How to Pass the CFP Exam: Staying Fresh and Breaking Through the Practice Question Ceiling

In this interview, we hear AJ's story of his first two attempts at the CFP Exam after studying with just practice questions and how our group class made all the difference to passing on the third try. Watch the whole interview here or read some key sections below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxJ5GC6nkw8

So when was your first attempt at the exam and how did you go about studying for it?

Yeah, so my whole life I never studied for a test. I didn't really care about grades in high school at all. So my first time studying for a test was this series 65. And that was just take as many questions as you can and you'll pass it. And so I took that same approach towards my first attempt at the CFP exam in July of 2023 I believe. Or maybe it was 24, I don't remember, but one of the July exam cycles. I I just sat down and said, "I can I can take, you know, if I hit a thousand practice questions, for sure I'm going to pass this test." And I paid for a review program and they said, "Oh, you should aim for taking 2,000." And I said, "I've done it when 1,000. I'm good."

So, how did that attempt go?

Brutal. I think I passed one section and it was, actually I don't even remember what section it was, but barely passed, you know, you can kind of see I barely passed that one and completely bombed everything else. I walked out thinking I don't know anything about finance. How did I even how am I doing this? I knew nothing.

So, what was your second attempt like?

My second attempt was just this past March cycle, and I spent January 3rd, I want to say, through the last day of the window. I took the exam on the last day, and every single day I was doing questions. I didn't keep track exactly how many questions I actually took, practice questions I should say, but I mean, thousands, I don't know. The weekends, I took every Monday off. And so I'd spend Friday night, Saturday, Sunday, Monday. Each of them were 12 plus hour days of just a question every minute. That was the goal. If I can get a question a minute, then I'm on pace to pass the exam. It wasn't about actually learning the material. It was just there's nothing they could ask me that I'm not that I haven't been asked before.

Okay. Certainly a results by volume approach. Okay. So, how did that attempt go?

So I thought as I was going through, I thought I was doing a lot better and I did. I did a lot better, but it still wasn't good enough to pass.

What was kind of happening in your head that led to our initial conversation and us meeting?

It really came down to the fear of I've got five attempts. So, after doing that was literally I knew I could not handle going through another cycle of that amount of volume, and so I tried to figure out other ways. I thought I had done everything I possibly could and so I started kind of looking outside and on LinkedIn, you had started popping up for me throughout that first window or that second window in March and I thought okay cool you know maybe if I don't pass I'll reach out to this Joe guy see what he's got to say or start paying attention to him.

What was your impression of our first interaction? I remember your assessment. I remember you kind of being a little bit in shock. Were you shocked? Was it in line with what you thought was going on?

I was in complete shock. I remember that you gave me a few practice questions, and I could not figure out how to answer them, and that was a little bit of a shock to the system. And then you kind of called me out for it. And I've kind of gone on this journey, you know, I would say I didn't really have a mentor that was kind of guiding me through like, oh, this is what you should be doing. It was all just, yeah, take as many questions as you can. And so you saying, "clearly that's not working, you can't solve these simple questions" was really a good wakeup call. But then you also kind of showed me how we learn, and I went home and asked my parents [who are educators] and told them what you told me, and they said, "Yeah, if he's got some reviews from others and he's following this model, then he's probably trustworthy and you should give him a shot." I said, "Okay, I'll do anything you ask me to."

And I asked you to do a lot. The first thing that I said to you is we got to work on your fundamentals. What stood out in your head from fundamentals that was different than what you expected? In some of those assignments you I remember you coming back and going this was an easier one and some of the assignments you came back going what the hell did you just give me?

Yeah. Exactly. Some of them specifically the first one, I sat down and I think I did it all in like an hour and I was like okay this is what it's going to be like. And then the next one I tried to do the same thing and it was shock. I couldn't figure it out.

Yeah, I mean it's kind of messed up because I think we all go in with this idea that we know a lot more than what we do because we can answer multiple choice questions, and certainly if you put something in front of me, I can kind of wiggle my way into figuring it out when you give me a choice of four, but then when it's radio silence, you're like, I don't know where to start. And, for you what we worked on is getting those steps down, especially in fundamentals. So, fundamentals is over. We come back in September. We start our group class. What were your initial impressions of our first four weeks of class where we kept it in the open answer format so you were certainly used to that but then the intensity went up?

