What do I do if I fall behind on my CFA study plan?

Decide based on how far behind and which topics remain. Three weeks behind is common and usually recoverable.

Triage in order:

1. Defer is the right answer if you have not covered FRA, Fixed Income, and Ethics at the four-weeks-out mark. These three carry roughly 40 to 50 percent of exam weight. Without them you will be guessing on too much of the exam.
2. If you have covered the heavy topics but the schedule has slipped on lighter topics (Derivatives, Alternatives, Portfolio Management), keep the exam date. These topics can be compressed without major impact.
3. If you have covered everything but only at surface depth, prioritize mocks over more reading. The mocks will tell you where the depth gap is. Reading another time through the curriculum without mock feedback rarely fixes the gap in the time available.

Acceptable compressions when time is tight:

• Derivatives to one week of focused work.
• Portfolio Management to four days.
• Skip the second pass through Economics.

Never compressible:

• FRA: too heavy.
• Fixed Income: too math-dependent.
• Ethics: too heavily weighted and rewards recency.
• Mock exams: skipping mocks usually costs more than skipping a topic re-read.

The Institute lets you defer once per cycle for a fee. If you defer, restart the plan from where you left off rather than redoing topics you covered well.