CFP exam — how predictive are your practice percentages for actually passing?

I passed in November with practice averages around 68–71%. The real exam felt harder than Kaplan in some ways but easier in others — the case-based questions were actually more straightforward than I expected. Don't neglect behavioral finance, there were more of those than I anticipated.

I went in at 73% average and passed with what felt like a comfortable margin. For estate planning, focus heavily on the marital deduction, QTIP trusts, and generation-skipping scenarios — those come up way more than the obscure stuff.

The 70% benchmark has been floating around for years and in my experience it's roughly right, but you need to be consistent at 70+, not just occasionally hitting it. Wide variance on practice exams is more concerning than a single high score.

Tax planning was my weak spot too. What finally got it to click was working through scenarios with actual numbers rather than just reading rules. Once I started plugging hypothetical incomes into marginal rate calculations it stopped feeling abstract.