GARP SCR Exam Day Tips: Last 48 Hours Before Your Test (October 2025)
- Kateryna Myrko
- Oct 21
- 5 min read
GARP SCR Exam Day Tips: Last 48 Hours Before Your Test (October 2025)
The final 48 hours before your GARP SCR exam represent a critical window where smart preparation strategy matters more than cramming. With the October 2025 exam window open from October 18 through November 2, candidates across the globe are entering their final stretch. Your focus should shift from learning new material to consolidating what you already know and ensuring you're in optimal condition to demonstrate your mastery of climate risk management concepts.
Strategic Content Review: What Actually Matters Now
At this stage, resist the temptation to deep-dive into entirely new topics or chapters you haven't studied. Instead, concentrate on reinforcing the high-weight areas that will deliver the greatest return on your limited time investment.
Climate Risk Measurement and Management consistently carries the heaviest exam weight with approximately 12-15 questions from this single chapter. This means nearly one-fifth of your entire exam comes from understanding how organizations actually measure, monitor, and manage climate-related financial risks.
Focus your review on the practical frameworks rather than theoretical nuances. Understand the distinction between physical and transition risks at a granular level:
Physical risks include both acute hazards like hurricanes and floods, as well as chronic changes such as rising sea levels and temperature shifts
Transition risks emerge from policy changes, technological disruptions, market sentiment shifts, and reputational damage as economies move toward lower-carbon models
Green and Sustainable Finance also commands 12-15 questions. Make sure you can differentiate between:
Green bonds - proceeds exclusively for environmental projects
Sustainability bonds - environmental AND social projects
Sustainability-linked bonds - performance targets, not use-of-proceeds
Transition bonds - finance transition activities for high-emission sectors
Understand taxonomy frameworks, particularly the EU Taxonomy and its role in defining environmentally sustainable economic activities.
Climate Models and Scenario Analysis represents another heavily weighted area. The Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS) scenarios appear frequently:
Orderly - early policy action, smooth transition
Disorderly - late or sudden policy action
Hot House World - insufficient action, high physical risks
Too Little Too Late - late action fails to prevent severe warming
Know not just what these scenarios represent, but the underlying assumptions about policy timing, technological advancement, and physical climate outcomes that distinguish them.
Mastering the Acronym Jungle GARP SCR October 2025 Exam Day Tips
The SCR exam has earned a reputation for being acronym-intensive. Exam questions frequently use acronyms without spelling them out, assuming candidate familiarity.
TCFD (Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures) appears constantly. Know its four core pillars:
Governance - board oversight and management's role
Strategy - actual and potential impacts on business
Risk Management - processes for identifying and managing risks
Metrics and Targets - measurements used to assess climate risks
Key frameworks:
PRI (Principles for Responsible Investment) - Six principles guiding institutional investor ESG integration
PRB (Principles for Responsible Banking) - How banks align with sustainable development goals
Key COP outcomes:
COP21 - Paris Agreement with 1.5°C and 2°C warming targets
COP26 - Glasgow Climate Pact and Global Methane Pledge
Net-zero initiatives you must distinguish:
NZAM - Net Zero Asset Managers initiative
NZAOA - Net Zero Asset Owner Alliance
NZBA - Net Zero Banking Alliance
GFANZ - Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero
Questions often test your ability to identify which initiative applies to which type of financial institution.
Understanding Question Structure and Format
The SCR exam consists of 80 equally weighted multiple-choice questions, including one case study, with four hours to complete everything. This translates to roughly three minutes per question.
The typical question pattern: Questions present four answer choices where two can usually be eliminated quickly, but the remaining two appear very similar. The key lies in precise understanding of subtle distinctions.
Common question formats:
"Which statement is correct?" - Most common format
Read each option completely - seemingly correct statements often contain a subtle error in the middle or end
Case study approach: Read the questions FIRST before diving into the case study details. Focus on identifying:
Industry sector
Geographic exposures
Stated risk types
Specific climate-related challenges or opportunities
The Memorization Challenge: Facts That Matter
The SCR includes questions requiring specific factual knowledge about historical events, policy outcomes, and institutional commitments.
What you need to memorize:
Largest greenhouse gas emitters - by country (historical and current)
Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) - specific country commitments
Net-zero targets - which nations and their target years
Carbon pricing mechanisms - which regions use cap-and-trade vs. carbon taxes
Major sustainability reporting frameworks:
ISSB standards (IFRS S1 and S2) - central to global sustainability disclosure
SASB standards - industry-specific metrics
GRI standards - comprehensive sustainability reporting
Learning Objectives: Your North Star
Each chapter begins with explicit learning objectives that represent the blueprint for exam questions.
In your final 48 hours, systematically review learning objectives for high-weight chapters. For each objective, ask yourself:
Can I explain this concept clearly?
Can I differentiate it from related concepts?
Can I apply it to a realistic scenario?
Understanding learning objective verbs:
"Define" or "Identify" - basic recognition
"Explain" or "Describe" - deeper understanding of how and why
"Apply" or "Calculate" - use the concept in practice
"Evaluate" or "Compare" - highest level, requiring analysis
Don't skip the required readings on TCFD implementation guidance, UN Principles for Responsible Banking, NGFS recommendations, and GHG Protocol accounting standards.
Time Management and Pacing Strategy
Four hours sounds generous, but effective time management remains crucial.
The two-pass approach:
First pass (150-160 minutes):
Answer every question you can complete confidently within 2-3 minutes
Flag questions that require more thought or complex analysis
Aim to answer 60-65 questions with confidence
Second pass (remaining time):
Focus exclusively on flagged questions
Give more time to case study questions
The flag-for-review function - Use it liberally. Past candidates report flagging 20-30 questions during their first pass.
Taking breaks:
No additional time is provided - time continues counting
Most candidates benefit from one break around the two-hour mark
Final Review Materials: Quality Over Quantity
In your last 48 hours, focus on high-quality review materials rather than re-reading everything.
Priority #1: GARP Practice Exam
The single most valuable review resource
Practice questions reflect actual exam style better than textbook questions
Priority #2: Your consolidated notes
If no notes exist, use the Study Guide and Learning Objectives document from GARP
Resist the urge to learn entirely new material - If you discover an unstudied topic, either skip it entirely OR do targeted surface-level review only.
The Mindset for Success
The SCR exam tests applied knowledge yet requires substantial factual recall alongside conceptual understanding.
Pass rate context:
47% in April 2024
66% in October 2024
Your goal isn't perfection—it's demonstrating sufficient competency across the curriculum's breadth
What successful candidates report:
Many felt preparation was insufficient, yet they passed
No candidate masters every detail
Breadth beats depth in this exam format
Trust your preparation:
The final 48 hours aren't the time for dramatic changes
Execute your preparation plan calmly and systematically
Your four-hour performance reflects months of work
When Exam Day Arrives
Your exam-day strategy:
Read each question completely before looking at answer choices
Read all four options fully before eliminating any
When in doubt, trust your preparation and select the option that most completely addresses the question
Your months of preparation have equipped you with substantial climate risk knowledge. Stay focused, manage your time wisely, and trust the preparation you've completed. These final 48 hours of strategic review have sharpened your readiness—now execute with confidence.
Unlock your potential with our comprehensive GARP SCR practice exams and study packages!