Yeah, it was it was a lot of intensity for sure. So you kept reminding me I'm not allowed to go over that three hours of studying every day and that was really hard for me because I felt like I needed to spend more time if I was going to get everything done.

Yeah, we want you to be focused, right? That's the intensity part. Remember, we talked about structure, consistency, intensity. If I give you five hours to study, you'll figure out how to fill five hours. Doesn't mean that it's necessarily the best thing to do is but we really wanted to kind of keep you intense and force you to do it. Did you feel like the open-answer part of the first half of class was something that helped you make more connections with the content?

Yeah, definitely. That open answer part I think was key. It wasn't all clicking yet, but having all of this information and bringing it together from different aspects... Rarely was this a fundamentals question. It was a holistic approach to everything. How does this relate?

So then, we obviously close up phase one of class and transition into challenging your critical thinking in class with the class assignments and going from 60 to 80 to 100 questions. How do you feel that contributed to your success on the exam?

That was really hard for me actually. That was a lot harder than any of the open-ended questions. The multiple choice questions, for some reason, I didn't have that stamina anymore, and I would start to break down after 30, 40 questions. So, I think having those days of doing so many questions, I think that was key in the end. And at that point, you're bringing it all together. And you know, the cumulative days where I felt like, man, I just failed the last two sections. Why can't I go back and do it? Well, then the cumulative days is like oh, this is how it all connects. It was huge for me.

It's easy to get lost in the topics, just work general principles for five straight days and then you start looking at investment questions that you haven't looked at in a week and you're sitting there going, I don't remember any of this. And so we never wanted you to get too far away and continually connected cumulatively. So let's talk about your last mock exam which was an absolute nightmare scenario but I ultimately think it was a blessing in disguise. So just kind of share with everybody what happened.

Yeah. So, it was really really hard. So, I've got a newborn. He's just 6 months old right now. And so we had a really rough couple of nights before that and then that night was really really rough. And I woke up and I knew it was the day and I had already made it work with my job, and I knew I couldn't move it, and it today was the day and I just wasn't feeling it. And then I sat down and took it and I just couldn't get it together. Whether it was the test itself or me or I'm positive it was both. I just could not figure it out. Every question was hard. And I bombed it. So afterwards, you know you click next and it's supposed to show you your score or maybe it emails it to you. That email never came through that day. I called the CFP board and they were helping me work through it, but it took a few days for it to actually come through. So in the meantime, I'm calling Joe crying on the phone. I can't do this. I'm going to drop out. I'm going to postpone. There's no chance I'm gonna pass this test if the test is remotely as hard as that one. Just everything. I couldn't do it.

I almost think it was a blessing that you didn't see that score because you were kind of going I don't know if I can do this. Should I delay? And then somewhere in there, I think your wife said, "You're taking March."

Yeah. She said, "I'm not going through this again. You are taking this exam, and if you don't pass it, we're going to wait." So I said, "All right." So I buckled down, and I think on your mock, the second one we took, you kind of walked me through like, "You're right there. You just needed just that one little extra bit. Here's what you need to study." You gave me exactly what to work on and I grinded that out and I kept revisiting it. And then I took the paid mock and that one killed me. But you gave me some tips. You said on my hard questions, maybe don't hit them right away. If it's just brutally hard, skip it. You can come back to it later. What we realized is I got so hung up on one question or a couple of questions that I let it affect me through the rest of the exam.

I'm really happy you said that because I feel like that is something that is a crutch for a lot of people. Just talk a little bit about that because we tended to notice that when you got through when you had a rough patch, you really hit a rough patch and even on stuff that you would normally get right. So tell everybody a little bit about what was happening on those mock exams and then how you fixed that.

