Well, I feel better after taking CFE that I did last time. I think I got around 58 of the available 100 points. For my previous 2 FSA exams, I estimated that 54 or 55 percent of the available points was the pass mark, so hopefully I can squeak by on this one.
As for the exam, I felt the morning session was pretty fair, and the afternoon session was pretty rough. Based on comments online that seems to be a pretty universal feeling. For the morning session, I felt that if you studied the material you would have a decent grasp of most of the things they were asking for. In also felt the morning questions were pretty creative approaches to the material and I enjoyed reading and thinking about them. The afternoon session was not like that. I thought it was more representative of what a very difficult version of the exam would look like. I’m not saying it was unfair, but more on the highly challenging level.
So, we shall see how results go. In the meantime, I’m going to work on my final module and the DMAC, and start to review the syllabus for the next exam once it is released.
If you are waiting on results as well, good luck!
Wednesday, October 29, 2014
Wednesday, October 15, 2014
CFE update
It’s been a while since the last update! I took CFE in the Spring, and had the same types of issues with structuring my studying that I had with ERM. I just never felt like I had a great strategy except for “learn as much as possible”. While that is a nice goal to have, it really doesn’t help break down into weekly and daily goals, except for the very basic “Study this section this day” division of material.
I ended up with a 4 on the Spring sitting of CFE. I don’t quite know how to feel about that. There were two questions I COULD have gotten the points on that would have gotten me to passing. One was a question that referred to the case study but it never occurred to me that the factor I needed to make my math work was something I had to pull out of the case study. I was pulling apart the problem back and forth, knowing I could do it, and I never figured out what I was missing. Right after the exam I asked someone else who took it about the question, and they mentioned that the factor I needed was in the case study. Doh! I never even thought to look there, though it should have been obvious. There was another question that was entirely devoted to a topic I could not recall anything about. If I had been able to get some points on that question, and get the calculation factor from the case study I would have been very close to passing.
So, the good news is I had a good shot to pass in the Spring, even though I did not. I don’t know how to feel about that. Should that give me confidence? I suppose it should, but given a new set of questions on a new set of topics, I can’t assume I’m starting from a 4 and working my way up, I have to assume I am starting from 0 again, and while it is good to know I scored a 4 once, I can’t assume I will just be able to do that again.
As mentioned above, I still have no idea how to feel about preparedness for these exams. Oh, how I long for the days when I knew I could do 70% of the practice questions on a prelim! I feel like I know a lot of the material, but there will always be sections, subsections, lists, etc., that I don’t know yet! So as I prepare, I always have that feeling like I DON’T know things, which is both discouraging but also motivating as it keeps me focused on trying to learn the next thing. The only real strategy I have figured out for these exams is to learn as much as possible about everything, which is ok with me as I am genuinely interested in the material, but I am never going to be able to really master every topic and calculation. To risk stating the obvious, I hope to know enough to score a 6 and be able to move on.
For anyone who is curious, my study strategy for FSA exams has basically boiled down to this:
13 Days left for me. Hopefully, all of you who are reading this – both current day and in the future – are finding the motivation to keep working hard until exam day!
I ended up with a 4 on the Spring sitting of CFE. I don’t quite know how to feel about that. There were two questions I COULD have gotten the points on that would have gotten me to passing. One was a question that referred to the case study but it never occurred to me that the factor I needed to make my math work was something I had to pull out of the case study. I was pulling apart the problem back and forth, knowing I could do it, and I never figured out what I was missing. Right after the exam I asked someone else who took it about the question, and they mentioned that the factor I needed was in the case study. Doh! I never even thought to look there, though it should have been obvious. There was another question that was entirely devoted to a topic I could not recall anything about. If I had been able to get some points on that question, and get the calculation factor from the case study I would have been very close to passing.
So, the good news is I had a good shot to pass in the Spring, even though I did not. I don’t know how to feel about that. Should that give me confidence? I suppose it should, but given a new set of questions on a new set of topics, I can’t assume I’m starting from a 4 and working my way up, I have to assume I am starting from 0 again, and while it is good to know I scored a 4 once, I can’t assume I will just be able to do that again.
