How Important are CFP Exam Flashcards?

I am often asked about flashcards for the CFP exam and if they are helpful in preparing for the CFP exam.

The short answer is ABSOLUTELY!  Regardless of your learning style, flashcards are very helpful in building your foundation of knowledge.  Flashcards help you to memorize/learn key terms, concepts, facts, figures and mnemonics.  Whether you’re making your own or purchasing pre-made CFP exam flashcards, they are a must for any successful study plan. 

Most of us are visual learners, which means we learn best by reading or seeing.   Studies show that about 65 percent of us are visual learners; 30 percent are auditory and 5 percent are tactile learners.  While we can be a combination of the three, we all have a predominant learning style.  Flashcards appeal to both visual and tactile learners.  Visual learners are reading/seeing the terms and concepts, while tactile learners should be making their own flashcards. 

When considering whether to make your own CFP exam flashcards or purchase pre-made CFP exam flashcards, here are some important considerations.

Making Your Own CFP Exam Flashcards

• Writing out your own flashcards is great if you’re a tactile learner.  The process of creating, “doing” and writing out the terms and concepts is very helpful for tactile learners.
• Writing out your own flashcards is time consuming.  Consider that you’ll need at least 500 flashcards to prepare for the CFP exam, at 2 minutes per flashcard, it will take 16+ hours just to make the cards and that doesn’t consider spending time studying the cards.

Pre-Made CFP Exam Flashcards

• Pre-made CFP flashcards are useful because they tend to be more comprehensive and detailed than you might make on your own.  If a concept has five key bullet points, flashcards you make on your own may only have the top 1 or 2 bullet points, whereas the pre-made flashcards will have all five bullet points.
• Pre-made CFP flashcards also save you time and let you start immediately memorizing/learning the terms and concepts.
• Pre-made CFP flashcards are best for anyone who is short on time and is looking for that extra “something” to help their studies.
• With pre-made CFP flashcards, you don’t have to guess as to what’s important and what flashcards to make.  The most important terms and concepts are already included with pre-made CFP flashcards.

Regardless if you decide to make your own flashcards or purchase pre-made, please be sure to utilize flashcards as part of your studies for the CFP exam.  Consider all the time and money you have to invest to pass the CFP exam.  Anything extra you can do to put yourself in a position to pass the exam on your first attempt is well worth it!

As for The Dalton Review® CFP exam flashcards, there are 490+ flashcards covering the most important terms and concepts.  If you are not going to make your own cards, then give these a try CFP Flashcards-Study Products for the CFP Review Exam.  You’ll also notice that when going through The Dalton Review® pre-study materials for the CFP exam, there are lots of exam tips.  The exam tips will instruct you to make a flashcard of a mnemonic or concept.  With The Dalton Review® CFP exam flashcards, we have already created the flashcards for you.  The flashcards are very comprehensive and a huge time saver.

I hope this was helpful.

Regards,

Joseph M. Gillice, CPA, CFP®