If you have followed the program and completed all of the individual curriculum readings by now, you deserve a massive pat on the back! However with the content from 61 individual readings sailing around in your head, it is no surprise if you are feeling a bit anxious as to whether or not you can remember all of the material. Don’t worry too much, as when prompted in the actual exam setting, you are likely to surprise yourself recalling all sorts of obscure details, that you can’t consciously retrieve right now. Please remember to record your results in your week 15 progress report.
Let’s look at a few general pieces of advice for the last 6 weeks of revision before getting more specific about this week’s to do list:
Don’t attempt to re-read the curriculum:
This is going to sound a little bit harsh, but you should really have finished reading the curriculum now. The last 6 weeks leading up to the test should be centered on question practice. You should only really go back to the readings in a targeted way to briefly refresh on concepts that cause you trouble in your question practice. No rule without exceptions, and we are going to read select bits of the ethics reading again (more details to follow below).
Do practice a lot of questions:
There really isn’t a gold standard for how many questions and mock exams you need to go through before you are ready to face the level 1 test. However if you are able to understand and answer all of the end of chapter questions from the underlying readings, without fail, you are definitely on the right track. Mock exams vary in quality and the level of difficulty. Scoring above 70% or 75% on a single mock exam (while encouraging) is therefore no guarantee that you will be able to handle the test.
Keep at it:
Even if you feel comfortable that you will be able to pass the test, It makes sense to continue solving questions at full tilt until the very day before the exam. You have already made such a big investment of time and energy to get to this stage, and it will be devastating if you end up marginally short of the pass mark on exam day because you geared down just before the finish line.
Replicate Exam Conditions:
It is immensely valuable having experienced the conditions that you are going to be facing on exam day in advance. Many candidates will walk into the exam setting with only a theoretical idea about how the exam is going to progress. It is something entirely different if you have tried it on your own body. Having already experienced the situation helps with subtle differences like setting the correct exam pace, and dealing with the fatigue that will invariably set in during the afternoon session. Recreating a close match to the actual exam conditions while you are doing the mock exams is therefore a very effective way to improve your chances.
The week to come:
We are going to spend the next 3 weeks revising the end of chapter questions and LOS statements once more. There are 536 LOS statements and roughly 1300 end of chapter questions to revise, so we have got plenty of material to keep us entertained, without having to rely on other sources. Every Saturday and the entire last week leading up to the exam is dedicated to mock exams.
As mentioned above, the only exception to the “abstinence” from reading curriculum content in the last month is Ethics. Remember all of the examples in reading 2? Well whether you remember them or not, it is not a bad idea to read them one more time. There are 178 examples, so make sure that you cover 5 examples a day during phase 2 (the next 5 weeks). This will allow you to get through all of the examples during phase 2 ahead of the December 7 exam, and if you have time read them twice (10 a day). It is likely that a large proportion of the estimated 36 ethics questions on the exam will be based on examples similar to the ones described in reading 2. So a solid understanding of these provides one of the most favorable trade-offs between effort and likely impact on the exam outcome.
Did you maintain your question log making a note of all the challenging flashcards and end of chapter questions throughout the program? If so you have now got an invaluable resource for the revision process as it will help you identify and skip those that you managed to answer with ease as you progressed through the curriculum. There is no point wasting your limited revision time on these flashcards and questions. During the upcoming week we are going to work through the 160 end of chapter questions and 82 LOS in the first 12 readings. If you have stored the question lists, the 160 questions may be reduced to 120 or even 100, it should be pretty clear why that may help you save time.
Once you have answered the questions make sure that you pay attention to the explanations to the end of chapter questions in the curriculum books. This is the most important aspect of the revision process, especially for those questions that you answered incorrectly. If you are pressed for time (like most candidates) skip the explanations for the questions that you got right, but read the explanations for the questions that you got wrong twice and slowly for maximum comprehension. Studying these explanations in detail constitutes the most efficient use of your time at this stage, as the process will isolate many of the insights that you are still struggling with and that could thus provide a marginal improvement to your exam score, now that you have understood them. Once you have revised the end of chapter questions, create a new shorter list of the questions that you are still struggling with in your question log and work your way through this reduced list of tricky questions. If there are any challenging questions left after the second iteration rinse and repeat until you are able to answer every single one correctly.
The LOS represents “the specific knowledge, skills and abilities” that you are expected to acquire as a candidate. Did you follow through and create flashcards for every single LOS in the curriculum? And did you make a note of those that challenged you in your question log? If so you have got a massive leg up on the competition. You can now focus specifically on those LOS that you found difficult. Flick through the flashcards, and if you struggle with a particular LOS go back and read the relevant chapter summaries (provided for most readings outside of the ethics topic area). The mere process of answering the LOS should help pinpoint areas of weakness at this stage. List the LOS that you are completely clueless about (hopefully that is not going to be many at this stage), and if you have got the time dip back in and read small passages targeted to the individual LOS, you should have the relevant page numbers listed on the flip side of the flash cards so it is easy to find the relevant text.. Please remember to record your results in your week 16 progress report.
In week 17 we are beginning our second out of four weeks of revision.