NISM Series VIII needs more preparation than V-A or XII, for two reasons: it is genuinely quantitative, and it penalises wrong answers. Thirty days at an hour or two a day is a realistic target for someone new to derivatives.
The plan below follows the official chapter weightages and, more importantly, the order in which the material actually builds.
Why order matters here
You cannot study this syllabus in any sequence you like. Strategies is built entirely from options. Clearing and settlement assumes you know what a futures position is and how it is marked to market. Study them before their foundations and you will learn the same material twice.
Week 1 — foundations and futures (30 marks)
Days 1–2: Basics of Derivatives (10 marks). What a derivative is, the four product types, hedgers against speculators against arbitrageurs, exchange-traded against OTC, and where leverage comes from.
Day 3: Understanding the Index (5 marks). Free-float weighting, index maintenance and the divisor, beta, systematic against unsystematic risk.
Days 4–7: Forwards and Futures (20 marks). Cost of carry, basis, contango and backwardation, convergence, mark to market, and payoff arithmetic.
Work every calculation by hand. Do not read worked examples — cover the answer and redo them. And build the habit now of naming the direction before touching the numbers: long or short, and which way did the price move.
Practise futures free — 70 questions with worked explanations.
Week 2 — options (20 marks)
The largest chapter and the one everything else references. Give it the whole week.
Days 8–10: calls and puts, the four positions and their maximum gain and loss, moneyness, intrinsic against time value.
Days 11–12: the Greeks. Delta approaching 1 deep in the money and 0 far out; gamma peaking at the money; theta working against the buyer and accelerating near expiry; vega rising with volatility for calls and puts alike. Learn the direction of each relationship — that is how they are asked.
Days 13–14: payoffs for both buyer and writer, and break-evens. Do not move on until a writer's P&L comes without hesitating over the sign.
Practise options free — 72 questions, the largest set in the course.
Week 3 — everything built on top (30 marks)
Days 15–17: Clearing, Settlement and Risk Management (10). Novation, the four margin types, SPAN, daily settlement, the default waterfall. Dense but almost entirely memorisation. Spread it across three days rather than cramming one. Full chapter guide.
Days 18–19: Trading Mechanism (10). Contract specifications, order types, price-then-time matching, position limits, corporate action adjustments, price bands.
Days 20–22: Strategies (10). Covered call, protective put, straddle, strangle, spreads. These come quickly now that options are solid — which is the whole reason for the ordering.
Week 4 — the small chapters, then papers (20 marks)
Days 23–24: Legal and regulatory environment, accounting and taxation, sales practices and investor protection — 5 marks each, 20 together. Small and finite. Against a 60% pass mark, they matter.
Days 25–30: full papers only. Stop studying chapter by chapter. Sit 100-question papers under the clock, at the same time of day as your real slot.
After each one, review every wrong answer and classify it: a fact you did not know, a fact you misread, or a calculation slip. Only the first is fixed by more studying — and in VIII, most errors are the third.
Take a full-length timed mock scored to the real 60% pass mark.
Exam-day strategy — this exam is different
25% negative marking changes everything about how you sit the paper.
| Situation | Expected value | Do |
|---|---|---|
| No idea at all | +0.06 | Skip |
| Eliminated one option | +0.17 | Marginal |
| Eliminated two options | +0.38 | Answer |
| Confident but not certain | Clearly positive | Answer |
Eliminate at least one option, or leave it blank.
If you have also sat V-A or XII, actively unlearn what they taught you. There, a blank is a guaranteed zero and answering everything is correct. Here it is not.
What score means ready
Aim for 70% or better on timed mocks before booking — a full ten points above the 60% pass mark. VIII punishes bad days more than the other exams because wrong answers subtract, so the margin needs to be wider.
Start now — free VIII practice, no signup.