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Hong KongAn 8-week HKSI Paper 1 study plan, week by week
Eight weeks at 12 hours a week is our default Paper 1 plan: Topics 1 and 2 in week one, Topic 3 across weeks two and three, Topic 4 in week four, the codes in week five, exchanges and capital in week six, then two weeks of mocks and repair. Roughly 100 hours all in.
Why eight weeks, and why 12 hours
Twelve hours a week is about two hours on four weekdays and a four-hour block at the weekend. Most people with a normal job can hold that for eight weeks. Ten weeks at ten hours is gentler and works just as well; twelve hours over twelve weeks is more comfortable still, which is why we wrote a separate 12-week version for people working long hours.
The eight-week shape exists because of one number: 66. That is how many second-level headings the v3.5 syllabus contains across its nine topics. Topic 3 alone is 11 of them and Topic 4 is another 10, so a third of the syllabus sits in two topics. Any plan that gives every topic equal weeks is wrong before it starts. None of these hour figures come from HKSI, which publishes the syllabus and the pass rate but no study-time guidance. They are ours.
The eight-week table
| Week | New material | Hours | Review layer | Questions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Topics 1 and 2 - regulators, HKEX, legal system, Companies Ordinance | 12 | None yet | 20 on Topic 1 |
| 2 | Topic 3, first half - Preliminary to capital and client assets | 12 | Topic 1, 15 minutes a day | 20 on Topic 3 |
| 3 | Topic 3, second half - conduct to disclosure of interests | 12 | Topic 3 week-two Parts | 30 on Topic 3 |
| 4 | Topic 4 - licensing, client money, records, regulated activities | 12 | Topics 1 and 2 | 30 on Topic 4 |
| 5 | Topics 5 and 6 - the SFC codes, AML, internal controls | 12 | Topic 3 | First full mock |
| 6 | Topics 7 and 8 - exchanges, listing, takeovers | 12 | Topic 4 | 30 mixed |
| 7 | Topic 9, then your two weakest topics | 12 | Topics 5 and 6 | Second full mock |
| 8 | Nothing new | 10 | All nine, at speed | Third mock, early in the week |
What the review layer actually is
The fourth column is the part people delete first and regret. It is 15 to 20 minutes at the start of each study session spent on material you covered two or three weeks ago, before you touch anything new. Not re-reading. Recall - cover the page, say what Part V governs, then check.
Without it, week eight becomes a panic re-learn of Topic 3, which you last saw in week three and have mostly lost. With it, week eight is a tune-up. The cost is about 90 minutes a week. It is the highest-return 90 minutes in the plan, and the mechanics are set out in spaced repetition for Paper 1.
Week five feels early. That is the point. A mock in week five leaves you three weeks to act on what it tells you; a mock in week seven leaves you one, and a bad score with one week left mostly produces anxiety rather than change.
What a single week looks like
| Day | Length | What you do |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | 2 hours | Review block, then the week's first two syllabus headings |
| Tuesday | 2 hours | Review block, then two more headings |
| Wednesday | Off | Genuinely off. A scheduled rest day is why the plan survives to week eight |
| Thursday | 2 hours | Review block, then the remaining headings |
| Friday | Off | Optional 15 minutes of cards on the commute |
| Saturday | 4 hours | Consolidate the week: notes into one page, then the week's question set |
| Sunday | 2 hours | Mark and understand every question you got wrong. Every one |
Sunday is not padding. Going through wrong answers properly takes longer than answering the questions did, because a wrong answer is only useful once you can say which of the four options you were confused between and why. "Careless" is almost never the real reason.
Where this plan tends to break
Week three. Topic 3 is long, the language is dry, and the novelty of studying has worn off by then. People slip a session, then two, then decide to "catch up at the weekend" and never do. Build one buffer evening into weeks three and six and use it only for catch-up. If you do not need it, take it off.
The other failure is subtler and it is the one we would argue about. People spend weeks two and three reading the study manual straight through instead of working heading by heading, and by week five they have read everything and can recall nothing. Reading the manual cover to cover is the most common way candidates waste six weeks. Use it as a reference you open when a question exposes a gap, not as a book.
Concession: if you genuinely have no background in Hong Kong financial regulation, one fast read of Topics 1 and 3 in week one does help orient you. Fast. Two evenings, no highlighting, no notes.
Adjusting the plan after your first mock
The week-five mock gives you a topic breakdown. Use it mechanically.
- Above 42 out of 60 already - hold the plan, add a third mock, and spend the freed hours on the two lowest topic scores rather than on everything.
- Between 30 and 42 - normal at week five. Keep going. Convert the week-six review slot to your weakest topic.
- Below 30 - stop adding new material for three days and re-do Topics 3 and 4 with questions in front of you. A low score at week five is recoverable. A low score at week seven usually is not.
- Ran out of time before question 60 - that is a technique problem, not a knowledge one, and it is fixed with timed practice rather than more reading.
Common questions
Is eight weeks enough for HKSI Paper 1?
For most candidates, yes, at around 12 hours a week. That is our recommendation rather than an HKSI figure. It gives one clean pass over all nine topics, a review layer, and three timed mocks with room to act on the first one.
Can I compress this into six weeks?
You can, by merging weeks one and two and cutting the week-six review, but you lose the buffer that absorbs a bad fortnight. If six weeks is genuinely all you have, the four-week plan's priorities are a better guide than a squeezed eight-week one.
What if I miss a whole week?
Do not try to repeat it. Skip forward to the current week's material and pick the missed topic up in the review layer instead. Falling permanently one week behind is what turns a missed week into an abandoned plan.
How many practice questions should eight weeks include?
Around 200 topic questions plus three full 60-question mocks. Volume matters less than what you do afterwards: an hour spent understanding 30 wrong answers beats an hour answering another 60 questions you never review.
Should the first mock really be at week five?
Yes. Its job is diagnosis, not rehearsal. Sitting it with three weeks left means a weak topic can still be fixed. Candidates who save their first mock for the final week usually learn something true and useless.