I have signed up for the ABA Online Review Course to study for taking the CRCM course in April. I would appreciate any "tips" from those of you who just took and passed the test. I want to pass this thing the first time....pressure is building. Any helps you can give would be greatly appreciated!

Study, study, study. That is the best advice I can give. Pay attention to the categories. Being a national test, you cannot exclude anything because you are not involved in it. That is, you may not have credit cards offered, but there will be questions pertaining to that. The same for other topics.

Search on CRCM and you'll get some hits on others study tips and test critiques.

And good luck.

Brenda, what Andy said is 100% true.

Another way to reinforce out some of the things you know and get a better understanding of the things you do not routinely get involved with, is to look at the questions on BOL, formulate an answer in your mind, then look at the answers that are given.

You will find that most of the respondents provide an explanation with the answer, and most of the questions could easily be test questions.

Study the kirchman compliance manual, the big orange book. It is available for free on their website at www.kirchman.com.

Study the kirchman compliance manual, the big orange book. It is available for free on their website at www.kirchman.com.

I just took the test (and passed!) in October. One thing I found out is that the questions in the ABA study guide are harder than the questions on the test. Those test questions in the study guide had me in a bit of a panic. Another important tip, don't wait until the last minute to study!

Something else which probably goes without saying is to really concentrate on the rules and regs that you don't normally have to deal with, as Andy mentioned.

And another thing that was probably just due to how I learn and study, I had some difficulty at first studying from the outline format in the study guide. I guess I was just used to the narrative form of the regs. But, once I got used to the format, I found it to be a good way to study. And, now that the test is behind me, I also found that the outline format is a great reference when you need to find a quick answer without having to dig into the text of the reg.

Good luck!

Thanks from all of you for your advice. I have been studying for awhile, and will incorporate all of your suggestions. I have the ABA Regulatory Guidance Book and will be receiving a more current one with the ABA Online Review Course. Been in Banking for 15 years, but some of the regs on the test I have not been fully exposed to...so those will be my weakness and the ones I need to study the most. I have requested a mentor through ABA, and hope that will also give me some valuable insight. THis web site and Banker's Threads has been a blessing for all my compliance needs. I rarely have to submit questions, because most of them are already answered in Banker's Threads or Top Stories, etc. Thanks!

Does anyone know how many people (on average) take the test, and how many of those pass? What kind of score is required to pass? What is the difficulty level to other banking certification exams?

I want to say the pass rate was 75%, but it has been nearly a year since I heard this number. For real specifics I suggest you call the ICB.

My advice to the test taker is simply: Critical reading of the question AND the answers. You will be able to get each question down to 2 possible answers. Then carefully read those two becasue they will be both be correct, but one will be MORE correct. In most cases, the difference in the two possible answers is very subtle.

I studied for a few weeks (I used the manual) and I did fairly well, BUT I had 15 years of experience in compliance prior to taking the exam.

Good luck.

What is CRCM? Excuse the dumb question, but I really don't know.
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Certified Regulatory Compliance Manager