CFA help!

D

DROGE456

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Joined
Oct 9, 2016
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65
Hi everyone. Feb 28 is coming soon and I just can't seem to be getting better with my CFA scores. The things I'm having trouble with is the push-ups and sit-ups. Can do 40 max push-ups and 45 sit-ups currently at my maximum in be 2 minute time span. Does anyone have any tips? Tomorrow I'm going to see a personal trainer and see what he says.
 
Have you practiced the CFA in sequence to see what you get? What I'm getting at is, if you don't do it and turn in your scores then you don't know if you passed. They don't post minimum scores from what I see. As for the rest of your application, do you have a nom and are you medically qualified?
 
Stew Smith has a book about passing the CFA with some good tips. What helped me increase my push ups was putting my hands on a box about 12-24 inches off the floor and doing as many push ups as I could. Then taking a quick break and doing it two more times. See if the personal trainer can give you other exercises. In the end it comes down to how badly you want this. Are you willing to put in the work? Are you willing to do push ups 10 times a day if that is what it takes? Don't answer. Just ask yourself how badly you want this. Then come up with a plan and execute. Good Luck!
 
Practice,practice, practice, and do complete CFA practice test with the time for the event and the rest in between this way you will test your cardio-respiratory endurance.
Do you have someone to administer the test?
Here is a link for the instructions, http://www.usma.edu/admissions/Shared Documents/CFA_Instructions.pdf
Make sure you breath when you do each rep, I know I tend to hold my breath and deplete my oxygen at times.
Good luck!
 
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Not sure if this'll help you, but my squad leader at USNASS gave us some advice that personally works pretty well for me. For the push ups, pump out as many as possible before you start to realize your arms are tired. Then, start pumping them out by tens, fives, or whatever increments you can handle. If you're at 45, just focus on getting to 50. At 50, push yourself and think, just 3 more. When my arms start getting really tired, I also like to widen my arms a little bit to use slightly different muscles. Furthermore, I find that arching my back up (or maybe you prefer bowing your back down--both are allowed in the CFA as long as all four contact points are still on the ground and you resume the proper position afterwards) to rest for a moment helps relieve some of the weight, and then I start pushing again. However, for sit ups, I was advised to keep moving steadily throughout the 2 minutes and don't stop. Fold your arms, grab the collar of your shirt, and don't let go. Make sure that you're moving up and down as efficiently as possible. If you're not already doing so, try to max out your push ups/sit ups everyday, but make sure to rest the days before you actually do your testing. Another candidate at USNASS told me that when he practices, he doesn't start counting push ups until he's tired if you're that hardcore! Good luck!
 
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