Competitive exams on your own
Preparing a competitive exam alone? Organize months of work around your materials.
Without a prépa, nobody tells you what matters in a broad syllabus or corrects your answers. Start with the official text of the exam and the jury reports when they exist, then split the syllabus across the months you have left. Fichea can help you turn your courses and notes into questions, as long as those materials are up to date.
By Fichea · Updated
How to organize this work
Start from the exam notice and the official syllabus
The tests, coefficients and dates can be read in the opening decree or the exam notice, and on the organizer’s website. For the state civil service, the general calendar on the civil service portal gathers the decrees and notices published in the Journal officiel. Anything you read on a forum should always be checked against these texts.
Split the syllabus over several months
Divide the syllabus into three stages: learn the core, practice on questions, then work through past papers in real conditions. Each week, keep a slot to review the topics of previous weeks. An error log, sorted by topic, shows you where to go back without rereading everything.
Make up for the lack of a marker
Quizzes and short questions drawn from your materials quickly tell you what you can recall, with an explanation for each answer. For an essay, a synthesis note or a case study, compare your paper with the jury reports and official model answers when they exist, or swap papers with other candidates.
An evening of preparation after work
- Review the flashcards due that day.
- Read part of the syllabus in your material and prepare a sheet to check.
- Answer ten short questions without notes, then read the corrections.
- Write in your error log what keeps coming back, with the page of the relevant material.
Once a week, replace this evening with a timed past paper, then correct it with the official documents available.
A text that may have changed
Your public law material is several years old, and a generated question cites an article of law. How do you know whether you can learn it?
Read the explanation
Check the version of the article currently in force on Légifrance and compare it with the date of your material. If the text has been amended, correct your sheet and your card before reviewing them. A generated question draws on your material, with its possible errors or outdated versions.
What Fichea does not do for a competitive exam
Fichea does not provide the exam’s courses and does not predict the topics. Nor does it mark an essay, a synthesis note or an oral test. Check the rules in the official texts, and the features included in your plan on the Pricing page.
General calendar of state civil service competitive exams (civil service portal)
Tools to keep going
Questions about this path
Does Fichea offer courses for the CRPE or the civil service?
No. You import your own materials: courses, notes or documents you have the right to use. Fichea turns them into sheets, corrected quizzes and flashcards. Choosing and updating the materials remains your responsibility, especially in law and institutions.
Where can I check the dates and tests of my exam?
In the opening decree or the exam notice, and on the organizer’s website. For the state civil service, the general calendar on the civil service portal gathers the decrees and notices published in the Journal officiel. A date you read elsewhere should always be checked against these texts.
Do generated quizzes look like the exam tests?
Not necessarily. They are questions drawn from your materials, with an explanation for each answer, meant to check your knowledge. For the real format, work on past papers and the topics published by the organizer, under time limits.
How many months does it take to prepare a competitive exam alone?
It depends on the exam, your starting level and the hours available each week. Start from the date of the first test and count backwards: time to learn the syllabus, then several weeks of past papers. If the math doesn’t work, cut the minor topics rather than your rest time.
Choose a first material
Start with content you can check. Imported documents remain your starting point; AI answers can contain errors. The plans and their limits, the terms of use and the privacy policy are available to read before you create an account.
Create a quiz from my materials