Studying after work for anything can be mentally exhausting. The last thing you want to do after a hard day’s work, is something that’s mentally draining. Unfortunately, for many people, in order to keep your job you need to study in the evenings to get the licensing required.
In today’s post, we recommend a few ways to help keep you focused when your mind wants to rest.
Studying After Work: Don’t Read
When studying after work, you ideally want to do something that is engaging rather than passive. Passive work, such as reading, risks your mind wandering.
For this reason, we typically recommend that you focus on practice questions in the evenings. That said, full practice exams can also be mentally exhausting.
Therefore, we recommend that you focus on very specific practice areas. Do small sets of questions at a time such as 15 questions or 20 questions. Something that will give you the feeling of accomplishment, yet also provide a light at the end of the tunnel while you are working on them.
Practice Exams on Weekends
Save your practice exams for weekends, or if you can sneak in some times in the morning do that. Keep in mind for practice exam, you do not need to finish them all in one sitting.
Ideally, you should do practice exams in the morning when you are fresh.
If you do not have enough time in your mornings, you can always split them up into two or three days. Create a full practice exam of 135 questions for the Series 7 Exam for example, and split them up over multiple days so you still get a representative score and an attempt at the practice exam while your mind is fresh.
Overall, trying to do anything late at night is likely going to result in subpar studying. Retention rates go way down when our minds are tired. For any more tips on how to pass your FINRA or NASAA exams, feel free to reach out! Good luck!