About the CCIM Comprehensive Exam
Key Takeaways
- The Comprehensive Exam is the final step to The CCIM Designation and is administered in person over one day, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., with check-in at approximately 7 a.m. and instructions at 7:45 a.m.
- A grade of 70% or better is passing; results post to the Grades tab of your ccim.com account by 4 p.m. on exam day, and passing candidates attend the Pinning Ceremony that evening.
- The exam is open book — digital or printed CCIM textbooks and materials are permitted — but internet use is prohibited and a cell phone may not be used as a financial calculator.
- The exam fee is $410; candidates who do not pass may retake it the next day at no cost, subsequent retakes are $75, and up to four retake attempts are permitted.
- The CCIM Institute does not publish an item count or a pass rate for the Comprehensive Exam; it does state that 25 percent of the exam is drawn from CI 104, with the four Designation courses weighted evenly.
About the CCIM Comprehensive Exam
[!NOTE] Read this before Chapter 1. Every other chapter in this guide teaches content. This one teaches the test: who administers it, what you must finish before you can sit for it, what you may carry into the room, and how the six-hour clock shapes the way you should study. Candidates lose the exam on logistics far more often than on theory.
What the Exam Is
The Comprehensive Exam is administered by The CCIM Institute, a commercial real estate affiliate of the National Association of REALTORS® headquartered at 430 North Michigan Avenue in Chicago. The Institute describes the exam as the very last step to earning The CCIM Designation: it validates your knowledge of the concepts taught in the four Designation courses, CI 101 through CI 104.
It is not a licensing exam. Passing it does not grant a right to practice; it confers a professional designation — the CCIM pin — on candidates who have already completed a case-study-driven curriculum and documented real transactional experience.
| Attribute | Published Standard |
|---|---|
| Administering body | The CCIM Institute |
| Delivery | In person only, at a scheduled national location — no online option |
| Frequency | Twice a year in the United States (spring and fall), or as needed internationally |
| Schedule | One day, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.; check-in typically 7 a.m., instructions 7:45 a.m. |
| Format | Multiple choice, delivered on your own laptop through the Institute's online course platform |
| Item count | Not published by the Institute on its Comprehensive Exam page |
| Passing grade | 70% or better |
| Results | Posted to the Grades tab of your ccim.com account by 4 p.m. on exam day |
| Exam fee | $410 |
| Content weighting | Four Designation courses weighted evenly; the Institute states 25 percent of the exam is drawn from CI 104 |
[!IMPORTANT] On the question count. You will find confident-sounding item counts circulating on third-party prep sites. The CCIM Institute does not publish one on its Comprehensive Exam page, and this guide will not invent one. Plan your pacing against the six-hour clock and the four evenly weighted courses, not against a question count you cannot verify.
What You Must Finish Before You Can Sit
The exam sits at the end of a sequenced pathway. Candidate members must complete every item below before registering.
- CI 101: Financial Analysis for Commercial Investment Real Estate — the prerequisite for CI 103 and CI 104. Introduces the CCIM Cash Flow Model, IRR, NPV, cap rate, capital accumulation, and the annual growth rate of capital.
- CI 102: Market Analysis for Commercial Investment Real Estate — market and competitive, political and legal, location and site, and financial analysis across office, industrial, multifamily, and retail.
- Negotiations Training — eight hours on The CCIM Institute Interest-Based Negotiations Model, required before CI 103 and CI 104. Satisfied by the online Preparing to Negotiate course or the one-day classroom course Commercial Real Estate Negotiations.
- CI 103: User Decision Analysis — comparative lease analysis, lease versus purchase, lease buyout, and sale-leaseback from the occupier's perspective.
- CI 104: Investment Analysis — the annual refinance, capital improvement, and disposition decisions, plus sensitivity and risk analysis.
- Online Ethics Course — covers the CCIM Code and Standards of Practice and also satisfies the NAR Code of Ethics requirement.
- Two full elective credits from the Robert L. Ward Center for Commercial Real Estate Studies. Continuous candidacy earns 1.0 elective credit for each 12 consecutive months of membership, and the Core Concepts Review earns a full credit.
- Portfolio of Qualifying Experience, approved.
- Dues-paying Institute Candidate membership — $695 per year.
[!WARNING] The self-paced restriction. Effective January 1, 2019, the Designation cannot be earned solely through self-paced courses. At least one of CI 102, CI 103, or CI 104 must be taken instructor-led — classroom, virtual, or online instructor-led. Candidates who complete everything self-paced discover the gap only when they try to register for the exam.
The Portfolio of Qualifying Experience
The Portfolio documents that you have achieved the minimum level of commercial-investment experience required for the designation. Candidate members may begin compiling it any time after passing CI 101, and it is reviewed twice a year, in the spring and fall, ahead of each U.S. Comprehensive Exam. A transactional portfolio must meet one of three volume thresholds:
- Three or more qualifying activities totaling $30 million or more; or
- Exactly ten qualifying activities totaling $10 million or more; or
- Twenty qualifying activities with no dollar-volume requirement.
