Last Minute Tips to Pass the CFP® Exam

    Joseph M. Gillice|Mar 19, 2014

    Last Minute Tips to Pass the CFP® Exam

    With only two more days remaining until the March 2014 CFP® exam, here are a few tips to help ease the stress and anxiety as exam day approaches.

    • Take it easy Thursday night. If you’ve studied a number of hours throughout the day on Thursday, use Thursday night to rest, relax and take your mind off of the exam. If you don’t know the exact location of the exam site, maybe take a drive to the location to see if there are any construction delays or to make sure you know exactly where you are going.

    • Friday morning can be used to study and work more questions. Do not work too many questions though, maybe a set of 30-50 questions. Remember, you have a four hour session on Friday afternoon and you want to be fresh for that long session.

    • Don’t bring lots of study material with you in the car. Only bring a stack of flashcards that give you the most trouble. Study those flashcards right up until the last minute. The second you can start the exam, in your exam booklet, write down those last minute items you memorized. That will help relieve some stress on those topics because you wrote them down and you can refer to it later, if necessary.

    • Friday night, try not to look through your study materials to determine if you answered a question correctly or not. It’s just not productive and not a good use of your time. Instead, use some time Friday night to study topics that give you trouble and were not tested during Friday’s session. For example, if you struggle with the ISO and NQSO rules and there weren’t any questions on Friday’s exam, then re-study that topic Friday night because you’re almost guaranteed to see questions on that topic during Saturday’s sessions.

    • Don’t talk to anyone before the exam or at lunch on Saturday. Some people will be asking questions about topics or questions they don’t know and somebody will always try explaining what they think is right. Don’t listen, don’t participate, it only causes anxiety and they don’t know what they are talking about. Have confidence in what you know!

    • Finally, and most importantly, be confident! There will be questions and topics that you don’t know about. If you haven’t heard about the topic, chances are nobody else has either! In addition, there always seem to be one session on the CFP® exam that is more difficult than the other sessions. Don’t worry, you can miss approximately 90 questions and still pass the exam. Now, be confident in what you know and go pass the exam!!!



    Joe Gillice

    President, CPA, CFP®



    Instructor Joseph M. Gillice

    Joseph M. Gillice

    MBA, CPA, CFP®

    Mr. Gillice is a co-founder and President of Dalton Education, LLC. Previously, Mr. Gillice was Director of University Programs for BISYS Education Services, where he implemented and managed financial planning programs at Georgetown University, Duke University and many others. Mr. Gillice is a former adjunct faculty member at Georgetown, Northwestern and Duke Universities where he taught financial planning, insurance and investment planning. He is the author of Financial Calculator Essentials, co-author of Fundamentals of Financial Planning, The Dalton Review Pre-Study Materials in Investment Planning and Fundamentals of Insurance Planning. Mr. Gillice has a Master of Business Administration from Georgia State University and a finance degree from Florida State University.

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