How to Prepare for IIQE Paper 1 — Official Parameters First, Then Let the Data Split Your Time

Last updated 2026-08-10

Whichever line of business you intend to work in, Paper 1 is the one paper everyone must take. It is also the first paper most people prepare for — and the method you use on the first paper tends to set the efficiency of every paper after it.

This page is not about which course to join or which book to read. It is about two more basic things: what the official parameters are, and how your time should be split.

Put the official parameters on the table first

• 75 questions, all multiple choice, in a time limit of 2 hours — roughly 96

seconds per question (2 hours ÷ 75 questions)

• Pass mark: a minimum of 70 marks
• Questions are set bilingually — Traditional Chinese and English side by side, with **no

Simplified Chinese version**. Every question appears in both languages, so you can work from the English text throughout.

For the full picture of the exam format, sitting modes and how results are released, see the complete guide to exam format and results.

Why "focus on the heavyweights" works on Paper 1

Using real answering data from 9 candidates and computing expected lost marks = official chapter weighting × (1 − actual accuracy rate), the picture on Paper 1 is strikingly uneven:

• Chapter 3 (Principles of Insurance): 30% of the exam weighting, contributing 33% of

expected lost marks

• Chapter 6 (Regulatory Framework of the Insurance Industry): 21% of the weighting,

contributing 23% of lost marks — and with an accuracy rate of 65.7%, the lowest in the paper

• The two chapters combined: 56% of expected lost marks

More than half of the lost marks sit in just two chapters — that is why "focus on the heavyweights" works on Paper 1. For the full seven-chapter data table and the methodology, see the chapter-by-chapter data for Paper 1. (In passing: the same data set gives the opposite conclusion on Paper 3 — do not carry this playbook over.)

The suggested chapter order: 3 → 6 → 2

Ranked by expected lost marks from high to low, the top three chapters are:

1. Chapter 3, Principles of Insurance — [the full chain of the six

principles](/en/guide/insurance-principles) is the backbone of this chapter. Its concepts interlock and blur easily at the edges, so what it needs is volume: keep practising until the boundaries are sharp.

1. Chapter 6, Regulatory Framework — the regulatory framework of Hong Kong's insurance

industry. Not many questions, but "steeper" per question, so what it needs is precision: keep the easily confused institutions and their functions clearly apart.

1. Chapter 2, Legal Principles — 16% of the weighting and 16% of lost marks, in third

place.

These three chapters together account for roughly 72% of expected lost marks. Chapter 1 (Risk and Insurance), by contrast, has the highest accuracy rate in the paper at 79.5% and only 8% of lost marks — a final pass over it is enough. Starting from Chapter 1 and reading page by page means spending your freshest hours on the content you already know best.

How to drill: cycle the wrong answers, not one pass through

Two concrete suggestions:

First, treat your first-attempt accuracy rate as your true level. Your result the first time you see a new question measures exactly the places where "you thought you understood it, but a reworded option trips you up" — which is precisely what reading alone cannot reveal. The chapters where your first-attempt accuracy is low are your personal version of the lost-marks table above.

Second, wrong answers need to cycle — don't glance at the explanation and let them go. Redo a missed question a few days later; only consecutive correct answers count as truly clearing it. A question you keep getting wrong means the boundary of that concept has not yet taken shape — go back to the concept itself instead of memorising the answer. When you drill Paper 1 on Mange, wrong answers automatically enter the resurfacing queue and come back on this schedule.

Three common mistakes

One: spreading effort evenly. Giving every chapter the same amount of time means giving up the biggest lever there is — "two chapters account for 56%". And when time runs short, what gets sacrificed is usually exactly Chapters 3 and 6, the ones that deserve the time most.

Two: reading without practising. Between "I understood it" and "I answered it correctly" sits the rewording of options. If you never do questions, you never learn your first-attempt accuracy rate — and that is the only measurable form of readiness.

Three: treating practice accuracy as a pass-rate prediction. Practice data answers one question only — "which chapter your time should go to". It cannot, and should not, be used to estimate whether you will pass. Any conversion of that kind is wrong.

⚠️ The accuracy rates mentioned on this page are practice accuracy rates, not pass rates — the two are not convertible. The sample is 9 candidates and 7,914 answers in total (4,057 on Paper 1) — still a small sample.

Sources and currency

The official parameters (75 questions, 2 hours, multiple choice, bilingual Chinese–English) come from Handbook clauses 2.2.1 and 2.2.2; the pass mark of 70 is likewise set out in the Handbook; Paper 1 being compulsory is set out in Handbook clause 2.1.2. The syllabus and Study Notes for each paper are freely downloadable from the PEAK website and the Insurance Authority website (Handbook clauses 2.1.4 and 14.1); for examination fees and similar matters, the latest official Handbook prevails. The preparation methods and conceptual explanations are organised and written by Mange — they are not quotations from official materials or legislation. Chapter weightings are taken from the publicly available syllabus and study-note contents; answering statistics as at 2026-08-09.

Mange does not own, and does not claim to own, copyright in any official examination material; the content on this page is written by Mange. Nothing on this page is a promise about any examination outcome, nor does it constitute legal advice.