Yeah. So really once you started pointing that out to me, I really noticed and I don't know why like it could be a simple question after a hard one or two and I just would completely bomb it. That strategy - if you have a really hard question just skip it - that was a game changer. Then I was fresh for every question. When I just try to hammer out every single question back to back to back, I question this one and then I'm still thinking about it as I go through and I'm thinking, if that one's this, then maybe this one's actually changed. And you can't do that. Every question's on its own. I was able to just focus on each one individually. I really think that was the key to me passing it.

It's such a crucial thing to learn how to manage your energy on the exam because when we start making silly mistakes, you end up missing a word, misreading a sentence, not really putting together what the question is asking. We say it all the time in class. You got to read the question. Because a lot of times what appears to be a very difficult question may not end up being an actually difficult question. But more importantly, if it is a difficult question and you know you have three or four of them in every section of your exam and you're just battling those three or four, you're leaving another 40 questions on the table that you want to be fresh when you get to. Tell me a little bit about what the exam experience was like and how you managed your energy throughout the exam.

Yeah, so that was my key, that was one of my goals going in is I need to have the energy through every question. But I remember you said to expect a hard question and I went in expecting a hard question and it just didn't throw me off and so I was able to get through the first section. And then I was feeling good going into the second section and so I just started on it right away. Did the same thing. I personally feel like I got a really hard exam, but I knew the answers. I guess it finally clicked Monday morning because I knew all the answers for the test. Obviously, we'll never know, but that's how I felt. Just nothing surprised me. I caught the little, you know, if something's plural or the one word that changes the question, I caught all of them.

So you hit the submit button, you see the pass, you call me. I'm assuming you called your wife first. So, you call your wife, you hang up, you pick up the phone, you call me. I mean, to hear the elation in your voice, you were like, I don't know if it was happiness or relief or both. Isn't it the best moment?

Yeah. Yeah. And it didn't end for days. I felt like I put so much effort into this test. I just was on cloud nine for probably a week. It felt so good to be done with it. To one pass it and then also to just finally be done with the whole process. Felt so good.

So now looking back at this process, what are some pieces of advice that you would give to somebody who's going to take this exam in 2026?

I have been telling all of my buddies that are trying to get started and looking to start the exam process to work with you. I think that was my key. Everything I learned from you was the key to the exam. And I wouldn't have gotten those keys to passing without working with you. And so, like those key being separate, right? Don't get hung up on the hard questions, but really it comes down to learning the material. Don't just go take 20,000 practice questions and think you know it. And you'll probably get pretty close. I was. I passed some areas and I bombed some areas. So I maybe I could have done it and passed on the fifth try. I didn't want to chance that. Learning the actual material and being confident that now I really I know what I'm talking about in all of these different areas. That part was huge.

Yeah, I say this all the time. Being close is the biggest trap that doing practice questions will put you into. I've been doing these interviews all week with your classmates and it seems like everybody at some point came to that conclusion. You're tapped out at that point. It doesn't matter more time, more energy, more effort. If you don't change something, it's not going to change. And the crappy thing about it is you end up capping yourself like three points below passing. And it's just the biggest trap that everybody gets into. It takes maturity and wisdom to go, I need to change something and I need to suffer through it. Even though this feels worse than doing practice questions, it's the thing that's going to get me over the hump. And sticking with it is way harder than just going back and reverting back to your old habits. So now, what are you looking forward to most now that you're on the other side? Besides not studying, I'm sure your wife is also happy that you're not studying.

Yeah, you know, being the holidays, it's nice this year. Last year, I spent the holidays studying. This year I don't have to do that. The year before last, I think I was still in school actually. I was studying for something. It's always been studying, studying, studying. This year I don't have to study. I'm just we're going to go hang out with family and I'm going to actually hang out with family instead of claim to be there, which is always nice.

That's great. I'm so happy for you. It's one of the best parts of this job and to say that I'm proud of you is an understatement because I know there was a lot of doubts and ups and downs along the way and you stuck through it and I know that's much harder than just kind of putting your head down and not questioning things. You trusted the process. You were coachable, and I'm thrilled that you got the result that you were looking for.

Thank you, Joe. I seriously can't thank you enough. Like, I wouldn't have been able to figure it out. I mean, maybe I eventually would have passed on, but I was nowhere near the ability that I am now. So for both the test and actually my career both are just on another level.