Fri, May 16, 2008
Hallelujah! I passed the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ certification exam!
Having taken the grueling 10-hour exam in March, I knew that it was getting close to the time when results are released. Naturally, the envelope in the mail this afternoon from the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc. caught my attention immediately.
By the time I took the exam, I felt as though I’d studied as much as I could; taking it was a relief. While the subject matter itself was not the hardest of any I’ve ever been tested on, the exam definitely took more out of me than any exam I’ve ever taken. After the third exam session (there was a four-hour session on a Friday, then two 3-hour sessions the next day), I left the building with the distinct feeling that my brain was sore. I was mildly encouraged by the fact that I’d finished with a few minutes to spare, but after ten hours of mind-numbing questions about tax planning, qualified retirement plans, portfolio selection, the Capital Asset Pricing Model, etc., I just wanted to go out to dinner with my wife. We had an excellent meal at Zocalo Cocina Mexicana in Arlington.
Later when I did start going back over the exam in my mind, it seemed that all I could remember were questions that I was pretty sure I’d gotten wrong! But apparently, I got enough right to pass the exam. According to the letter I received, the national pass rate for the March 2008 exam was 57.3%, which as you can see from the graph (based on data from cfp.net) on exam pass rates is in line with the rates over the last decade or more (my apologies for the poor graph quality).
The exam requirement was instituted in 1992; about 7,300 people sat for the test last year. The exam is graded on a pass/fail basis using a rather complex scoring method.
I hasten to add: I’m still not yet a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional even though I have passed the exam. I have to obtain more work experience; until then I’m only allowed to call myself a “candidate for CFP® certification.” The Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards is very particular about the use of the CFP® certification marks, as you may have noticed in this post. The last line of my exam notification letter contains a stern warning about this, so I intend to be careful.
Anyway – I passed! Thanks to all of you who prayed for a good outcome!
Anybody want to buy a set of CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ certification exam review books??
Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards Inc. owns the certification marks CFP®, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ and federally registered CFP (with flame design) in the U.S., which it awards to individuals who successfully complete CFP Board’s initial and ongoing certification requirements.