21 Points You Need To Know About Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) Exam And How To Pass Easily

21 Points You Need To Know About Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) Exam

Learn How To Pass CFE Exam Easily For Free

Introduction

CFE is an accreditation given by ACFE (Association of Certified Fraud Examiners). ACFE is an association for education and training for anti-fraud. The organization ACFE is there to minimize the level of fraud in business all over the world and motivate people om the sincerity and the goal of this profession. The training for CFE contains intelligence from the understanding of the forensic method, complex financial transactions, law and to sort out the accusation of fraud. The detail of being a CFE is explained in the article. Just keep on reading it.

1. Academic requirements

For applying for CFE examination one must complete their bachelor’s or an equivalent degree from any institution of higher education. With 2 years of experience relevant to fraud can be replaced for every year of college. Other acceptable occupations for the experience includes attorneys who have worked in fraud prosecution, auditors who have worked in fraud detection, insurance fraud investigators, a specialist who have worked in the prevention of loss and security consultants.

2. Professional requirements

For applying for CFE examination includes at least 2 years of professional experience in a field precisely or obliquely related to prevention or disclosure of fraud is needed. ACFE recognizes the professional experiences mentioned below;

Auditing and accounting
Sociology and criminology
Prevention of Loss
Investigation in Fraud
Law related to fraud

Other experiences can also qualify, but it needs to be inspected for its validity.

3. Moral character

ACFE requires testimonials of the candidate’s characteristics before giving the certificate. This will requires all your academic proof, certificates, transcripts and etc.

4. Adhere to the Code of Ethics

The following code of ethics must be followed;

Show responsibility towards professionalism and perseverance while carrying out their responsibility
Will not get involved in any unethical or unauthorized event or any action which creates conflicts
Will not reveal any classified information without any permission
During the course of the examination will reveal all the relevant materials discovered
Will work hard to increase their ability and capability of the professional work performed by their order
Gather information or any other documentation to create a reasonable base for any opinion interpreted. No opinion should be articulated regarding the guilt or innocence of a group or any person
Without being bias or discrimination abide by the lawful orders of the court and vouch for the matters honestly
Show the highest level of honesty in the performance of all the assignments of professional and accept only the assignments for which there is a moderate level of expectation that the assignment will be completed with the capability of the profession

5. Plan your timeline for study the CFE EXAM

Prepare a timeline for taking preparation for CFE examination as definitely you don’t want to cramp up everything at the end. By cramping up everything, you would not be able to retain your memory properly and you will not achieve the goal that you were looking for. So, prepare a proper timeline to study for your CFE examination. Make a routine for your study period, sort out the contents according to your syllabus, keep a note of subjects that you need to focus more than other topics, re-revise what you have studied to have a better memory. And definitely, don’t forget to have some spare time to relax.

6. How to prepare the CFE exam

There is a lot to do to prepare yourself properly for CFE examination. Without a proper plan to study you might end up panicking before the examination and might forget to cover some of the chapters that you might not be good at. I have discussed some tactics which will help you to excel in your CFE examination.

7. Fast-track your preparation

At first, ask yourself how fast you want to complete your preparation for CFE examination. To excel in your examination, you have to study every day and periodically. You should almost make a routine to make sure you have completed all the section needs to be covered for CFE. You can fast-track your preparation by dividing the plan into three parts;

30 Day Plan

You need to spend 15hours every week to prepare yourself for CFE examination
Cover the syllabus by breaking it down into chunks
Complete each section according to your choice
Keep on answering each question in every section according to all the knowledge you have according to the study time you have allocated for each section to be completed

60 Day Plan

You need to spend 7.5hours every week to prepare yourself for CFE examination
Cover the syllabus by breaking it down into chunks
Complete each section according to your choice
Keep on answering each question in every section according to all the knowledge you have according to the study time you have allocated for each section to be completed

90 Day Plan

You need to spend 5hours every week to prepare yourself for CFE examination
Cover the syllabus by breaking it down into chunks
Complete each section according to your choice
Keep on answering each question in every section according to all the knowledge you have according to the study time you have allocated for each section to be completed

8. Group together your difficult questions

Mark the questions that you find difficult to solve. During reviewing other questions, you will be able to back and forth to the questions that you were not able to solve and solve it later on.

