The CTP Exam Review Course which utilizes the AFP Learning System: Treasury is an intensive review of the essential principles and functional practices of corporate treasury management that are incorporated in the CTP BOK, the Essentials of Treasury Management.  This fast-paced course is designed to help you prepare for the exam by strategically focusing on key terms, concepts and calculations found in each chapter of the BOK and as such is not a page-by-page review of the text.

So, if you attend one of these courses, you should not expect to learn everything you need to know to prepare for the exam during the course. Unfortunately, the expectations of some CTP candidates are just the opposite so they don’t come to the review course properly prepared. And I suspect that in some cases their attendance at the review course is the first time they have looked at their study materials.

Pre-course study is essential because your major benefit of attending a CTP review course is the opportunity to get clarification and a better understanding of those areas of the BOK that you’ve been having some difficulty with as you have been working through your study schedule. With this in mind, one approach you can use to prepare for a CTP review course is to develop a list of questions related to specific items that are covered in those areas of the BOK where you need to clarify your understanding of the subject matter.

These specific item questions might take the form of:

• How does it work?
• Why is it important?
• Does it relate to some other part of the BOK?
• Is there an easier way to “crunch” the numbers?

In listening skills training, this approach is know as “looking for a product” and it is an  effective listening technique that helps a listener focus on the information that is being communicated.

Given the intensive fast-paced nature of the CTP exam review course, preparing a pre-course list of “products you are looking for” (i.e. your questions related to specific subject matter items that need clarification) can help you get the most out of this training experience.

-George Schilling, CTP