With the 2025 NFL Agent Exam less than two months away, we are officially in the red zone as it relates to the exam. At ITL, helping people pass the exam is a big part of what we do, so I recently reached out to several successful test-takers from last summer to get their recommendations on how to study.

They were all very good, but one stood out in particular. It was the email sent me by Norcross, Ga.-based Sean McIlhinney, who put not one, but two, players on 90-man rosters as a rookie agent despite being independent.

What follows is Sean’s response to my request for advice on how to pass, and I recommend that you heed all of it. OK, maybe not ALL of it, but most of it. Here goes:

“Attending the two-day overview that the NFLPA offers (the week before the exam) is a must! I would not have passed the test but for attending those two sessions.

“(As for study aids,) I only used the materials that the NFLPA provided to study. I focused on the item list that the NFLPA gave to study and actually prepared a typed, detailed outline of the item list. The outline was probably 20 pages. I waited until the last week to actually prepare the outline, and it was super helpful because (a) it helped reinforce everything I had learned from just reading the materials and (b) the outline referenced actual pages numbers in the materials given, so I was able to easily go to the NFL materials during the test if and when needed.   

“I truly did not start studying hard until the last month, when I studied every weekend for eight hours per day (Saturday and Sunday) just reading the materials. I would start off at a breakfast place reading, go to a pool and read for a few hours, and then end at another restaurant and read. Three different places each Saturday and Sunday for approximately 2.5 hrs at each venue to keep things exciting.  No real note-taking – I just read to understand and further familiarize myself with the materials. I definitely used my highlighter while I was reading, but no note-taking.  

“The one thing I wish I did was find some sample salary cap practice questions from a prior test to work through before the test. I understood the salary cap rules well going into the test, but I had never seen any practice questions, and thought it would have been very helpful to have done some practice salary cap questions instead of trying to figure it out on the fly during the test.

“I was told that you could not get up and use the bathroom during the test and was genuinely worried about that, so I sported an adult diaper just in case.  No joke. Fortunately, I never used the diaper and passed the test. 

“Good luck!”

For more advice (that might be quite as offbeat), check out this week’s Friday Wrap, which comes out at 7:30 p.m. on Friday’s (duh). You can register here.