My Personal Study Techniques

As I mentioned briefly in my firstblog post, I initially began studying for the June/July 2011 exam period andhad to defer taking the exam due to serious illness in my family.  The study technique that I followed the firsttime around was just to first make a pass by reading through all of thematerial and then use the AFP Learning System: Treasury for review.  Before opening any of the books though I tookthe “Pre-test” on the AFP Learning System Treasury to gauge my base knowledge and also previewthe exam format.  From that point, Iwould read one chapter at a time, highlighting, taking notes directly on thepages, and using post it flags to mark relevant tables/graphs/figures for myreference later.  After successfullyreading each chapter, I would then answer the book chapter reviewquestions.  I would first try to answerthe questions on my own and then I would review all of the answers from theanswer key.  At the point where I had todefer my exam, I had completed the study technique described for the first 3modules (that is, chapters 1-7). 

At that point I stopped studying and then pickedit back up in late September.  Afterdiscussions with my coworker who took the exam in January, I decided to try adifferent study technique.  This timearound I am still reading through all of the chapters and decided to start fromthe beginning again on Chapter 1, but the difference is that I amoutlining/taking notes in Microsoft Word. I make sure to outline important topics, but even more importantly I notetopics that are foreign to me and that will need to be reviewed moredeeply.  I find that in general withtaking notes that I focus more on the text and the content when trying to pullout main points and unknown topics.  Inaddition, I also make sure to include the pages for helpful charts/tables soI’ll know exactly where to look if I need to reference them.  The goal is to just use the notes for review,rather than having to carry around the bulky books.