CAMS Exam Study Plan (6 Weeks)

Week 1 — Money laundering and terrorist financing methods

Build the vocabulary the rest of the exam assumes.

• Placement, layering and integration with real-world examples for each.
• Methods by sector: banks, money services businesses, casinos, real estate, trade-based laundering, virtual assets.
• Terrorist financing and proliferation financing: how they differ from money laundering.

Week 2 — International AML/CFT standards

CAMS is global: the FATF framework is the backbone.

• FATF 40 Recommendations, the risk-based approach, mutual evaluations and the high-risk jurisdiction lists.
• Egmont Group and FIUs, Basel Committee, Wolfsberg Group, and regional regimes such as the EU AML framework.

Week 3 — Compliance programs and KYC/CDD

The largest practical area for most candidates.

• Program pillars, the enterprise-wide risk assessment, customer risk rating, CDD and enhanced due diligence.
• Beneficial ownership, PEPs, correspondent banking, sanctions screening.
• Take a 25-question untimed set and log misses by topic.

Week 4 — Monitoring, reporting and investigations

Scenario questions usually come from here.

• Transaction monitoring and alert handling, SAR/STR decisions and narratives, tipping-off rules.
• Investigations: gathering evidence, responding to law enforcement requests, information sharing, when to exit a relationship.

Week 5 — Full practice and gap repair

Shift from reading to testing.

• Take the full practice bank in timed blocks; aim to finish 120 questions in well under 3.5 hours.
• Re-read the explanation for every miss and rewrite the rule in your own words.

Week 6 — Review and exam logistics

Lock in the high-yield facts.

• Review the cheat sheet daily and re-drill your two weakest topics.
• Confirm your scheduling window, ID rules and testing format with ACAMS.

Official sources

• ACAMS — CAMS certification
• FATF Recommendations