FE Exam – Keys to Success
As in many professions, patience, practice, determination, and a strong work ethic underscore success. It is no different for the FE exam.
Patience
This is your journey of preparation, and you are only competing with yourself. Sometimes you won’t grasp the essence of an idea right away and that is normal. It just means you have to have patience and give yourself the time and mental space to develop the underlying connections behind the idea or concept.
Practice
Be deliberate in your practice and avoid rote repetition at all costs. Rote repetition will not improve your performance. Scattered practice is not effective. Focused, active, and deliberate practice is best. This is where you do more than just watch videos or look over the solutions; this is where you solve and struggle through hundreds of FE practice questions. This is how real progress is made.
Determination
Determine a clear, goal directed path you will choose to undertake. Set your own study and long-term career goals; the more personal they are, the better. You will make mistakes and have failures. But with a determined mindset, these failures won’t stop you from achieving what you want. Your determination will keep you focused on the goal and keep you going regardless of what’s put in front of you.
Strong work ethic
Learning something is never really about how “smart” or “intelligent” you are. It’s more about your patience, determination, and work ethic. A strong work ethic emphasizes accuracy. This involves reading questions carefully, writing down your full step-by-step solution, not skipping any steps, checking your calculations for mistakes, etc., etc. Once you get into the habit of doing this, it will become an unconscious habit.
