I am studying to take the CTP exam for the first time during the upcoming window. I work in the Treasury department at a large tech company in Silicon Valley. I am still very young in my career with 3 years total work experience and 1.5 of those years being in Treasury specifically. The other portion of my career was spent in a Corporate Finance Rotation program where I gained exposure to both FP&A (Financial Planning and Analysis) and Stock Administration.

Most of my Treasury and finance knowledge has been on the job training as my undergraduate major was pure mathematics. I did take a handful of financial courses towards the end of my college career as I realized my interest, but concepts seem to stick in my mind more easily during real life applications.

I decided to sign up for the CTP about a year ago and initially signed up for the last exam window. The study tools I used was the AFP Learning System: Treasury, 3rd Edition. I took the online Pre-Test to understand where I needed improvement and then began studying. My study tactic was to first tackle the written books - read through all the material, highlight, take notes where appropriate, answer the questions at the end of each chapter, etc and then later on in my study prep I was planning on heavily utilizing the online training modules and resources. Unfortunately, during the early part of my studies, two of my immediate family members became extremely ill and I had to defer my studies to the next exam window. I had only gotten through the first two modules at the time where I halted my studies.

I recently took up the studying regime again a few weeks ago and also signed up for the SFTMA study group. I was hoping the study group would keep me on track with studying and provide tips on studying techniques that could only be gained directly from participants with past experience. The study group goes over one chapter (presentation and question review) each week. Not every chapter is covered during the 13 sessions, but just the ones that chapters with the most past questions on the exam. The presentations are presented and prepared by different members of the group and the questions are created by the group organizers. The study group seems to be at a faster pace than my current studying pace, but so far I find the study sessions to be extremely helpful because they provide me with a good overview of chapters and alert me of areas I need to focus on. It is also good to have a set time blocked off each week dedicated to CTP studying as it keeps you on track and focused.

I decided this time around that I would not only read the chapters of the written book, but also to type out bullet point notes which I can take with me and study rather than always having to carry around the large books. Note-taking is making getting through the written text take much longer, but hopefully it will pay off in the long run. I am currently working my way through Module 1 and I hope to be on Module 2 by the time I write my next post.