10 Most Important Points to Know Before Taking CMFAS Exams

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10 Most Important Tips to Know Before Taking CMFAS Exams

Taking the CMFAS examination is time-consuming. No matter you are a fresh graduate or veteran in the field, taking CMFAS examination requires a lot of time and effort to acquire the examination concepts.

In this guide, we have formulated the most important tips for you to prepare the CMFAS exam.

1. When should I start studying?

You are required to reserve at least 2 months to prepare for the CMFAS examination. It is because the CMFAS examination requires a lot of memorizing in data and facts. You will need much quiet time to sit down and memorize all the important information for your examination.

2. How should I arrange my study schedule?

Your study schedule is divided into 2 major part. The first part is to read the study guide and manual. The second part is to complete the practice test. It is highly recommended to spend half of the time on the study manual and the other half on the practical test.

For example, if you have 2 months to prepare for your examination, you may devote 1 month to read the study manual and to memorize the important facts and figures. The other month will be devoted to the practical test. Considered that you need to work on weekdays and you one have 1/4 of the time to study, in one month, you will have (4 weeks X 5 days X 1/4) = 5 days to study. If you will free up all weekend in the month (8 days), you will have 14 days in studying the manual. But please be reminded that you still need to balance your life with different entertainments, gathering, etc. Therefore, 14 days is just enough for your preparation in either studying manual or doing the practical test.

3. What if I don’t have time to study?

If you are really running out of time, say its only 2 weeks to the examination and you have done nothing. We would suggest you skip the study manual and shift to complete the practical test directly. It is because all the examinations of CMFAS are Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ). While the study manual contains all the lengthy paragraphs which are hard to be digested, the practice tests will become the most efficiently and easy-understand way for preparing the final examination.

Our practice tests are comprehensive and you can grab all the important concepts, facts, and figures of each CMFAS examination syllabuses easily and effectively by doing the test. Most importantly, our practice test is designed nearly the same as the real CMFAS examination. Through completing our examination questions, you will understand more about the trick of IBF in setting the questions so as the examination format. On the other hand, if you are running out of time for your study and you choose to pursue the study manual, it is highly likely that you cannot complete the whole syllabus of the examinations. At the same time, you will not have an idea about the way IBF sets their MCQ and the examination format.

4. The study sequence

Very often candidate tends to start with chapter 1 when they begin their study. This could be a good idea if you have sufficient time. However, if you want to speed up your study progress we recommend you to make use of question bank and reference to the official study.

Let’s face it, it is very easy to forget what you have read when you study the official manually. Not to mention it is far less entertaining than any of the comics or novels. You will miss the key concepts and not sure what you have missed until you take the exam. Always prepare your examination by taking the question bank directly and make reference to the official manual for answers.

5. What should I be aware of during the examination?

As we mentioned before, all modules under CMFAS examinations are in MCQ. That means you need to be aware of the number of questions, time and passing score of each examination. Please pay attention to the passing score. It could different from module to module. Some of the modules have a passing score of 75% and some have 70%.

Let’s take the Module 1A examination as an example. Below is the examination details.

Format: 100 MCQs (computer-based)
Duration: 2 hours
Pass mark: 75%

From the above information, first, you need to calculate the time required to complete each of the questions. The time required is: (2 hours X 60 minutes /100 MCQs) = 1.2 minute. You need to be very conscious of the time as you have only 1.2 minutes to complete each MCQs. More importantly, you need to get 75 questions correctly in order to pass the examination. It is quite difficult as you have limited time to complete the examination with high accuracy. This is also the reason we suggest you prepare the examination for at least 2 months. And practical tests are a crucial factor for you to be familiar with the examination format and to answer the MCQs quickly.

6. Is it difficult to pass the examination?

It depends on how much effort you put in for the preparation. As mentioned, the CMFAS examination questions test your memorization on facts and figures. Memorization requires hard work instead of logical thinking. Therefore, how much time you spent on the preparation decides how much score you got from the examination. While the passing rate of each CMFAS examination ranges from 70% to 75%, the percentage is quite high. As a result, you are strongly recommended to complete all the MCQs in our practice test and familiarize yourself with the examination format.

7. What if I fail the examination?

All the CMFAS examinations are computer-based. Once you complete the examination and time is up, you will know your final result straight away.

If there are unfortunate events that you fail the examination, you will need to pay for a repeat fee in order to retake the examination. Luckily, there is no limit of time in retaking the examinations given you have to pay for the repeat fee every time.

8. Always refer to the official study guide

Spending time on question bank is useful. However, it is useless to memorize the question and answer without knowing the underlying concepts. It is because the questions from IBF changes very frequently and no one single book or question bank in the market will provide the exact same questions for the candidate to memorize. Therefore, always make reference to the latest study guide when you prepare your exams.

9. Read the question twice before answering

We cannot stress how important it is to read at least twice the questions before answering. Very often candidate tends to pick the answer at a first glance. Like the old saying, the devil likes in the details. CMFAS questions are designed in a way that it tends to trick the candidate into answering the wrong answer. Make sure to read at least twice the question before you select the answer.

10. Leverage the key study notes

Not all content requires memorization. However, some specific information requires the candidate to know the exact figures. If you spend most of your time in memorizing questions that do not require memorization, it will be a waste of your energy and time.

While we, CMFASExam have extracted the key area of concepts for you to study, you may also prepare your own study flash card. Copy them into notes and read anywhere while you are free.

Wish you success in CMFAS examinations, you may also hover in the menu bar for CMFAS free trial questions.

Bonus: What Modules To Take

Make sure you take the correct exam, otherwise you will be wasting your time in preparing an exam that is not required:

  • Deal in Securities (via an SGX-ST Member): Modules: 1A, 6, 6A
  • Deal in Securities (non SGX-ST Member): Modules: 1A, 6, 6A
  • Trade in Futures Contracts (SGX-DT Member): Modules: 2A, 6A
  • Trade in Futures Contracts (Non SGX-DT Member): Modules: 2A, 6A
  • Engage in Fund Management: Modules: 3, 6
  • Engage in REIT Management: Modules: 10
  • Advise on Corporate Finance: Modules: 4A
  • Advise on Corporate Finance (Solely Debt Securities): Modules: 4B
  • Engage in Leveraged Foreign Exchange Trading: Modules: 1B, 6A
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Aidan Atkinson

Aidan Atkinson

Anthony is the Senior Exam Consultant in CMFASExam

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