Earlier this month, I wanted to gauge the subjects in the CBA that our test-takers are struggling with most, so I put together a poll. It was pretty straightforward, and listed 19 topics. I asked participants to choose 10, but five easily garnered the most support. 

If you’re taking the exam in 26 days, I thought you might benefit from knowing what other people taking the exam are spending most of their time reviewing. Here’s a rundown of the most popular (?) topics, along with the number who listed it as among the most challenging:

Workman’s comp offsets/extended injury compensation (82 percent): This one is a biggie, obviously, which is why almost all our respondents chose it as an important topic to cover. Our CBA expert Ian Greengross, who heads instruction on all our video sessions, covers this topic in our April Zoom session. In fact, he spends a quarter of the hour-long session on this one topic. You can order it here ($35 plus tax).

Draft signals (65 percent): This one is hard because you have to gather information from a rather involved chart, then applying it to other information gathered from a different chart and doing a little math. Tracking and referencing the right chart is a big part of success on the agent exam. This topic is also covered in our April video, which you can order here. 

Exclusive rights free agency, restricted free agency, transition tag, franchise tag, exclusive franchise tag (65 percent): Like sorting out an accrued season, a season of earned credit for benefits, and a season of earned credit for salary, knowing the various levels of free agency based on player experience is critical. This is covered in our March video, which you can order here.

Termination pay (59 percent): Being able to compute what a player has coming based on his annual salary, when he made the team, when he got released, and how many weeks are left, isn’t complicated, but still can trip you up. Ian spent more than a fourth of the hour in May discussing this; you can order the video here. 

Veteran Salary Benefit (59 percent): This is another topic that requires you get all your charts straight and otherwise follow the rules established by the 2020 CBA. Not complicated, per se, but you better make sure you don’t get lost in all the numbers. This topics is also covered in the May video, which you can order here.

If you’re looking for a video rundown of almost every hot topic in the CBA, you can pick up all five of our sessions so far (February, March, April, May and June) for $175 plus tax. Order them all here. 

Whether or not you use any of our videos, I hope you find the answers you seek. My advice: whether you use or materials or someone else’s, do not go cheap in trying to pass the exam. It’s incredibly challenging, and you’ll want to take advantage of every resource you can find to make things clearer and easier to understand.