Study breaks are necessary when studying for any exam. When it comes to the FINRA and NASAA exams however, we often get the question, “How long can I take a break until I forget what I know?”
The reality is that you have to live your life, and cancelling family vacations, weddings, funerals, etc. is not usually an option. So, how long can you take off from studying before you forget a lot?
We cover that today in our post.
Study Breaks: Necessary But Balanced
With almost a decade of tutoring experience we at Professional Exam Tutoring have seen many dozens, and probably hundreds of people go on vacation, or take intermittent breaks while studying for their exams.
We would even go as far as to say, taking at least one day off a week is healthy and gives you a mental reset.
When longer breaks get thrown into the mix, there are different considerations. The question ultimately becomes, how long can you take a break before you start forgetting?
Forget Me Not
In our experience, most people can take a week-long break and return to their studying right where they left off. We would note that if you didn’t take the week off you probably would’ve made a little bit more progress and added to your score but staying in the same place is not terrible if it means you get an unforgettable vacation.
Moreover, we find that taking more than a week off starts to lead to slight regressions in performance but nothing dire. From what we see, you are likely to see your scores decline anywhere from a few points to maybe five points with a two week break.
Again, this is not the end of the world, but you certainly have to consider this if you are taking a prolonged break from studying.
Another important point is that it’s typically easier to get back to your previous baseline after taking a break than it is to get there from scratch.
Overall, if you had a vacation planned and your exams got in the way, take the vacation. However, you should be prepared to regress a little if it’s a long vacation, or plateau if it’s a short one. In short, leave yourself a reasonable amount of time to study in total.
If it takes an average of six weeks to study for the Series 7 Exam, and you have a 1 week vacation planned, then set aside 7 weeks in total. If you need more help or advice, feel free to reach out. Good luck!