As mentioned above, I still have no idea how to feel about preparedness for these exams. Oh, how I long for the days when I knew I could do 70% of the practice questions on a prelim! I feel like I know a lot of the material, but there will always be sections, subsections, lists, etc., that I don’t know yet! So as I prepare, I always have that feeling like I DON’T know things, which is both discouraging but also motivating as it keeps me focused on trying to learn the next thing. The only real strategy I have figured out for these exams is to learn as much as possible about everything, which is ok with me as I am genuinely interested in the material, but I am never going to be able to really master every topic and calculation. To risk stating the obvious, I hope to know enough to score a 6 and be able to move on.
For anyone who is curious, my study strategy for FSA exams has basically boiled down to this:
- Read the source material
- Read the study guide
- Make notecards or review purchased notecards
- Review past exam questions, noting the types of questions asked and the calculations asked for
- Try to distill the material into digestible chunks. For the ERM exam I wrote my own study guide, but I have only done about half of one for CFE – I just don’t find the material as adaptable to writing up on my own. For CFE, I am going through each section and determining whether it is best served by notecards or just reading the study guide (for sections that are too dense to easily make cards from)
- Review what I put together in step 5 and continue to review past exam questions I noted as significant in step 4.
- Use my last bit of available energy to take the exam, crossing the finish line collapsed flat on my face with one hand over the line. (In my head, this is similar to an image of cartoon character I remember from my younger days, but I can't quite place the memory to find the exact image.)
13 Days left for me. Hopefully, all of you who are reading this – both current day and in the future – are finding the motivation to keep working hard until exam day!
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
Passed ERM Exam, onto CFE!
So I passed the ERM Exam with a 6. Yay!
Ok, the time to celebrate is over. I'm going to take Foundations of CFE in the spring. I'm using TIA as my study material this time around. I am signed up, and there aren't any videos yet! There is a study manual though, so that is enough to chew on for now. The first wave of videos should be available this weekend.
Good luck to all of you who are studying for spring!
Ok, the time to celebrate is over. I'm going to take Foundations of CFE in the spring. I'm using TIA as my study material this time around. I am signed up, and there aren't any videos yet! There is a study manual though, so that is enough to chew on for now. The first wave of videos should be available this weekend.
Good luck to all of you who are studying for spring!
Thursday, January 9, 2014
First FSA exam thoughts, waiting for results!
I’m awaiting my result for the ERM exam – it will be released tomorrow! I never provided any additional updates or thoughts on the exam, so I’ll share them while I wait.
I found that FSA exams are very different beasts to prepare for. For a prelim exam, you get a group of practice questions, keep working on those so you can learn more and more concepts, and you have a pretty good idea when you are ready to take the final exams. For FSA exams? No such structure!
As I mentioned in the last post, I finished the reading towards the end of August, and then I had two months left and no real structure (ie get 70% on practice questions, etc). I found that very difficult to deal with, as I never really knew where I was in my studying. I ended up both buying flashcards and making my own “study manual”, both of which helped a lot. When I say I made my own study manual, what I really mean is I took concepts from the texts and flashcards and put the main ideas in my own words. Doing so really forced me to understand the concept and helped expose weaknesses.
I found the flashcards were really helpful at first, but after a while I couldn’t memorize anymore! I bought the ACE flash cards (which I liked a lot), and there were about 300 cards. I was able to memorize the first 60 or so, but after that I just couldn’t memorize additional cards. I still reviewed the flashcards to try to learn the concepts, but I just didn’t have the capacity to store any more information verbatim.
So, towards the end of September and into October I was very frustrated, stressed, and discouraged. As I mentioned, with the prelim exams I was always very organized, structured, and had a specific plan. I couldn’t figure out an organized plan for FSA exams, and it made studying very difficult. To compound things, given that I was so frustrated, I found it difficult to put time into studying! I would take certain nights off entirely, or when I did study I would end up quitting earlier than usual just because I didn’t have specific goals/identified weaknesses, etc. So, my study hours were not what I would have liked. You might think memorizing flashcards would be a specific goal, but as I said I just couldn’t use that approach after a while.
I would up discouraged, tired, and essentially limping in to the final week. The only thing that really kept me focused to any degree was the project of making my own manual. I ended up reviewing all the concepts, thinking about how to structure the information, and using that as my main study document.
The morning of the exam I was resigned to my fate, prepared to take it again in the spring. I remember sitting in Panera, having a bagel, and taking one last look at my study document to try to absorb what I could, but mostly thinking the document would be a good start for spring studying.
