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6 week cram sesh for CFP. Any recommendations?
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Chief
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Tips of being more efficient?
6 week cram sesh for CFP. Any recommendations?
Chief
Conversation Starter
Tips of being more efficient?
All the best to you. I’m studying now myself targeting July as it’s been some years since I completed the course work. Doing Dalton review which I heard is pretty good. Has a Money back guarantee.
I’d say you should be in good shape if you’ve taken the Exam Readiness quiz and scored 70% or higher which is supposed to be harder than the Exam. Since you recently finished the coursework things should be relatively fresh for you.
Subreddit r/CFP is a great source. I’m sitting on Tuesday. Good luck!
Thank you !! Wishing you luck as well.
Coach
I took the Zahn review course, which was excellent, BTW.
Vice President 1's tips are right on. Here are a few more.
If you're having trouble with some formulas, write them down on index cards and take them with you. Review them in your car before you go in to take the test, then write them down on the scrap board immediately after the test begins so you can dump the info and clear your head.
Don't talk to anyone when you're waiting around to start the exam or are on your break. You've nothing to gain and everything to lose by talking to anyone about the exam, the studying experience, etc.
Check the test question numbers once you open the book. Believe it or not, one guy in our room did this before starting the exam and found that two questions were missing, and thus the answers would be incorrect on the answer sheet. It affected the test booklets across the nation. It would've been a HUGE problem if he hadn't caught it.
Take plenty of pencils.
Go through all of the questions quickly and answer the easy ones. Then go through again and answer those that will take more time, setting aside the long essay questions for the end.
Stay nourished and hydrated.
Good luck!
Greatly appreciated! God bless
Community Builder
I took Dalton, I passed the guarantee to pass exam and I still failed the first time. First exam I ever failed in my entire life. Passed it the second time a few months later though. Just manage your time. Where I messed up is I spent too much time on the very time consuming ones with multiple calculations because those are the ones I’m most confident on they just take forever to do. 40-50% of the exam you should know like the back of your hand if you studied thoroughly enough. They’ll throw some crazy ones at you on the actual exam that you’re going to scratch your head and be like wtf. Just skip those and get back to them later because there’s not going to be enough of those super difficult questions on the exam to make a difference between pass or fail. As long as you get even half the ones you were iffy about right you should be good.
Pro Tips -
1. Bring extra batteries for your calculator.
2. Do not write anything on your scrap paper until you start the exam clock.
3. If you finish Part 1 of the exam and have leftover time, use that time as a mental break (if you want/need more time that what scheduled break permits).
4. For me, I marked/skipped any long questions or cases to the end as it reduced my concern about time.
5. I read the last statement of each question before reading the question so I could eliminate info that was designed to distract me.
6. Eat a healthy snack on your break. You will feel the mental and emotional pressure.
7. Embrace the Suck! Be ready for something to go wrong on your exam day! For example…
- My exam day consisted of the proctors not providing me printouts of the formula sheet (that was allowed when I took the exam).
- Friend of mine experienced a power outage at the test center. Had to reboot all the computers.
- Another friend received an email the morning of that his exam was postponed due to inclement weather in another part of town.
- Another friend had exam time significantly delayed due to staffing shortage.
All this to say, be flexible, be confident, and enjoy the process! If you have put in the prep time then the exam will be an outflow of your efforts.
Good luck!
Thank you so much for these tips I truly appreciate them !
I’m taking it on Thursday…. My plan is to take one more full CFP test under test conditions tomorrow… check into a hotel Tuesday night… review formulas and flowcharts Wednesday… get a good nights sleep.. be hydrated and get to the site early Thursday morning
Ditto… I’ll post Friday anything I can say about the experience
Brett Danko review course all the way!
My husband and I passed today. My tips are;
Make sure you are away from distractions from now until then. We rented a hotel room near by. No clients kids or pets to distract us.
Hydrate and go to bed early. If you drink cut way back
We paid for the second test on the CFP website… expensive but very different from the first one so it was worth it but only if you have 6 undistracted hours. We did each problem and checked the solution immediately.
During the test… relax, stay on pace and roll your eyes at stupid questions. Don’t bog down on math questions.. do them twice and if your answer isn’t there go B for boy or C for cat but move on.
Take your 40 minute break to relax, hydrate, eat a snack. Do not look up answers of things you think you did wrong.
Good luck and can’t wait to see you post on the 8th about how you passed.
Congrats to you both.
Is dalton better than Kaplan?
Someone who used Kaplan initially some years ago and was not successful then used Dalton and was successful swears by them. They prep you on what you need to know to pass the exam.