9. Create a study station

Create a study station in your room for studying. Make the study stable enough spacious so that you can move around your study materials. Study in a quiet room with proper lighting. Do not carry any electronic device in your study station, turn off the devices and keep it away from study station. But if music helps you to concentrate then only play the music, do not browse other mobile apps through your phone.

10. Learn the style of your exam

As you will be sitting for your CFE examination, you should definitely learn the style of the examination so that you can prepare yourself accordingly. There are 4 sections in CFE examination; Fraud Examination and Investigation, Criminology and Ethics, Financial Transactions and Legal Elements of Fraud. Total there is 500 question, each section has 125 questions, per question you will get 75 seconds and you will get 30 days to complete CFE examination.

11. Start studying well in advance

You start studying well in advance as it will help you to prepare well for your examination. Break down your study into chunks and keep on revising them periodically, this will help you to retain it the memory for a longer time. Before one or two weeks of your examination, start an initial review, this will keep you feel excited and you will be able to figure out the structure of the course and the quantity of the material. Create a plan and follow it accordingly to revise all the chapters as required. At the beginning of each study period, do a review for ten minutes on what you have studied previously based on this material.

12. Identify challenging areas

Figure the sections, chapters that you need to put more effort. Make a list of it, then sort it out by sections and revise those areas, put more effort into the difficult session. So that you can excel in your examination.

13. Set a target date for completing the CFE Exam

14. Quiz yourself by taking the practice exams

To assess your knowledge of CFE, solve practice exams. This will help you to keep track of your strength and weakness. You will be able to figure out the area where you need to put more effort and prepare routine accordingly. Revise those section, chapters and keep on solving practice questions, repeat this process until you sit for the CFE examination.

15. Create study strategies

Create strategies to prepare yourself properly for the examination. Breakdown the time period to 30-50 minutes and take a break for 10minutes, in this way you will be able to focus well to retain the information properly as you are preparing yourselves. Find out the times in a day that you are productive at and study at those times only, this will help you to study properly and excel in your examination. Figure out the sections you need to spend the most time, make a routine accordingly and try to follow that routine to perform well in your CFE examination.

16. Examination format

In this section, you will get the idea of the examination format and prepare yourself accordingly.

17. Question Format

There is a total of 500 questions which is divided into four sections each section contains 125 questions, and each question has a time limit of 75 seconds.

18. Fraud Examination and Investigation

This section will check your skillset on why do people execute fraud and what are the ways to prevent it. In this chapter you will learn about the origin of crime, fraud committed at occupation, white-collar crime, preventing fraud, assessing the risk of fraud and the ACFE Code of Professional Ethics.

19. Fraud Investigation

In this section, it will contain the questions on gathering information from the public, tracking illegal transactions, writing a report, assessing fraud, taking proclamation and interviewing.

20. Financial Transactions

This section will check your skillset on financial transaction of fraud obtained in the records of accounting. In this section, it will contain the questions on fundamental of accounting and theory of audit, the strategy of fraud, internal controls to prevent fraud and other knowledge on auditing and accounting.

21. Legal Elements of Fraud

In this section it will contain the questions on several legal consequences of handling fraud examinations, which includes the law of civil and criminal, conducts of evidence, legal rights of the accuser, accused and expert witness.

Conclusion

In this article, we have explained the requirements of academic and professional, moral character, Code of Ethics, how to make a proper plan to excel in CFE examination and the format of the examination and the sections that need to be studied and reviewed.

I hope this article has helped you to excel in your CFE examination. Best of luck for your CFE exam and may you pass with flying colours.

Jean A. Sharp

Jean have over 20 years of experience in compliance and fraud management field. She now works as Senior Manager in CFEExam's exam team.

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