This is another beast of an exam by most accounts. I haven’t taken it myself, so I’m relying on third-party reviews here—but from everything I’ve read, this one isn’t something you want to walk into cold. The general advice from test-takers is pretty consistent: you should have some background in accounting before attempting the Principles of Finance DSST. If you haven’t taken an accounting course, I’d strongly recommend checking out the Financial Accounting CLEP. A lot of the foundational knowledge from that exam shows up here too, and having that base will make this one a lot more manageable. In short, this isn’t an exam to underestimate. If you’re already comfortable with concepts like time value of money, financial statements, and basic investment principles, you’ll be ahead of the curve. If not, plan on setting aside some serious study time—and make sure you’re doing practice problems, not just reading definitions.