PRMIA's Candidate Guidebook (revised March 2025) defines the designation as exactly two exams - Finance Foundations and Risk Management Practices. The old four-exam version retired with the August 2024 transition; anyone describing four sittings is reading a retired program.
Exam 1 carries 60 stand-alone four-option multiple-choice questions. Exam 2 carries 84: 64 stand-alone questions plus a case-study practicum of four scenarios, each followed by five related questions.
PRMIA's current exam table allows four hours for each sitting. A stale one-to-two-hour line elsewhere on the vendor's FAQ belongs to the retired program - the table is the authoritative figure.
PRMIA publishes a flat 60 percent expected passing grade on each individual exam, with both exams passed inside a two-year period that starts on the date of your first passed exam.
What the Two PRM Exams Actually Cover
Exam 1, Finance Foundations, is the quantitative and markets half: 60 stand-alone questions split evenly across four domains - Finance Theory (15 questions), Financial Instruments (15), Financial Markets (15), and Mathematical Foundations of Risk Measurement (15). All questions are four-option multiple choice with exactly one intended correct answer, English only, with an on-screen calculator modeled after the Texas Instruments TI-30XS available inside the delivery system.
Exam 2, Risk Management Practices, is the applied half: 64 stand-alone questions across Enterprise Risk Management Frameworks and Operational Risk Management Practices (20), Credit Risk and Counterparty Credit Risk (20), Market Risk, Asset Liability Management, and Funds Transfer Pricing (20), and PRMIA Standards and Governance (4) - plus the practicum: four case-study scenarios, each followed by five related questions that cut across the syllabus. PRMIA builds the practicum from its published Case Studies, so the scenarios reward candidates who know how real risk events unfolded, not just the frameworks named after them.
Eligibility sits above the exams, not inside them: a graduate degree, or a current CFA charter, CIIA, or FRM, or a bachelor's degree with two years of relevant full-time experience, or four years of it - and the experience must live in financial services or a risk management department. Verification happens after you pass, before the designation is awarded. CFA, CIIA, and FRM holders are also exempt from Exam 1 entirely, sitting only Exam 2.
Can You Take the PRM Exams From Home?
Yes. PRMIA's own FAQ states that remote proctored examinations are available through Pearson VUE using the OnVUE test environment, and candidates choose between the test-center and remote options inside their own Pearson VUE account. Pearson hosts a dedicated PRMIA OnVUE page carrying the at-home minimums: Windows 10 or macOS 14 or higher, a working webcam, microphone, and speaker with no headphones or headsets, one display only, at least 6 Mbps down and 2 Mbps up, and every application except OnVUE closed. Failing the minimums on exam day can cancel the sitting and forfeit the fee.
The calendar constraint is unique to the designations: PRM exams run in fixed intervals, not on demand. The currently published pair is a scheduling window from September 5 to December 11, 2026 and a testing window from November 9 to December 11, 2026, with the 2027 windows already listed - confirm the live window inside your Pearson VUE account before planning a date. Check-in for an OnVUE sitting opens 30 minutes early and includes technology checks, ID photos, and a 360-degree room scan; the session is recorded.
One geography rule and one ID rule to carry: PRMIA does not offer exams at testing centers or remotely in Quebec (the province's language rules require French offerings PRMIA cannot provide - candidates travel outside the province), and Pearson's OnVUE ID policy does not accept IDs from countries where OnVUE delivery is restricted. This service only supports compliant sittings, so your route and documents are confirmed against those published rules before anything is booked.
What the PRM Sittings Cost
PRMIA prices per exam by membership tier: 650 US dollars for Sustaining, Corporate, or RIM members, 700 for Contributing members, 800 for non-members, and 540 for India Sustaining members. The two-exam bundle cuts that to 1,200, 1,350, 1,500, and 1,080 dollars respectively, and the 175-dollar application fee is currently waived. Every authorization includes the digital PRM Handbooks for its exam.
The failure and lapse economics are the part to plan around. A failed exam needs a new authorization at full price after a 60-day wait, and the same exam can be taken at most once every 60 days. An individual authorization lives one year, the bundle two years, while the designation requires both exams passed within two years of the first pass. And PRMIA is explicit that all program fees are a final sale - non-refundable and non-transferable under any circumstances.
One budgeting note that stays honest: the fees above go to PRMIA for the exam authorizations. The service fee for having the sittings handled end to end is separate, quoted against your window and delivery route - and it is due only after the agreed result posts.
Where PRM Sittings Go Wrong
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How the Service Works
You send the brief
You get a straight feasibility answer
The sitting is handled end to end
The pass posts, then the fee
What You Get
A team that has read the actual documents: the March 2025 Candidate Guidebook for the test specifications, PRMIA's live FAQ and pricing pages for the 60-day retake rule, the authorization periods, the fee tiers, and the window calendar, and Pearson's dedicated PRMIA OnVUE page for the at-home rules. Every fact on this page traces to one of those.
A sitting aligned to the published program rules - the right exam sequence for your exemption status, a compliant delivery route inside the live window, the ID and minimums handled before exam day - and a payment structure that keeps the risk where it belongs: the service fee is due only after the agreed result posts.
Handling It Safely
Every engagement starts from what PRMIA and Pearson VUE publish today: the two-exam structure and 60 percent bar in the Guidebook and FAQ, the fee tiers and window calendar on the pricing page, the OnVUE minimums and ID lists on Pearson's dedicated page, and the fixed windows on the program page. The plan is built inside those boundaries, not around them.
What we control is the quality, discretion, and privacy of the engagement: an honest feasibility answer before anything starts, a structured sitting plan for your exact exam and window, and a fee that follows the result. Your details stay private, we never ask for more than the sitting requires, and the delivery-route rules are checked before booking - never discovered after it.
Payment: After the Result
The exam authorization fees - 650 to 800 US dollars per exam by tier - go to PRMIA through the normal enrollment route. The service fee for the sitting is due only after the agreed result posts: you verify the pass in your PRMIA Certification profile, and then settle.
No upfront service charge, no fee to hear the feasibility answer, and no invoice if the agreed result does not post. That structure is the whole point: the sitting team carries the execution risk, not you.
Sittings Handled
They caught the calendar trap before it caught me - my Exam 1 authorization and the testing window would have collided in December. Both sittings handled from home, paid after each pass posted.
I was one of the CFA-exempt cases, so only Exam 2 stood between me and the designation. They planned around the practicum scenarios, handled the sitting end to end, and the fee waited for the result.
The old four-exam notes I had bought were worthless. They rebuilt everything against the current Guidebook, took the window math off my plate, and I settled only after the second pass verified.
PRM Exam Help - Questions
Can the PRM exams be taken online from home?
How many exams is the PRM designation?
How much do the PRM exams cost?
What score do you need to pass each PRM exam?
How often can I retake a failed PRM exam?
Do I have to take the PRM exams in a testing window?
Can a CFA, FRM, or CIIA holder skip PRM Exam 1?
When do I pay the service fee?
Get the PRM Sittings Handled
Send your risk background, your membership tier, your window, and your deadline. You get an honest feasibility answer, and the service fee is due only after your pass posts.
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