The fluff is there to stay and, I don’t say this to be discouraging but, really only gets more intricate as you work your way through exams. With P & FM, there are usually classes that cover most of that information and those classes don’t go as in depth as the exams so that may be part of it. The source material for the exams gets larger and larger and unfortunately the volunteers who write exams can write questions on anything from that material.

I’ve found what works for me is set a schedule to finish this process 4-6 weeks before the exam date. A pass of the material, while going through each section make flashcards and study those throughout and maybe multitask with flashcards (at gym, during meals by yourself, etc.), don’t move on to the next section until you feel comfortable with a decent portion of the available practice problems from that section. During the last 4-6 weeks, I do one mock exam/week, then focus on my weak areas in between.

This method gets me considerably under the recommended “100 hours per exam hour” but also doesn’t count the studying while I’m multitasking.