The Right Study Schedule for the Customs Broker Exam: Study Smarter, Not Harder

The CBLE is a big exam. It takes time to adequately prepare. In my experience, the primary reason people fail the exam is that they do not allocate enough time to prepare. 

Let’s put this in context. The exam has 80 multiple-choice questions that must be answered in 4.5 hours. That might not seem overly difficult but consider that it is open book and there are about 6,000 pages of material these questions can come from. 

Digging a little deeper I can tell you that 30 topics are routinely tested, and the details are found in about 2,000 pages of those references.

This should be starting to paint a picture of the scope of the exam. While the exam is challenging, it is not impossible, and it doesn’t need to be as daunting or scary as the stories I’m sure you’ve heard from others.

What does it take to Prepare for the Customs Broker Exam?

If you’ve done any research on how much time you should dedicate to preparing for the Customs Broker Exam, I’m sure you’ve seen the 150 to 200 hours of study time recommendation thrown around.

This is not a bad rule of thumb. Unfortunately, this is not an exact science. Just because you spend 200 hours studying does not guarantee you will pass. Just like spending less than 200 hours studying does not guarantee you will fail.

The quality of the study is far more important. Let me explain.

How We Learn

STOP! Don’t skip this part. I know you just want to know how many hours you need to get ready for the exam, but I promise this short read is worth it.

There have been many scientific studies on how our brain learns and stores information. There are 3 particular learning tactics that I follow and feel are extremely important to setting yourself up for success. I am going to provide an extremely brief summary of these techniques. You are welcome to read more about each if you would like.

Cognitive Load Management: structure information in a way that reduces unnecessary cognitive demands on learners. For our purposes, this means:

• approaching each of the exam topics in bite-sized segments. 
• start with the basics and build on them so more complex topics are more easily understood
• Wherever possible we try to relate information to everyday practices so it makes more sense.

Spaced Repetition: a learning technique that emphasizes spreading learning sessions out over time to improve understanding and long-term retention.

• Avoid the forgetting curve: we forget a significant part of what we learn soon after learning it
• Frequent review helps ensure the information we have learned is committed to long-term memory banks
• This also helps with understanding and applying the information we have learned
• Short, frequent periods of study are far more effective than infrequent, long study periods. In short, cramming doesn’t work

Impact of Sleep on Learning and Memory: we all know that getting a good night’s sleep is important for cognitive function, but did you know that we continue to learn while we sleep? Research shows:

• During sleep the brain processes and consolidates information from the day
• It moves memories from temporary memory (hippocampus) to long-term memory (neocortex)
• Sleep also strengthens the connections between memories making it easier to recall and understand information

Putting it All Together: The Keys to Passing the Customs Broker Exam

If we take the size and scope of the exam, the information that a test taker must know, and information about how we learn we can put together a roadmap for success.

I’ve been teaching exam courses for 15 years now. I’ve watched students try to rush through the material in a month, and I’ve had students spend 6 to 12 months preparing. Which is better?

I can tell you, slow and steady wins the race, but you don’t need a year. In my experience, 12-14 weeks is a good timeframe, but this is largely dependent on your grasp of the topics.

Rather than have a rigid timeline, use the 12-14 weeks as a rough guideline of when to get started. When you are studying there are 3 extremely important guidelines to follow.

Study often: 

You don’t need to spend all day every day studying. You don’t need to ignore friends and family for 6 months. 1-2 hours a day is sufficient. Consistency is far more important than how long you spend in each study session.

Remember, using the principles of “Spaced Repetition” we know that frequent review and practice with new information will help our understanding and retention. Study every day. Use 1-2 hours as a benchmark but a better gauge is how you are feeling. When you lose focus, and find yourself rereading the same thing, or rewinding a video repeatedly, you are just wasting your time. Call it a day and go enjoy your life. Come back to it again tomorrow.

I like to do my learning first thing in the morning. Before my family is up I try to get 1 to 2 hours of learning in. I find this pace is easy to stick to, it isn’t overwhelming, and I feel accomplished every day. Give it a try.

Focus on One Topic at a Time

Following the principles of Cognitive Load Management, we know that we want to break the information up into bite-sized chunks. Simplify complex topics into little pieces that can be understood.

I’m sure you’ve experienced a situation in school where a new concept was introduced that you didn’t quite grasp. Then another new topic was introduced and it just stacked confusion on top of confusion.

Don’t put yourself in this situation. Forget about trying to work through a full exam all at once or studying multiple topics at once. Stick to a topic until you have a firm grasp and then move on to the next.

You will find some topics that are super easy for you to understand. That’s great, keep moving on to the next topic. But then others, it will feel like you are never going to make sense of it. It is human nature to want to skip it and focus on something you can understand. Stick with it though. You will have a breakthrough and things will make sense. At one point, things will just start to click. When you have that “aha!” moment, it is time to move forward again.

Again, the important thing here is to study every day. Stick with a topic until it makes sense and then, and only then move on to the next.

Get Adequate Sleep Every Day

When we talk about getting enough sleep we aren’t just meaning the night before the exam. Our brains are amazing things. A huge portion of the learning that happens, happens while we are sleeping.

Have you ever struggled with a problem, went to bed, and then the next day you found the solution? This isn’t a fluke. Our brains continue to process information while we sleep. It takes memories from the day and stores them. It also looks for ways to connect this new information to existing memories or existing things we know. This process of connecting memories helps us better understand concepts.

Then, tie repetition in and it’s a whole new ball game. If you read something once, likely, you may not retain any of the information or just a small fragment of it. Your brain is making a decision about what is important. When you read something repeatedly it goes from unimportant to important. Your brain retains more of that information, it makes more connections to related information that you already know, and the result is you better understand the topic and you can more easily recall information about it. This leads to those “A Ha!” moments.

So How Much Time Do You Need to Prepare for the Customs Broker Exam?

Use 12 to 14 weeks as your rule of thumb. Put together an outline of topics to study, but don’t try to stick to a rigid schedule by topic. As I said, some will be quick, some will seem impossible. Keep at it and everything will make sense.

If you would like a little more structure, or a done-for-you guide to follow that walks you through all of the major topics, provides practice questions for each topic from past exams, and gives you access to Licensed Customs Brokers to answer your questions whenever you have them, check out our course.

We have a free preview where you can work through the first 8 lessons of the course. You will get some valuable information on how to set up your reference materials, more detail on structuring your study time, and a complete walkthrough of “broker responsibilities” which is one of the more heavily tested topics on the exam.

If you like our teaching style you are free to sign up for the full course at any time. Just remember, don’t wait! There is way too much material to cram. Plan to start early, and study every day, and this will be a great learning experience rather than a stressful nightmare.