I’m often disappointed but seldom surprised by the policies of some CFP exam review providers. Wouldn’t it make sense to choose a review provider that will stick with you if you’re not successful on the exam? Wouldn’t it make sense for a review provider to be confident in their instructors, materials, methodology and offer a guarantee that you’ll pass the exam, otherwise you can take the review again for free? Of course it makes sense! Any quality review provider with good pass rates would ALWAYS offer their students free repeats. The only reason a review provider would not offer free repeats is if too many of their students aren’t passing the exam and the percentage of students retaking their reviews is too high and the review provider doesn’t have enough first time “paying” students relative to “free” retake students. Some review providers will try to get around the issue by offering a 50% discount if you want to take the review again. Any review provider that believes in themselves and their students will offer 100% free repeats. If a CFP review provider doesn’t offer free repeats, they don’t trust themselves and they don’t trust their students.

Let's consider why a review provider would NOT offer free repeats. Let's take the Kaplan CFP review for example. They use to have a free repeat policy, but they recently changed the policy to charge repeat students 50% of the review fee. Why do you think they changed the policy? Well, we already know that the national pass rate on the CFP exam is 50-55%, so let's say they had a review class of 20 students, but 50% of those students are retaking the review because they were unsuccessful on the exam. So only 10 students are actually paying for the class. The economics of offering a review would make the class unprofitable because of too many “retake” students. So, instead of changing their materials or review methodology to improve their pass rates, they just change their policy to charge students for retaking the review. Like I said, I’m often disappointed but seldom surprised by some CFP exam review providers.

At The Dalton Review^® for the CFP exam, we have always offered free repeats and we’re able to do it because our pass rates are consistently 70-80% and it’s the right thing to do for our students. As a matter of fact, we have two guarantees:
1.    We Guarantee Your Success – otherwise take the review again for free.
2.    Guarantee Your Own Success – take our review twice before you even take the exam.

The Dalton Review^® course currently costs $1,195, including all materials and students are able to take the review multiple times, at no additional cost. We trust our instructors, materials and methodology, but most of all, we trust our students to follow our study plan and ultimately be successful on the CFP exam.

NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF CONTINUING STUDIES

TO OFFER TWO NEW FINANCIAL PLANNING PROGRAMS

e-CERTIFICATE INFINANCIAL PLANNING AND

David Mercurio, Director of ProfessionalDevelopment Programs for Northwestern University School of Continuing Studies announcedtoday two new programs.  The e-Certificate in Financial Planning andthe Online Executive Certificate inFinancial Planning Programs will be offered by the school beginning immediately.

The e-Certificate in Financial Planning Program is a liveonline program that represents an innovative approach to education during whichstudents and instructors attend a virtual classroom and communicate using aheadset and voice-over IP technology. This program is a live, instructor-led financial planning educationprogram. Students can take classes from the comfort of their homes or offices,without worrying about traffic, parking or leaving work early. 

The Online ExecutiveCertificate in Financial Planning Program is designed for students who preferself-paced learning and are too busy to commit to regularly-scheduled classmeetings.  This program also allows thestudent to go in as much depth on topics as they want or lightly cover thetopics they already know.  This variablelearning method will result in students being able to successfully complete theprogram in as much or as little time that they need, in order to gain a completeand thorough understanding of the material.

Northwestern University School of Continuing Studies offersthese programs in partnership with Dalton Education, a leading provider offinancial planning and education materials for financial planners.  

“A partnershipbetween Northwestern University School of Continuing Studies and Dalton Education brings together twoorganizations committed to excellence in financial planning education,” saidJoseph Gillice, president of Dalton Education.  “The e-Certificate in Financial PlanningProgram and the Online Executive Certificate in Financial Planning Program offer students, from anywhere in the country, the opportunity to attendone of the country’s premier financial planning education programs.”

According to the Occupational Outlook, employment as afinancial planner is expected to grow by 30% between 2008 and 2018.  The e-Certificatein Financial Planning Program and theOnline Executive Certificate in FinancialPlanning Program will assist both financial professionals and personschanging careers to enter this rapidly growing profession.

For additional information about these programs at NorthwesternUniversity School of Continuing Studies, please contact Matt Hlinak at (312) 503-0714.  Program registration is currently inprogress.

Students that begin a CFP Education program on January 1, 2012 or later will be required to complete a Financial Plan Development and Presentation course.  The CFP Board is requiring this course to be 45 contact hours or equivalent to a 3 credit hour course.  The course will require students to gather client data, analyze, evaluate and present recommendations.  Students that start their CFP Education as late as December 31, 2011 will not be required to complete the Financial Plan Presentation course.  Another important change is that challenge candidates (CFA, CPA, ChFC, CLU, CEBS, DBA) will be required to complete the Financial Plan Presentation course in order to sit for the March 2012 exam, or later.  If a challenge candidate registers for the November 2011 CFP exam as a “challenge candidate”, but does not pass the November exam, they will not be required to complete the Financial Plan Development and Presentation course to take the exam in March 2012 or later.

