As of today, we are an even 70 days away from the 2021 NFLPA Exam (and 68 days until the start of the pre-exam seminar). Lots of people have picked up our study guide and practice exams this week, which tells me they’re bearing down on their preparations.

Inevitably, those people ask my advice on the best way to pass the exam. I figured that might be a good blog topic for the week, so here goes.

• Give yourself plenty of time: I usually recommend two months of robust study for the exam. Now is a great time to get started, but if you wanted to wait until the beginning of June, that wouldn’t be terrible. Like anything else, however, it’s better to have too much time than not enough.
• Set aside recruiting for ’21: Some of the people registered for this summer’s test ask me about the best prospects for ’22 and ask me when to start recruiting. I get it — identifying players worth recruiting is part of the fun of the business. For a number of reasons, however, I feel this is pointless right now, especially before you’ve passed the exam. Hold off, at least until September or so.
• Learn all the basic concepts: A lot of people wade into the exam thinking they’ve followed the game, and how hard could the test be? It’s really hard. That’s why 55 percent of all test-takers fail. You must learn all about P5 contracts, accrued vs. credited seasons, etc. Don’t think you can just learn everything during the pre-exam seminar.
• Test yourself: It’s not enough to feel like you know the material, in my opinion. Current contract advisors from virtually every major NFL firm have used our practice exams to see what the questions look like in advance and really get a feel for the material. I think you’re taking a sizable risk if you don’t do that before you actually sit for the test.
• Get tips from others on how to pass: This is something we will do as we get closer to the exam. One way we’ll do it is our daily email series that starts next month; its chock-full of tips, ideas and examples on what to expect and how to pass the exam. It’s free to everyone who’s purchased any of our products or services. However, if that’s not enough, we also have an affordable in-house instructor who’s available for personal tutoring or Zoom sessions that we’ll have in the coming weeks. We’ll talk about him more in our newsletter. Bottom line, there are too many materials for you to risk failing.

I hope this helps, and if it doesn’t, I hope you’ll reach out. As I say so often in this space, I believe in the win-win, and would love to be of assistance if you’re winding your way toward NFLPA certification. For more on who we are and what we do, check out our website, our Twitter feed or our weekly newsletter, the Friday Wrap. You can register for it here.