download the booklets, read the personal-finance chapters and the securities-market modules against the eight objectives, practise the two worked examples until you can redo them from scratch, then appear when comfortable. Because your exam link is activated instantly after registration, you decide when you are ready rather than booking a slot.
For extra drilling, the free practice set below covers the same topic areas, and the study-guides library explains related Indian securities-market credentials if you plan further certifications.
- Register at the official portal and download both January 2026 booklets
- Map each of the eight exam objectives to the booklet chapters and modules
- Redo the compounding and market-structure examples without notes
- Read the Financial Education Booklet chapters on Ponzi-scheme cautions and grievance redressal before exam day
Official sources: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) — SEBI Investor Awareness Test (NISM, January 2026 PDF) — Eligibility, registration, pattern, fees, retakes, negative marking, languages, certificate; SEBI Financial Education Booklet, January 2026 — Chapters 1–3: personal finance concepts, compounding, Rule of 72, rupee cost averaging
Official sources
Fact-check basis:
- SEBI Investor Awareness Test — National Institute of Securities Markets (NISM)
- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) — SEBI Investor Awareness Test (NISM, January 2026 PDF)
- Study Material List — NISM SICE portal
- SEBI Financial Education Booklet, January 2026
- SEBI Investor Certification Examination — Securities Market Booklet (English), January 2026