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Hong KongBuild your own formula sheet, from your own misses
Build it yourself from your own missed questions rather than downloading one. The act of deciding what belongs on it is most of the value, and a sheet built from your gaps is the right length by construction.
Every candidate has a formula sheet. The useful ones are two pages and were written by the candidate.
Why not download one
A downloaded sheet contains what somebody else found difficult. It will be longer than you need, missing the things you personally forget, and read rather than written - which is the wrong direction for recall.
Building it is a study activity. Using it is a revision activity. Downloading one skips the first and produces a worse version of the second.
What belongs on it
- Formulas you have got wrong in practice: CAPM, Sharpe, Treynor, the constant growth model, exclusion ratio, real return.
- Ordering rules: Roth withdrawals, capital loss netting, the estate tax calculation sequence.
- Threshold ages: 59½, 55, 62, 67, 70, 73.
- The current year's key limits, marked with the year.
- The lists you keep half-remembering - the three fiduciary duties, the seven planning steps, the six ADLs.
- The distinctions you keep confusing.
That last line is the important one. A sheet full of things you already know is decoration.
After each mock, any miss you would have got right with a one-line reminder goes on the sheet. Anything you missed because you did not understand it goes into the study plan instead. The distinction keeps the sheet short and the plan honest.
Keep it to two pages
A ten-page sheet is a textbook and will not be read in the final week.
The constraint forces prioritization, and prioritizing is the study activity. When something new needs to go on, something else has to come off - usually because you now know it.
How to use it
Daily in the final fortnight, actively. Cover the right-hand side and reproduce it before checking.
Reading it is recognition. Reproducing it is recall, and only one of the two is what the exam asks for.
What it is not
It does not go into the exam. This is a closed-book exam and nothing is permitted at the workstation beyond identification and an approved calculator.
The sheet exists to get its contents into your head beforehand, which is a different and more demanding purpose than a reference card.
CFP® is a registered mark of Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc. We are not affiliated with, or endorsed by, CFP Board.
Common questions
Should you download a CFP formula sheet?
No. A downloaded sheet contains what somebody else found difficult, and it is read rather than written. Building your own is a study activity; using one is only revision.
What belongs on the sheet?
Formulas you have got wrong, ordering rules, threshold ages, current year limits marked with the year, the lists you half-remember, and the distinctions you keep confusing.
How long should it be?
Two pages. The constraint forces prioritization, and when something new goes on something else comes off - usually because you now know it.
How do you build it?
From mock reviews. Any miss you would have got right with a one-line reminder goes on the sheet; anything you missed from not understanding goes into the study plan instead.
Can you take it into the exam?
No. The exam is closed book, with nothing permitted at the workstation beyond identification and an approved calculator. The sheet exists to get its contents into your head beforehand.