I went to the exam center, and as the exam started I was actually pretty relaxed due to my acceptance of my fate. As the exam started, I read the questions during the 15 minute reading period and little by little realized I could answer some of the questions. I started writing furiously, figuring I could at least get some of the points and make a good showing. As I completed some questions, I would look at the remaining questions and realize for most of them I could provide an answer that would at least get some, if not all, of the points. I ended up writing until there was 3 minutes left, and felt pretty decent about my exam. I did end up totally making up answers to a few questions that I knew were incorrect in the hopes of maybe getting a point for getting a small part correct, but I saved those to the end and made sure the answers I was more sure of were completed first.
On the exam itself, there were 80 possible points. I felt like I had about 38 of them for sure, a good chance at another 17, and maybe I’d pick up a few of the remaining 25. I have no idea how many I’d need to pass, I’d guess 50 or 55, but perhaps it could be as high as 60 (of the 80). So, assuming my estimates are correct I should at least have a chance of passing. We shall see tomorrow!
Going forward, I’m not sure what I would change next time around or how my strategy will change. I will start working on my own study manual and on flash cards starting from day 1, but it remains to be seen if that will provide more structure and less stress!
I found that FSA exams are very different beasts to prepare for. For a prelim exam, you get a group of practice questions, keep working on those so you can learn more and more concepts, and you have a pretty good idea when you are ready to take the final exams. For FSA exams? No such structure!
As I mentioned in the last post, I finished the reading towards the end of August, and then I had two months left and no real structure (ie get 70% on practice questions, etc). I found that very difficult to deal with, as I never really knew where I was in my studying. I ended up both buying flashcards and making my own “study manual”, both of which helped a lot. When I say I made my own study manual, what I really mean is I took concepts from the texts and flashcards and put the main ideas in my own words. Doing so really forced me to understand the concept and helped expose weaknesses.
I found the flashcards were really helpful at first, but after a while I couldn’t memorize anymore! I bought the ACE flash cards (which I liked a lot), and there were about 300 cards. I was able to memorize the first 60 or so, but after that I just couldn’t memorize additional cards. I still reviewed the flashcards to try to learn the concepts, but I just didn’t have the capacity to store any more information verbatim.
So, towards the end of September and into October I was very frustrated, stressed, and discouraged. As I mentioned, with the prelim exams I was always very organized, structured, and had a specific plan. I couldn’t figure out an organized plan for FSA exams, and it made studying very difficult. To compound things, given that I was so frustrated, I found it difficult to put time into studying! I would take certain nights off entirely, or when I did study I would end up quitting earlier than usual just because I didn’t have specific goals/identified weaknesses, etc. So, my study hours were not what I would have liked. You might think memorizing flashcards would be a specific goal, but as I said I just couldn’t use that approach after a while.
I would up discouraged, tired, and essentially limping in to the final week. The only thing that really kept me focused to any degree was the project of making my own manual. I ended up reviewing all the concepts, thinking about how to structure the information, and using that as my main study document.
The morning of the exam I was resigned to my fate, prepared to take it again in the spring. I remember sitting in Panera, having a bagel, and taking one last look at my study document to try to absorb what I could, but mostly thinking the document would be a good start for spring studying.
I went to the exam center, and as the exam started I was actually pretty relaxed due to my acceptance of my fate. As the exam started, I read the questions during the 15 minute reading period and little by little realized I could answer some of the questions. I started writing furiously, figuring I could at least get some of the points and make a good showing. As I completed some questions, I would look at the remaining questions and realize for most of them I could provide an answer that would at least get some, if not all, of the points. I ended up writing until there was 3 minutes left, and felt pretty decent about my exam. I did end up totally making up answers to a few questions that I knew were incorrect in the hopes of maybe getting a point for getting a small part correct, but I saved those to the end and made sure the answers I was more sure of were completed first.
On the exam itself, there were 80 possible points. I felt like I had about 38 of them for sure, a good chance at another 17, and maybe I’d pick up a few of the remaining 25. I have no idea how many I’d need to pass, I’d guess 50 or 55, but perhaps it could be as high as 60 (of the 80). So, assuming my estimates are correct I should at least have a chance of passing. We shall see tomorrow!
Going forward, I’m not sure what I would change next time around or how my strategy will change. I will start working on my own study manual and on flash cards starting from day 1, but it remains to be seen if that will provide more structure and less stress!
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