According to the CFP Board, “this capstone course requirement has been designed to enhance the knowledge, skills and abilities of individuals seeking to attain CFP^® certification and implement an assessment of their ability to deliver professional and competent financial planning services to the public.”

The Financial Plan Development and Presentation course does not impact the requirements to pass the CFP exam.  This course is simply a requirement, as part of the education requirement, to sit for the CFP^®Certification Examination.  Dalton Education will be offering a a blended self-paced and live online option for students to satisfy this new education requirements.  For more information, please watch this video, or feel free to contact us if you have any questions (877) 426-2373.

Thanks,

Joseph M. Gillice, CPA, CFP^®
President
Dalton Education, LLC
o: (877) 426-2373 x224
f: (877) 884-4711
c: (770) 851-8209
http://www.dalton-education.com
http://www.thedaltonreview.com

I’m often disappointed but seldom surprised by the policies of some CFP exam review providers. Here’s the issue, when considering which review provider to trust enrolling with, wouldn’t it make sense to choose a review provider that will stick with you if you’re not successful on the exam? Wouldn’t it make sense for a review provider to be confident in their instructors, materials, methodology and offer a guarantee that you’ll pass the exam, otherwise you can take the review again for free? Of course it makes sense! Any quality review provider with good pass rates would ALWAYS offer their students free repeats. The only reason a review provider would not offer free repeats is if too many of their students aren’t passing the exam and the percentage of students retaking their reviews is too high and the review provider doesn’t have enough first time “paying” students relative to “free” retake students. Some review providers will try to get around the issue by offering a 50% discount if you want to take the review again. Any review provider that believes in themselves and their students will offer 100% free repeats. If a CFP review provider doesn’t offer free repeats, they don’t trust themselves and they don’t trust their students.

Let's consider why a review provider would NOT offer free repeats. Let's take the Kaplan CFP review for example. They used to have a free repeat policy, but they recently changed the policy to charge repeat students 50% of the review fee. Why do you think they changed the policy? Well, we already know that the national pass rate on the CFP exam is 50-55%, so let's say they had a review class of 20 students, but 50% of those students are retaking the review because they were unsuccessful on the exam. So only 10 students are actually paying for the class. The economics of offering a review would make the class unprofitable because of too many “retake” students. So, instead of changing their materials or review methodology to improve their pass rates, they just change their policy to charge students for retaking the review. Like I said, I’m often disappointed but seldom surprised by some CFP exam review providers.

At The Dalton Review^® for the CFP exam, we have always offered free repeats and we’re able to do it because our pass rates are consistently 70-80% and it’s the right thing to do for our students. As a matter of fact, we have two guarantees:

1. We Guarantee Your Success – otherwise take the review again for free.
2. Guarantee Your Own Success – take our review twice before you even take the exam.

The Dalton Review^® course costs $1,195, including all materials and students are able to take the review multiple times, at no additional cost. We trust our instructors, materials and methodology, but most of all, we trust our students to follow our study plan and ultimately be successful on the CFP exam.

One of the keys to being truly “exam ready” for the CFP Exam is to work as many sample practice CFP exam questions as possible.  There are a number of benefits to working practice CFP exam questions; here are a few:

• It gives you an opportunity to practice what you know.
• It will identify what you don’t know.
• By getting questions right (and wrong) you are also learning the subtleties of how questions can be asked and how they should be answered.
• Sometimes there are differences between academic and real world questions, such as margin trading and how much equity an investor is required to contribute under a margin call. 

I remember a students saying to me one time... “I know the material.  I know the material when you teach it and I know the material when we work a question in class.  However, when I work a problem on the same material by myself, I get it wrong.”  My response was, “Then you really don’t know the material.  You need to change the way you’re thinking and keep working practice questions on the topics you think you know.  Once your scores are 70%+, then you “know the material,” so keep working the practice CFP exam questions.”

I would suggest that at least half of your preparation time for the CFP exam should be spent working sample CFP exam questions.  As a benchmark, that means spending about 100 hours, working about 3,000 questions in total.  As part of The Dalton Review^® for the CFP exam, we have approximately 1,500 questions in our pre-study materials and another 1,500 questions in our Online Examiner Test Bank.  Many of the questions in the pre-study materials and the Online Examiner Test Bank were developed by former members of the CFP Board of Examiners.

Click below if you would like to receive a sample of 50 CFP exam questions from The Dalton Review’s Online Test Bank.

Sample of Practice CFP Exam Questions from The Dalton Review Online Test Bank
 
You will be asked to provide your email address and the sample CFP exam questions will be emailed to you.

I hope you’ll find these practice questions useful as you prepare for the CFP exam.

Joseph M. Gillice, CPA, CFP^®
President
Dalton Education, LLC