How long does it take to study for Exam P? A year?…. 6 months?… 300 hours?…. A couple weeks?
You may be surprised that I don’t recommend you study for 300 hours, like the general rule of thumb states. The number of hours you need to study depends on the process you use to prepare and how familiar you already are with the exam topics. For most people, 3 – 4 months is appropriate but if you’re very busy you may need longer.
Keep reading or watch the video above to find out why 300 hours isn’t a good recommendation.
So let’s think about this for a second. What’s your favorite hobby?
Mine is soccer, so let’s think of this from that point of view. If someone were to ask me how long it would take them to learn how to be a good soccer player, I’d have no clue what to say because I don’t know how good they already are and I don’t know how they’re planning to improve.
Maybe they were just going to kick a soccer ball 20 times every day. That alone wouldn’t make them good at soccer.
Let me explain…
A soccer analogy
There are so many other things involved in soccer than just kicking a ball. There’s you’re cardio, your ability to read the play, ball handling, and shooting accuracy too.
So if you don’t practice all those things, you won’t be very good at soccer.
The same thing applies to studying for Exam P. You could spend 300 hours studying, but that doesn’t mean that you’re studying the RIGHT WAY. And that’s not necessarily going to translate into success on exam day.
Instead, to pass on exam day, you have to make sure your studying approach includes all the elements of a good study strategy. You have to make sure you’re studying the right way and doing the right things, otherwise your approach may never work.
So that’s why the number of hours you study is absolutely no indicator of whether or not you’ll pass. What really matters is that you DO all the things you need to DO. Then you’ll really be ready!
When should you write your exam?
I recommend that you aim for a specific date, but don’t register for the exam yet. Wait until close to the registration deadline and see if you feel ready to write the exam.
Like I said above, for most people 3 – 4 months is OK but you could be very different. You may not have much time to study or maybe you take longer to learn the concepts than most people. That’s OK! But it’s just impossible to say how long it will take you, specifically, to prepare.
You’ll only know this once you’re feeling ready to write, which you can only know once you’ve been studying for a while.
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