So I just got my results this morning and I passed with a 74% — not a perfect score but honestly I'll take it after failing by 3 points back in February. I work full-time as a mutual fund rep and studying around client meetings is brutal. The ethics and compliance sections absolutely wrecked me the first time around because I kept underestimating how tricky the scenario-based questions are.
This time I completely changed my approach. Instead of just reading the textbook cover to cover, I got a proper CIFC study guide and started doing timed practice sets early. The CIFC practice test questions I found online were honestly the closest thing to the real exam format — doing them under pressure made a huge difference in how I managed time on test day. I clocked about 80 hours over 8 weeks total.
Anyone else currently prepping? Happy to share what topic areas I focused on or swap notes. The mutual fund regulations and KYC stuff needs way more attention than the study materials suggest — trust me on that one.