8 Tips to Manage CFA® Exam Stress in the Final Weeks
The Meldrum Team
Nov 4, 2026
From mock exam strategy to exam-day timing, Meldrum instructors share how to stay calm and finish strong in your last stretch of prep.
The final weeks before the CFA® exam can feel like the toughest part of the whole journey. You’ve put in months of work, yet this is often when the doubts get loudest. I’m behind. I’m not ready. I’m not going to pass.
If that sounds familiar, you’re not alone. As exam day approaches, Meldrum instructors hear from more and more candidates who are feeling the pressure.
So we asked two Meldrum instructors and CFA® charterholders, Richie Owens and Darrin Kerr, for their best advice on getting through the home stretch. Their tips cover three areas: how to study, how to think, and how to execute on exam day.
The eight tips at a glance
- Don’t cram. Keep a steady pace.
- Use mock exams strategically.
- Don’t study alone.
- Remember that your nerves are normal, and you know more than you think.
- Let go of the perfect score.
- Don’t talk yourself out of sitting the exam.
- Answer every question.
- When you’re stuck, make your best guess and move on.
How to study in the final weeks
Tip 1: Don’t cram. Keep a steady pace.
It’s tempting to treat the last few weeks as a chance to make up for lost time. Richie’s advice is simple: don’t.
Suddenly tripling your study hours won’t leave you sharper on exam day. It’ll leave you mentally and physically exhausted, and that’s a tough state to sit an exam in. Instead, keep going steadily. The rhythm that got you this far is the one that will carry you through.
Tip 2: Use mock exams strategically
Yes, you should be taking mock exams right now. But it’s worth being clear about how many and what for.
First, ignore candidates on social media who claim they’ve done dozens of mocks. Richie says those claims aren’t realistic, and they aren’t helpful either.
In the last week and a half to two weeks, Richie suggests aiming for one mock. That leaves you time for the part that matters most: debriefing it, finding your trouble areas, and reviewing them.
“The point of doing a mock exam is to see the areas you can get better at, not what the score is.”
— Richie Owens, CFA
Your mock score won’t decide whether you pass the real exam. Nobody else sees it. What counts is what it shows you about where to focus.
Darrin adds that mock exams and Q bank practice are how you plug your knowledge gaps. The closer you get to exam day, the more your knowledge starts to come together. It will never feel complete, and it doesn’t need to.
Mocks also help with timing. Take them to exam standards and under exam conditions, so you know your pace and know you’ll finish. (More on why that matters in Tip 7.)
Want to get more out of your mock exams? Read why mock exams are a must, not a maybe.
Tip 3: Don’t study alone
Studying for the CFA® exam can be a lonely business, especially with so much prep happening online. On your own, it’s easy to assume you're the only one with weak areas or the only one feeling unprepared.
Richie’s advice: talk to people. Find a peer group and compare notes on how you’re studying and preparing.
If you’re a Meldrum subscriber, come to office hours even if you don’t have a question to ask. Listen to what other candidates are asking, because some of their questions will echo yours. Others you’ll realize you could answer yourself. Either way, you’ll likely find you’re in a better place than you thought — and you won’t feel as alone.
Want even more support in your corner? Meldrum’s Instructor-Led Online program adds live classes with Q&A and one-on-one sessions with CFA® charterholder mentors. See what Instructor-Led Online adds to your CFA® prep.
How to think in the final weeks
Tip 4: Your nerves are normal, and you know more than you think
First things first: feeling anxious is completely normal. As Darrin points out, you’ve studied for months, and it all comes down to a few hours on exam day. That pressure tends to build as your test date gets closer.
“It’s totally normal to feel nervous or anxious as this exam date approaches.”
— Darrin Kerr, CFA
When anxious thoughts creep in, Richie suggests clearing them out with a little perspective. Think about all the months of studying you’ve done. You know a ton more than you did when you started. And if you’re reading exam tips in the final weeks, you’re clearly taking your preparation seriously.
Tip 5: You don’t need a perfect score
Perfectionism fuels a lot of exam anxiety. Both instructors want you to let it go.
“For the CFA® exam, you don’t need to be perfect.”
— Darrin Kerr, CFA
Unlike many exams you took in school, the CFA® exam doesn’t call for near-perfect marks. CFA Institute doesn’t publish a fixed passing score. But in Darrin’s experience, a score around 70 percent, or even in the high 60s, has commonly been enough.
