Current CAMS Exam Format

Current CAMS Exam Format

The Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS) exam, issued by the Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists (ACAMS), contains 120 questions delivered in a single 3.5-hour (210-minute) session. That budget works out to roughly 105 seconds per question, but you should aim to spend under 90 seconds on knowledge-recall items so you bank time for the longer scenario questions. The exam is built on the CAMS 6th Edition study guide, the current edition you should be reading.

Questions come in two formats. Most are standard multiple-choice items with four options and one correct answer. A meaningful share are multiple-selection items that instruct you to 'select two' or 'select three' — partial credit is not awarded, so you must get every required choice right. Watch the stem carefully: a multiple-selection item that you treat as single-answer is an easy avoidable loss.

The four weighted domains

The blueprint splits 120 questions across four domains. Memorize the weights — they tell you where to invest study hours.

Domains 1 and 3 together are 60% of the exam, so typologies, red flags, customer due diligence, suspicious activity reporting, and program design deserve the most preparation time. 'AFC' stands for anti-financial crime, ACAMS's broader framing that now covers fraud, sanctions evasion, bribery, and tax crime alongside classic money laundering.

Scoring and guessing

CAMS is scored on a scaled 0-100 system with a passing score of 75 — this is not a raw percentage. The number of correct answers needed to reach 75 is set by psychometric equating across exam versions, so you cannot reverse-engineer it to an exact raw count. There is no penalty for guessing: an unanswered question and a wrong question score identically, so you should never leave an item blank.

A practical pacing plan:

• Pass 1: answer everything you know quickly; flag anything that takes more than 90 seconds.
• Pass 2: return to flagged items with your remaining time.
• Final 5 minutes: ensure every question has an answer, especially multiple-selection items where a missing second choice scores zero.

Common traps

• Treating a 'select two' item as single-answer and submitting one choice.
• Assuming 75 means 75% correct — it is a scaled score, not a raw percentage.
• Spending too long on a single tough item early and running short on the scenario-heavy back half.
• Forgetting that the exam tests judgment: when two answers look defensible, the best risk-based answer wins, not the most aggressive one.

The exam result is delivered immediately at the test center or online proctor as a pass/fail outcome; ACAMS does not release a question-by-question breakdown.

How the question styles differ

The exam blends two cognitive tasks, and recognizing which one a question demands is half the battle.

Knowledge-recall items ask you to define a term, recognize a red flag, or recall a rule — for example, identifying what 'layering' is within the three stages of money laundering (placement, layering, integration), or recognizing that a structuring pattern involves breaking deposits below a reporting threshold. These reward memorization and should be answered quickly.

Scenario/application items give a fact pattern — a customer, product, jurisdiction, and a transaction — and ask what a compliance professional should do next. Here the right answer reflects proportionate, risk-based judgment: name the risk, choose the control or escalation that matches it, and respect communication limits such as tipping-off rules. The most dramatic option (file everything, close every account) is rarely correct; the documented, defensible action usually is.

A worked pacing example

Suppose you have answered 80 questions in 130 minutes and flagged 14. That leaves 80 minutes for 40 unseen plus 14 flagged items — roughly 1.5 minutes each, which is comfortable. If instead you spent 150 minutes on the first 80, you are now rationing under a minute per remaining item, which is where careless mistakes appear. This is exactly why the two-pass strategy matters: protect time for the back half where scenario questions cluster.

Domain interplay

The four domains are not silos. A typology you recognize in Domain 1 (Understanding the Risks) frequently becomes a Domain 3 question (what program control addresses it?) and a Domain 4 question (what monitoring or screening technology detects it?). When you review a missed practice item, write down the domain, the underlying risk, the responsible function, and the next control or evidence step — that habit converts isolated facts into the integrated reasoning the exam rewards.

Quick-reference exam facts

Keep this snapshot memorized for the day:

These anchors rarely change between cycles, but ACAMS occasionally adjusts the blueprint, so verify the current handbook before your sitting. Treat the format itself as something you can recite without thinking, so that on exam day every minute of mental energy goes to the questions rather than to logistics. Candidates who walk in unsure of the time limit or question count waste early minutes orienting themselves — minutes that belong to the scenario-heavy second half.