How fast you can prepare for, and pass, your Mutual Funds course exam?
Welcome back to the Coach’s Hangout. I’m going to discuss how fast you can prepare for and pass the Mutual Fund Course and exam, even if you are starting from scratch. I am also going to offer you a tip on how to stay committed to your goal.
But first, SeeWhy Learning is well known for its use of analogies. So, I figured I would kick off this lesson with a real one, involving me. A few years ago, I was diagnosed with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. If you follow me on social media, you may have seen one of my posts. For years, I had tried to eat healthy and thought I did a pretty good job of it. So, I was surprised when I learned that fixing my liver was largely diet-related. I asked my doctor for strict instructions, and one of the things she told me was to cut back on, or even eliminate, delicious carbs like bread and potatoes and rice. Brutal, right?
Now, this is something that would have otherwise been impossible for me to do, but my health was on the line and I needed to stack the odds in my favor. Two things helped me keep on track.
Number one: A follow-up blood test was immediately booked for 90 days away. This created a heightened sense of urgency for me. Take note, I wasn’t told to book a follow-up test when I felt ready, it was booked on the spot and it was up to me to stay committed, to doing the work required, to obtain a favorable result on that date.
Number two: I shared my story and what I was committing to do on social media. This instantly created thousands of accountability partners. I knew that down the road, someone would eventually ask me how I made out, and I wouldn’t want to admit that I gave up and didn’t do what I committed to do.
You will notice this was entirely within my control. I was not committing to a certain result. I was committing to do the work, trusting the result would be favorable. Now here’s the good news. These two things helped me keep my commitment to myself and my loved ones. I made some lifestyle changes and three months later, my follow-up test was favorable. Another three months after that, even my doctor was pleasantly surprised. Now, what does this have to do with studying? You have to create your own sense of urgency. I often hear students taking a year, or more to prepare for the Mutual Fund Exam. Well, why is this? Well, it’s probably not because they studied hard for a year. More likely they studied a little bit, got distracted, stop studying for a while. And when they get back at it, they’re essentially starting all over again.
Here is the tip: Even if you are only starting your studies today, book your exam now. Once your exam is booked, it will create some urgency for you, because if you don’t study, you may have a very unpleasant experience on exam day, which isn’t too far away. Here at SeeWhy we recommend you book your exam four to six weeks from now, and I can assure you, if you’re committed it is enough time. I’ve been a study coach for over 20 years and I’m pretty good at predicting if a student will pass or fail. All I have to do is look at what the student has done over the past 30 days. And I pretty much discount any studying that was done before that. In other words, whether you pass or fail your exam, it’s likely due to what you did, or didn’t do in the last 30 days, not what you studied six months ago, or even a year ago.
Now, obviously, the goal is for long-term learning to occur, but you also have to realize that you’re going to forget some of what you learned after your exam. Don’t believe me? Ask a financial advisor to describe the different national instruments that pertain to mutual funds. I bet you most can’t and that’s okay. It’s to be expected. I mean, they probably learned about it when taking the course, but once their exam was done, they likely forgot it, because it probably isn’t too relevant to their day-to-day job.
So, if you want to pass a Mutual Fund Course, put yourself in an excellent position to pass with three easy steps. One, register in the course. Two, invest in SeeWhy’s exam preparation tools. And three, book your exam today for four to six weeks from now. I also recommend you devote at least half of your study time to practice. At SeeWhy Learning, we believe that a good portion of your learning, perhaps half, or even more doesn’t come from reading the textbook, or even your study guide. It comes from applying what you read by doing lots of practice questions and learning from your mistakes, with our easy-to-understand explanations. Thanks for popping by the Coach’s Hangout, and good luck on your upcoming exams.