The submission fee is $175. Once approved, you must complete your first Comprehensive Exam attempt within two years or the approval is voided and the portfolio must be resubmitted.
The Fast Track Exemption
Professionals who already hold a qualifying industry designation may join as Fast Track Institute Candidate members and earn the Designation without the elective credit and portfolio requirements. Qualifying credentials include AACI, ALC, CLO, CMB, CFA, CRF, CPM, CRE, FRI, MAI/SRPA, RICS (MRICS or FRICS), RPA, and SIOR. Fast Track members have 24 months from joining to complete CI 101-104, negotiations training, and the Ethics course, then sit for the exam.
Cost of the Full Pathway
The Institute publishes 2026 tuition, effective January 1, 2026.
| Item | Member | Non-member |
|---|---|---|
| Institute Membership | $695 | $695 |
| CI 101: Financial Analysis | $1,299 | $2,299 |
| CI 102: Market Analysis | $1,529 | $2,329 |
| Negotiations Training | $370 | $475 |
| CI 103: User Decision Analysis | $1,499 | $2,299 |
| CI 104: Investment Analysis | $1,499 | $2,299 |
| Ethics Course | Included | $49 |
| Portfolio Submission Fee | $175 | $175 |
| Comprehensive Exam & Two-Day Review | $1,220 | $1,220 |
| Total | $8,286 | $11,810 |
The $1,220 line is the $410 exam fee plus the $810 Core Concepts Review. Only members may submit a portfolio and sit for the exam, so the non-member column represents taking coursework first and joining later — a path that costs $3,524 more.
The Core Concepts Review (CCR)
The CCR is optional, but the Institute reports that the majority of test-takers attend. It costs $810, runs two days in person (8 a.m. to 5 p.m.) or across four sessions virtually in the days before the exam, and fulfills a full elective credit — which means a candidate who still needs an elective is effectively paying for two requirements at once. Online materials open 30 days before the start date.
Exam-Day Rules: Open Book Is Not Open Internet
The exam is open book. Students may use digital or printed CCIM textbooks and materials. Internet use is prohibited.
Generally permitted: a laptop with power supply, up to two monitors no larger than 17 inches each, a numeric keypad, a financial calculator with spare batteries, a tablet in airplane mode positioned upright so proctors can see the screen, blank or CCIM pre-populated Excel spreadsheets, Adobe Acrobat or Reader, and an offline financial-calculator emulator.
Prohibited: any website or domain, cell phones and smart watches, using a phone as your calculator, headphones, and communication with anyone other than a CCIM representative. Email or text messaging during the exam results in disqualification.
[!CAUTION] Open book is a time trap, not a safety net. Six hours across four courses leaves no room to look up concepts you have not internalized. Reference materials are for confirming a formula or a threshold — not for learning one. Candidates who search their PDFs question by question run out of clock. Build a one-page formula sheet and a tabbed index before exam day, and use the books three or four times, not thirty.
If You Do Not Pass
The retake policy is unusually forgiving, and knowing it removes a great deal of exam-day anxiety.
- Candidates who do not pass may retake the exam the following day at no cost, and are offered a session with instructors to review strategy beforehand.
- A candidate may instead retake at another nationally scheduled session for $75.
- Retaking the CCR costs $380.
- Candidates have up to four retake attempts.
How the Format Should Shape Your Study Plan
Three structural facts drive everything:
- Even weighting across four courses. CI 104 supplies 25 percent, and the remaining three courses divide the rest evenly. There is no "safe" course to skip. A candidate who is excellent at CI 101 financial mathematics and weak at CI 102 market analysis is carrying a 25 percent hole.
- Applied, integrated items. The exam validates the CI 101-104 concepts, and the courses themselves are built on integrated case studies. Expect to move between a cash flow model, a lease structure, and a market absorption assumption inside a single scenario rather than answering isolated definitional questions.
- Calculator fluency is non-negotiable. Every financial answer runs through an HP-12C, a TI BA II Plus, or an offline emulator. Keystroke hesitation is the single most expensive habit in a timed open-book exam.
Work Chapters 1 through 4 of this guide for CI 101, Chapters 5 through 8 for CI 102, Chapters 9 through 12 for CI 103, and Chapters 13 through 16 for CI 104 — then close the books and re-derive the CCIM Cash Flow Model from memory.
A CCIM candidate has completed CI 101, CI 102, CI 103, CI 104, the online Ethics course, and eight hours of negotiations training. The candidate holds no other industry designation and has been a dues-paying Institute Candidate member for 14 months. What else must be satisfied before the candidate may register for the Comprehensive Exam?
A candidate is planning what to bring to the Comprehensive Exam. Which combination of materials and devices is consistent with the Institute's published exam policies?
A candidate sits for the Comprehensive Exam in the fall and scores 66%. What are the candidate's options under the Institute's published retake policy?