You’ve spent months on the CFP® Education (maybe years) and another few months studying, grinding through practice questions and wearing out the buttons on your financial calculator. It all leads up to CFP® Exam Day. A six-hour block of time where you lay it all on the table. No pressure, right?
The last thing you want on exam day are surprises that can throw you off and shake up your confidence, so we’re walking you through what to expect at the Prometric Center. We’re also sharing our do’s and don’ts to keep in mind.
Listen up: Adam breaks down exactly what it’s like in the Prometric Center in this BIF Bites episode, The Room Where It Happens.
First, you have to check in with a Prometric administrator who will assign you a locker to store your personal items. Then, they’ll check your ID, take a fingerprint and photo, verify there’s nothing in your pockets, and do a quick body scan with a wand—basically, it’s like being at the airport. They need to check that you are who you say you are and that you aren’t smuggling anything into the testing room, like a cell phone or other forbidden item.
You’ll also need to hand over your financial calculator for inspection, where they’ll check to make sure:
What you’re allowed to bring inside the testing room:
Okay, you’re sitting down, ready to dive into some questions. You’ve got this!
But first…you have to agree to the non-disclosure agreement saying you won’t share any exam content and that you will report any person or entity that asks you to share info to CFP Board.
Aaaaand then you have to go through a tutorial about how to take the exam.
But once you finish the tutorial, it’s go time.
The CFP® Exam lasts a total of six hours and includes 170 multiple-choice questions. It’s divided into two main parts: you’ll spend three hours on the first half, then take a scheduled 40-minute break, and finish with another three hours for the second half.
Each half is further split into two subsections—one with 43 questions and another with 42 questions. You need to complete all the questions in a section before moving on to the next. Think of it like a basketball game: you work through two quarters, have a halftime break, and then tackle the last two quarters.
Here’s the structure:
Okay, each subsection is like a mini-exam by itself. For example, once you move on from 1a to 1b, you can’t go back to 1a. You will be prompted if you’re ready to move on so make sure you’ve answered everything, and you feel good to go.
Exam pro tip: Make sure you’re paying attention to your pace to give yourself around 90 minutes for each subsection. No, this does not mean you need to budget exactly two minutes per question—some questions you’ll answer in five seconds, questions associated with case studies will take longer. Just try not to get too hung up on a single question.
Once you finish subsection 2b, you can submit the exam for scoring. A pop-up will read, “Are you sure you want to submit your exam for scoring?” Once you hit ‘Yes,’ you’re officially done with the exam (yay!) and can’t go back (yikes!). So, you will probably have a slight existential crisis, but as long as you’ve answered all the questions and don’t want to go back through to review anything from 2b, go ahead and do this.
You’ll then have to answer a short survey because you’re a captive audience as you wait for your exam results. Then, you’ll wait another few minutes. During this time, you’re Schroedinger’s CFP® professional.
If you pass the exam, you’ll get a pop-up that says “Congratulations! You’ve passed…etc.” It’s honestly a bit anti-climactic—shouldn’t there be confetti or something?
But you did it! And, you’ll get email confirmation of your preliminary pass from CFP Board shortly after your exam.
If you fail the exam, you’ll get a pop-up screen that indicates a preliminary fail result and you’ll receive an email with very high-level performance data is compiled for each CFP® exam domain.
After you get your preliminary results, you’ll exit the testing room, and report to the Test Center Administrator who may or may not give you a high-five if you passed. Then, you can retrieve your belongings, return your locker key, and whether you exit the Prometric Center as a CFP® professional or not, you did something pretty epic and should be proud of yourself.
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