re: CFP September Exam

I thought about becoming a CFP in retirement, but the 3 year experience requirement turned me off. I’m 62 and had no desire to wait that long. I just wanted to help some people who needed it.

It’s certainly possible but you’ll be making some sacrifices. If you’re good with time management then go with it, if not then stretch it out to March.

I began the Dalton process in Nov ‘19 and the courses I tried to get through as quick as possible. I retained about 40% of my info when I got into the review. I was set to take the exam in July but they postponed it to September due to covid so that gave me another 2 months of study in the review, which I needed.

You’ll need a solid 8 weeks in the review process with studying around 3-4 hours a day to get to where you need to be. If you want to take weekends off then increase study time 1-2 more hours a day.

I never attended any live classes and just watched pre recorded classes (or reading) for 1-2 hours in the morning and then did 1-2 hours of questions/practice exams in the evening.

Late in the review I shifted my practice exams to the morning but fridays were my heavy days. I was trying to train my brain to be prepared for that Friday morning I took the exam. The hardest part of this is interpreting what the hell the question is actually asking you and then forcing yourself to take your time on it. It’s mentally exhausting and you have to be prepared for that.

You’re gonna be fine. Solid plan but I will say it’s harder to front load this bc some of it doesn’t really mesh until you get into the review. Plus the review has a whole lot more practice questions to spend time on and you’ll be spending time on learning how the questions are asked.

I did around 8k questions in the review portion alone.

Thanks. Did you purchase any outlines from Dalton or anyone else? I saw they offered something for $99 and was thinking of buying that now since that would probably help me focus on what is important on the backside when preparing for the exam.

Bump for those that have taken the CFP. My current timeline is end classes in mid August and study for exam in November.

Work is taking a toll on me right now with being able to stay on pace with the reading for the courses, but I am able to get through the online class portion and use the outlines to get by.

I noticed a huge difference in my ability on Fundamentals exam where I read and reviewed for every class and insurance where I was using outlines only and watching the classes later and cramming.

Would you say that I should push the CFP exam back from November to March and take an extra month on the course section to read everything or would you continue to push through and just get to the CFP review mid August and buckle down there and try to stay on time for that November exam.

Trying to gauge the importance of reading all 4,000 pages of this or if I should just survive and advance through the coursework and really focus on the actual CFP prep portion with that timeline.

I speed read through the books. I didn’t want to miss that information but at the same time it was very time consuming. I focused more attention on the practice questions in the book however. I also got through the course material as quickly as I could and really slowed down when I got to the review.

When I first got to the review I took the readiness quiz and think I got like a 41%. I had planned to sit for the July ‘20 exam but it was postponed till September (which was a blessing for me). So I think I had 3.5 months in the review phase and 10 months total from start to finish.

Hope this helps, keep the questions coming.

I’d say you’re overdoing that but to each his own. I made myself familiar with the info in the reading and learned it in the class.

Personally, I did the classes on my own time. Get through the material and start taking as many review questions as you can. You’ll find your weak spots in the questions and then review the material you’re weak in.

I always did questions in the morning to train my brain to be prepared for that test in the morning. I’m also a very quick test taker, I mark and move on. I had to literally force myself to slow down and re read the question. I saved myself on 8 questions in the real test because of that.