(Posted July 2025)
Preparing for the CFE is one of the most significant challenges that you will face throughout your academic and professional career. It requires extensive technical knowledge, critical reading and writing skills, and time management discipline. Candidates who write the CFE are all smart, so what sets some students up for success and others struggle through the process?
This blog will be looking at the differences between successful candidates and those who struggle through the mindset lens. We will discuss scientific research on the topic, the application of this scientific research in the context of the CFE process and debriefing, and ways for you to shift from a fixed mindset or maintain an existing growth mindset.
The Research
Dr. Carol Dweck studied thousands of students over several decades and concluded that students can either have a fixed mindset or a growth mindset1:
- A growth mindset is the ideology that students who believe they can get smarter understand that their efforts create value. These students are likely to put more time and effort into studying, which often leads to higher achievement1.
- A fixed mindset is the ideology that students who believe that traits are inherently stable and unchangeable over time shy away from things that are unfamiliar. These students often avoid challenges and are unwilling to accept failures or mistakes2.
According to Dr. Dweck, students that have a fixed mindset struggle in challenging situations because they believe that there is no chance of accomplishing the goal if they do not already have the skill3.
Comparatively, students that have a growth mindset believe that every challenge is a learning opportunity, and each learning opportunity only makes you smarter. These students are more likely to be successful in each challenge3.
Applying the Research: The CFE Process and Debriefing
Now let’s look at how your mindset connects to the CFE process and debriefing. You are likely to have come across a CPA that has provided you with their opinions on the challenges that you should expect to face during the CFE process. They likely mentioned that the studying process varies significantly from the memorization techniques applied in university. They may have mentioned the challenges of debriefing cases effectively to ensure that your case writing skills improve over time. Further, they may have also told you that learning to stop writing a required once your time allocation is up even when you are not complete is just uncomfortable.
If you are experiencing some of these challenges, you probably feel one of two ways:
- This sounds like an interesting challenge for me!
- This sounds like something I do not want to do. I am sure my own methods will work and if they do not, the CFE was likely unfair anyway.
The first feeling is the application of the growth mindset. This individual likes the idea of a new challenge and is interested in learning how to apply new techniques to case-writing situations. The second feeling is the application of the fixed mindset. This individual does not want to change their study practices and feels like the odds are stacked against them anyway.
How to Maintain or Shift to a Growth Mindset
There are a variety of ways that you can maintain a growth mindset or shift away from a fixed mindset towards a growth mindset. We will go over some strategies here that you can employ in your day-to-day CFE studies:
1. Directly Address Challenges
When faced with a challenge, make sure to embrace it as a learning opportunity and remind yourself that the development of skills takes time. In the beginning of the CFE process, you likely will see No and Unsure rankings on your Day 1 cases and NA or NC rankings on your Day 2 and Day 3 cases. Addressing those rankings upfront and learning where you missed something in a case is critical to your skills development.
2. Accept and Seek Feedback
Continuously accept and seek feedback. Through Capstone 2 and Densmore CFE Prep, you will receive feedback from markers on your cases. These markers are highly qualified and have gone through a similar certification process that you are going through; their insight and guidance is invaluable to your learning. From that feedback, identify corrective actions to take to improve your performance instead of repeating the same mistakes.
3. Keep Your Study Group Positive
Be sure that the people that are in your life are positive and share a similar growth mindset. If you have people in your social network that have a fixed mindset, it will be difficult for you to remain positive. For example, if your study buddy focuses significantly on the negative and everything that is going wrong, this makes it challenging for you to maintain a growth mindset. Have a conversation with them to help change their perspective. If that does not work, consider parting ways and finding a new study partner since that may be in your best interest.
4. Be Cautious with Social Content Consumption
Make conscious decisions on what to spend your time listening to or reading. We have all experienced group chats or social media content that focuses on the negatives in a challenge. For example, the IT technical issues faced during the 2019 CFE engaged many to complain in between days to others writing the exam. Some complained there was no way to pass the exam given the ongoing concerns rather than focusing on their study plans that would have indicated specific approach skills to review in the evenings. Engaging in content that focuses on a fixed mindset will risk shifting your own mindset.
How can you overcome obstacles or setbacks with a growth mindset? It is difficult for everyone to always be positive – it can be easy to fall into a negativity trap. The most important concept is to identify the negative attitude and re-shift your focus to a growth mindset.
- Follow a study plan so you know what you should do each day. Leverage available resources to learn topics that you are not familiar with and to develop the case approach and writing skills needed. Be open to adjusting your methodology to give you the best chances for success.
- Celebrate small wins! While writing cases, you are likely to eliminate NAs on Day 2 and Day 3 cases first – that is a great start to being ready to challenge the CFE. Pick up your favourite treat to reward yourself.
- Don’t be too hard on yourself. Every candidate before you had struggles during their studies. You are not the first and you will not be the last. Instead, have realistic expectations of your performance and use the mistakes you made as a learning opportunity – you may not see the exact same required again but you may see the same underlying concept.
1 https://www.mindsetworks.com/science/#:~:text=n%20students’%20attitudes%20about%20failure
2 https://online.hbs.edu/blog/post/growth-mindset-vs-fixed-mindset
3 https://emeritus.org/in/learn/online-learning-growth-mindset/