Training
The NCEO's CEP Institute Exam Prep Course is a complete educational tool that combines the benefits of online learning with hundreds of sample practice questions. CEP candidates enrolled in our preparation course receive (1) access to our online learning environment with a multitude of sample questions, answers, and explanations; (2) a final exam; (3) question review Webinars presented by leading experts; (4) a Quick Reference Guide for use during studying; and (5) supplemental study documents.
Prices are the same for members and nonmembers. The course is sold per-season, and access to the course lasts until the exam. To use it again for the next exam administration, you will have to buy it again.
- If you have never enrolled in the course, you will receive an email with login information within one business day (if you don't see this, please check your spam folder).
- If you previously purchased the course, you will not receive an email but can log back into your previous account within one business day. Please allow 24 hours for your registration to process Monday through Thursday; registrations submitted on Friday will be processed on the following Monday.
"I can't believe it! I passed Level 3 and am done with the CEP. I really couldn't have done it without you. You've always been so patient with me in answering my questions, whether it was through email or phone. I can tell you really cared for your students and wanted them to do well and succeed."
— N. Lipschik, CEP
| Level 1 (ECA) Prep Course | Level 2 Prep Course | Level 3 Prep Course |
|---|---|---|
| Over 300 Level 1 sample test questions | Over 250 Level 2 sample test questions, plus all Level 1 sample questions | Almost 200 Level 3 sample test questions, plus all Level 1 and 2 sample questions |
| 110-question final exam | 110-question final exam | 77-question final exam |
| CEP Institute Exam Quick Reference Guide | CEP Institute Exam Quick Reference Guide | CEP Institute Exam Quick Reference Guide |
| Four question review Webinars | Four question review Webinars, plus Level 1 Webinars | Four question review Webinars, plus Level 1 and 2 Webinars |
| Unlimited access to Webinar replays until exam date | Unlimited access to Webinar replays until exam date | Unlimited access to Webinar replays until exam date |
| Supplemental study documents | Supplemental study documents | Supplemental study documents |
Try Out Our Demo on Our New Learning Platform
The demo version of the course has a quiz with five questions and an exam with five questions to show you how the interface works. Log into the demo here (click "Sign In" in the upper-right corner) with the email [email protected] and the password Test-optimist-23. See the bottom of this page for an illustrated description of our new platform.
Course Components
Hundreds of Sample Test Questions, Newly Updated
The CEP Institute Exams present considerable difficulties, even for experienced professionals. Working through challenging questions such as those in our Exam Prep Course is an essential preparation tool for the exam. For each CEP test level, we provide multiple-choice practice questions written by equity compensation experts, many of whom have written actual CEP exam questions and are CEPs themselves. The questions address the four subject areas the CEP Institute exam covers: Accounting; Taxation; Corporate and Securities Law; and Equity Plan Design, Analysis, and Administration. Students take quizzes online and instantly find out whether they have answered correctly. For each answer, students are given a reference to required CEP Institute study materials and an explanation of the correct answer. Your access to the sample questions lasts until the date of the next CEP exam. The questions, answers, and references are updated for each administration of the exam.
Because the CEP exams are cumulative, you should review the earlier levels as you study for Levels 2 or 3. Because of this, the NCEO's Prep Course automatically gives you access to all information from the earlier levels.
"I passed Levels I, II and III all on the first pass, and the NCEO Prep Course was essential to my success. The course materials are extensive, and the quality of the questions and the level of difficulty very closely mimics the real exam. The new MP3 capability was especially helpful for me as I was traveling while preparing. THANK YOU SO MUCH to everyone involved!"
— Patrick McNamara, CEP, Director Executive Compensation Operations, PepsiCo Inc.
A New Selection and Ordering of Questions Every Time You Start a Quiz
The Prep Course features quizzes that randomly reshuffle the questions from the given level and topic every time you start taking a quiz. This makes the quizzes more challenging when you repeat them.
"Thank you for all of your help with the NCEO's CEPI Exam Prep Course, including the webinars. They were extremely helpful! I took advantage of all three courses, beginning with Level 1 prep for June 2016. I passed all three parts on the first try! I will be sure to refer others to use the NCEO's Prep Course!"
— Matt Franklin, CEP, Executive Compensation, Eastman Chemical Company
Final Exam, Now with Randomized Question Ordering
We include a final exam to simulate the actual CEPI exam. The questions are drawn from the sample test questions described above, each question has three answers as in the CEPI exam, and their number and difficulty correspond to your CEPI exam level. As of 2023, the questions in the exam are reshuffled every time you take it, just as with the quizzes.
Question Review Webinars
Our Exam Prep Course also includes Webinars—prerecorded PowerPoint presentations broadcast over the Internet. The Webinars review sample questions to help prepare you for the actual exam and also instruct you on the topic of the Webinar. You can view these an unlimited number of times until the date of the next national exam. You also can download an audio file of the audio portion to play on your digital devices.
CEP Institute Exam Quick Reference Guide
Another component of our Exam Prep Course is our Quick Reference Guide, a PDF you can download from within the Prep Course to serve as a reference while studying. The Quick Reference Guide consists of eight pages and is packed with common definitions, formulas and the like, serving as a fast and easy reference during study.
Supplemental Study Documents
The Prep Course includes a number of supplemental documents, such as a pyramid exercise example and a timeline worksheet to assist in working through questions.
About Our New Learning Platform
We have taken the same content (questions, webinars, etc.), updated it where needed for 2023, and placed it in a new learning management system that looks quite different from the pre-2023 course. The main differences are:
- Both quizzes and exams present questions one at a time.
- There are separate modules (mini-courses) for the material for all levels and for each level.
The screenshots below display this (you also can simply log into our demo, described above):
The student dashboard:
The first question of a quiz:
The question after it has been answered (note that on the left, it shows how many questions are in each quiz pool—90 for Corporate & Securities Law, 56 for Accounting, etc.):
A quiz (in this case, the Level 3 administration quiz) after all questions have been answered:
A webinar (this was recorded in 2021 but is still current and did not need to be updated; however, the text references in the handout have been updated for 2023, hence the different years in the filenames for the downloadable PDF handout and audio file):
A supplemental document (with an annotation pointing out a download icon):
Terms of Use
The price of the CEP Institute Exam Prep Course varies depending on your candidate level. Your access to the Prep Course questions, Webinars, and other aspects of the online course will last until the date after the CEP Institute exams. The prices given here are per-user prices; your access cannot be shared with others.
The CEP Exam Prep Course is not an independent training course on equity compensation but rather an exam preparation course for those who have registered with the CEPI to take a forthcoming exam.