In a fast-changing industry, new questions need to be added to exams at regular intervals to replace older ones. CBT offers the Securities & Investment Institute an excellent and reliable way of trialling new questions (to collect essential statistics about their performance under test conditions) without including them in the candidate’s score. This means that most candidates will be asked to answer a few extra questions in addition to the scored questions.

For example, for a 50-question paper, candidates may be asked 53 questions and given proportionately longer to complete the test. The candidate’s onscreen exam clock will reflect this.

To collect reliable statistics it is necessary to include these trial questions randomly within the body of the test.