What is the ICCF exam?
The ICCF exam is the proctored final of the International Certificate in Corporate Finance - the reference international certificate in corporate finance, delivered in French, English, Chinese, and Spanish, with the French version run by HEC Paris and First Education Online. The vendor publishes the exact format: a two-hour multiple-choice exam of 120 questions, sat in the Pearson VUE environment within two months of the third course ending.
The program behind it is an Executive Online Certificate: three six-week courses - financial analysis, company valuation, and investment and financing choices - each with weekly videos, exercises, quizzes, live sessions, and a case study that counts toward the result. Over 10,500 participants have taken the ICCF@HEC Paris version since the format launched, and the certificate is co-delivered by HEC Paris and First Education Online with a unique digital identification key.
What is the format of the ICCF exam?
One sitting, one format: 120 multiple-choice questions in two hours. The vendor's page is explicit that the exam is sat within two months of the end of the third course - the investment and financing choices module - so the program calendar sets the exam calendar. There is no published question bank, no published topic weighting per course, and no published exam fee; the syllabus you revise is the three-course map itself.
The tooling inside the exam is fixed. Pearson's FIRST FINANCE program page states that the on-screen calculator is modeled after the Texas Instruments TI-30XS, and Pearson publishes a tutorial and practice exam so the calculator keystrokes are not new on exam day. Candidates who rehearse on a physical financial calculator should switch early - the sitting gives you the on-screen tool and nothing else.
How is the ICCF scored, and what is the passing score?
The exam is scored on an 800-point scale, and the certificate requires a minimum of 500 out of 800 on it. But the exam score is not the whole certificate: the vendor publishes three conditions - active participation in the three courses, a minimum average of 10/20 on each case study, and the 500/800 exam minimum. The final grade weights the case studies at 30 percent and the exam at 70 percent, which makes the sitting the single largest lever on the outcome.
Read the weighting the way a candidate experiences it: a strong exam can carry average case work, but no exam score rescues missing participation, and strong case studies cannot carry a failed exam below the 500 line. The certificate that posts - co-delivered by HEC Paris and First Education Online - reflects both layers.
Where can you sit the ICCF exam - center or home?
Both routes exist, and the evidence layers are dated. The vendor's program copy describes the final exam as sat in a Pearson VUE test center across more than 150 countries. Pearson's side adds the home route: the official OnVUE view-all catalog lists FIRST FINANCE INSTITUTE for testing from home, the dedicated FIRST FINANCE OnVUE page publishes the full at-home rules, and on 2026-10-19 the live FIRSTFINANCE booking flow presented both delivery models - in-person at a test centre and online with OnVUE - for ICCF @ HEC Paris (exam id 28597).
As of 2026-10-20, the FIRSTFINANCE flow runs on Pearson's older tree interface: the public exam list renders without sign-in, the ICCF @ HEC Paris details step shows French as the exam language, and the delivery-model choice happens after account sign-in. The home rules follow the dedicated OnVUE page - one display, no headphones, a digital whiteboard instead of paper, the accepted-ID list matched to the booking name, and a system test on the same machine and network before exam day.
Is the ICCF exam the same at HEC, Columbia, and in the standalone listings?
Pearson's live FIRSTFINANCE inventory lists the family as separate exam series: ICCF @ HEC Paris (id 28597, French), ICCF AT COLUMBIA (id 37263), the sequel ICCF2 AT HEC PARIS (id 52732), and standalone International Certificate in Corporate Finance sittings in English (id 27081) and Chinese (id 28611) in the Others group. The vendor's group page describes one ICCF delivered by HEC Paris, Columbia Business School, and Instituto de Empresa - the same certificate family, delivered with different schools and in different languages.
The practical takeaway: book against the exact series your enrollment belongs to. The exam id on your Pearson booking is the identity of the sitting, and the certificate is co-delivered by the school named on your program. The delivery map on this site keeps the full inventory with its ids.
The short version
The ICCF final is a two-hour, 120-question multiple-choice exam in the Pearson VUE environment, with a 500/800 exam minimum inside a certificate that also weights three course case studies at 30 percent. Delivery runs at a Pearson test center or online with OnVUE - the both-models presentation for ICCF @ HEC Paris was verified per exam on 2026-10-19, with the catalog and the dedicated OnVUE page re-verified on 2026-10-20.
If the two-hour sitting is the part you want off your plate, Exam Assist handles the ICCF exam end to end - the Pearson account, the delivery choice, the system checks, and the proctored sitting - and the service fee is due only after the agreed result posts. Start at the booking page or read the delivery map for the full First Finance inventory.