ALERT for CFP® Candidates – Add Points to Your Score
CFP® Certificants in the News
Those planning to take the CFP® Exam must be aware of how recent changes to the exam structure could affect your score. We will identify the exam change and the takeaway that could add points to your score.
The Exam Change
The CFP® Exam was traditionally structured as a 170-question, six-hour test with one three-hour morning section and one three-hour afternoon section. Each section was comprised of 85 questions. Recently, this structure changed. The total testing time remains six hours and the total number of questions remains 170, but the morning session and the afternoon session are now divided into two subsections each. We have highlighted this change in the following excerpt from the CFP® Exam Candidate Handbook.
“Each section of the exam is divided into two distinct subsections, and an optional unscheduled break may be taken between those subsections.
Candidates can move back and forth within each subsection. However, once the next subsection begins, candidates will not be allowed to access the previous subsections of the exam.”
Your Takeaway
Effective exam-taking techniques include the judicious skipping of long, complex questions. The theory is that you should answer all of the moderately low-hanging fruit questions before tackling complex or time-consuming questions, such as the notoriously long two-student college funding calculation. In the author’s opinion, this skipping technique remains sound but must be adapted to the new exam structure. Now, when a new subsection begins, you cannot go back and answer any skipped questions from the previous subsection.
Your takeaway - Be sure to come back and answer any skipped questions in the current subsection before the next subsection begins!