Here’s what that looks like on the Level I exam, which has 180 questions. A 70 percent score means getting 54 questions wrong. And nobody cares whether you finish with a 68, a 72, or a 75. As Darrin puts it, as long as you pass and move forward to the next level, that’s all that matters.
Richie has a mental trick for the moment you hit a question you can’t answer. Instead of panicking, tell your brain: “I never expected to get 100% in this exam and here is the question that proves I was right.” That makes you good at forecasting, he points out, which is a skill this exam requires.
You also won’t feel comfortable with every topic. Darrin calls that expectation unrealistic. Every candidate has weaker areas, and that’s OK.
Tip 6: Don’t talk yourself out of sitting the exam
Richie has noticed a trend in recent years. Candidates reach the final stretch, decide they’re not ready, and think about skipping their exam window.
If you’re tempted, play out the worst-case scenarios:
- If you sit the exam and don’t pass, you’ll study again and sit at a later window.
- If you defer, you’ll study again and sit at a later window.
The result is the same. But if you sit the exam, you gain something deferring can’t give you: firsthand experience of the real exam. That’s a valuable learning experience, and it puts you in a stronger position if you need another attempt.
Richie also points out how common it is for candidates to finish the exam feeling they did a lot better than they expected. In fact, you might even surprise yourself and pass. On the other hand, walking away from your window achieves nothing.
How to execute on exam day
Tip 7: Answer every question
After months of preparation, the last thing you want is to let the clock decide your result.
“The absolute worst way to fail this exam is to not finish it.”
— Richie Owens, CFA
There’s no negative marking on the CFA® exam, so a wrong answer costs you nothing extra. That means you should answer every single question.
Richie’s advice is to work through the exam in order, from beginning to end. Don’t skip questions just because they’re hard. If you can’t answer a question the first time you see it, you’re unlikely to get it the second time.
The only questions he would skip and save for the end are long ones — the big, time-consuming calculations. Richie would rather have two or three long questions left at the end than 10 or 15 hard ones.
With this approach, you reach the last 15–30 minutes with only a handful of long questions left. Those tend to be straightforward number-crunching questions anyway.
Tip 8: Stuck? Make your best guess and move on.
When a question stumps you, don’t sit there stressing. Richie’s advice is to put down your best guess right away and move on.
Think of it as a time saver, not a failure. You stay ahead of the clock, and that helps keep you calm.
Remember: you don’t need to get every question right to pass the exam. Lingering on the ones you can’t answer only takes time away from the ones you can. Get to the end of the exam, and it will likely go better than you think.
The bottom line
The final weeks aren’t the time to reinvent your prep. Study at the same steady pace, take your last mock exam, and lean on your peers and support system. Don’t expect perfection. And on exam day, keep moving and answer every question.
When it feels too hard, it can help to keep the long game in mind. Darrin earned his charter about 20 years ago. At the time, he was an equity research analyst thinking about the next two to five years of his career. Since then, his career has taken turns he never expected, from living and working in another country to moving into financial education.
“Think about a career over the next few decades.”
— Darrin Kerr, CFA
If you’re in your 20s or 30s, you may have 20, 30, or even 40 years of career ahead. The CFA® charter can benefit you across all of it. So keep your head down and stay motivated. These final weeks are worth pushing through.
Good luck. Whether your next step is another level or the charter itself, we’ll be cheering you on.
Frequently asked questions
What score do you need to pass the CFA® exam?
CFA Institute doesn’t publish a fixed minimum passing score. Meldrum instructor Darrin Kerr’s rule of thumb is that a score around 70 percent, or even in the high 60s, has commonly been enough. The takeaway: You don’t need a perfect score.
How many mock exams should I take in the final weeks before the CFA® exam?
Focus on quality over quantity. In the last week and a half to two weeks, Meldrum instructor Richie Owens suggests aiming for one mock exam. Then debrief it thoroughly to find and work on your weak areas.
Want to hone your mock exam strategy? Learn how to get the most out of every mock.
Is there negative marking on the CFA® exam?
No. A wrong answer doesn’t cost you extra points, so answer every question, even if you have to guess.
Should I defer my CFA® exam if I don’t feel ready?
Almost every candidate feels uneasy in the final weeks. Whether you defer, or sit the exam and don’t pass, you’ll study for a later window either way. Sitting the exam gives you real exam experience, and many candidates find they did better than they expected.
How do I manage anxiety before the CFA® exam?
Remember that nerves are normal and every candidate feels them. Keep a steady study pace, connect with a peer group, and remind yourself that you don’t need a perfect score. On exam day, use a clear timing plan so you stay ahead of the clock.
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