When to start mock exams?

Everyone has their own best way of studying and I can only speak for myself, so take this for what it’s worth. My habit was to start the readings in January and hope to finish them by mid-March. Then I would take the rest of March and April doing as many practice problems as I could get my hands on. This is actually a very effective way to review readings and try to get a better understanding of how the material is likely to be tested. I preferred to save mock exams – especially the ones available through CFAI – until May or late-April at the earliest. I didn’t see the point in “wasting” a good mock exam before I felt likely my understanding of the material was reasonably close to where it was going to be on exam day. There are few experiences more depressing for candidates than sitting down to write a mock exam and encountering questions that you have no idea how to answer because you need to spend more time covering the material.

Of course, the timeline is a bit different this year because the exam is later, which means that you should feel even less pressure to be writing mock exams now (assuming you find the above comments helpful). Mock exams, at least good ones, are in short supply and there is no harm in saving these until you’re within five or six weeks of the big day.

genetemp said:

Jumping in on this topic: when is the latest that is recommended that we should start mock exams? It’s taking a bit longer than expected for me to finish up. I’m still stuck in Equity and not touched at least half the topics…

I find that about 4-6 weeks before exams should work best. I would try and finish up studying the curriculum completely by then regardless of thoroughness.

Thanks both! I’m still only about 50% through but will aim to finish by end of this month…

@genetemp It can be tricky to find the ideal time to do mock exams. Do them too early and you may not have obtained enough knowledge to fully benefit from the experience. Do them too late and you minimize the opportunity to learn from the mistakes you make (while also maximizing the potential for panicking in reaction to making mistakes).

Personally, I would say that leaving mock exams until within 2 weeks of the exam is not advisable.  At the other end, unless you feel that you already have a comprehensive understanding of every topic (something I doubt that any candidate ever could honestly claim), starting mock exams more than 8 weeks before the exam is probably also not advisable. As unscientific as this sounds, you want to have a good rhythm to your studies as you build up to exam day.

For a June 23rd exam date, starting mock exams in early/mid-May is probably about right.

I agree that a “Questions first, readings later” can be helpful for Ethics – or at least more helpful than for other topics. Overall, I’d say that you appear to be well positioned and taking April to do practice questions before starting mock exams in earnest sometime in May is a very reasonable approach.

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Jumping in on this topic: when is the latest that is recommended that we should start mock exams? It’s taking a bit longer than expected for me to finish up. I’m still stuck in Equity and not touched at least half the topics…

That sounds like a reasonable timeline, provided it works for you. Where are you with the readings?