This CAMS cheat sheet distills the ACAMS Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist exam into a printable rundown of the facts examiners test most across all four content areas. It's a premium cheat sheet built by Capital Prep — the one premium prep we trust — and it's yours free. Reinforce it with the rest of your free CAMS toolkit: the practice test, study guide, and flashcards.
CAMS exam at a glance
- Certifying body: ACAMS (Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists)
- Questions: 120 multiple-choice and multiple-response
- Time: 3.5 hours (210 minutes)
- Passing score: Scaled score of ~75 (roughly 75% correct; equated across forms)
- Format: Proctored, computer-based via Pearson VUE
- Eligibility: ACAMS membership plus qualifying education/experience credits
What’s on the CAMS cheat sheet
- AML, CFT & Sanctions Compliance Programs (~28%) — the program pillars, three lines of defense, risk assessment, KYC/CDD/EDD, beneficial ownership, and SAR filing — the single heaviest area.
- Risks & Methods of ML & TF (~26%) — the three stages, structuring, trade-based laundering, shell companies, PEPs, correspondent banking, and the red flags that expose them.
- Compliance Standards for AML & CFT (~25%) — FATF and the 40 Recommendations, grey/black lists, Basel, Wolfsberg, Egmont, the U.S. BSA/PATRIOT Act/OFAC, and EU directives.
- Conducting & Supporting Investigations (~21%) — the investigation workflow, sanctions and watchlist screening, monitoring tuning, false positives vs. false negatives, and case-management tools.
How to use it in your final week
- Memorize the three stages in order — placement → layering → integration — and the key idea that placement is the most detectable stage; scenario items ask you to name the stage from a fact pattern.
- Lock down the exam's favorite distinctions: SAR (filed on judgment) vs. CTR (automatic for cash over USD 10,000/day), never tip off, and the good-faith SAR safe harbor.
- Front-load the two heaviest areas — Compliance Programs (~28%) and Risks & Methods (~26%) — so more than half the exam is your strongest ground.
- Read the sheet the morning of the test for a final pass on acronyms (FATF, BSA, OFAC/SDN, KYC/CDD/EDD, PEP), then pair each review with a short timed practice set to keep your pacing sharp.
The cheat sheet is your review layer — your CAMS practice test drives the exam-readiness ring at the top of this page. Download it, review, then take a full practice exam (or drill with the study guide and flashcards) to see where you stand.
CAMS cheat sheet FAQ
Yes — the CAMS cheat sheet is 100% free to download as a PDF, with no sign-up required. It sits alongside Career Employer's free CAMS practice test, study guide, and flashcards so you can cram, drill, and review without a paywall.
It condenses the highest-yield ACAMS facts into a quick reference organized by the four exam content areas: laundering typologies and red flags, the global AML/CFT standards (FATF, Basel, Wolfsberg, BSA, OFAC), compliance-program pillars and KYC/CDD, and the investigation process. Definitions the exam loves — structuring, SAR vs. CTR, tipping off — are pulled out so you can glance and go.
It's built from the current sixth-edition CAMS exam content outline and the underlying primary sources — the FATF 40 Recommendations, the BSA, and FinCEN's CDD Rule — and we review it against ACAMS's published materials regularly.
No — the cheat sheet is a last-mile review and memory aid, not a substitute for working scenario questions across all four content areas. The CAMS is scored as a scaled score around 75%, and its items ask you to apply concepts, so use the sheet to lock in facts and the practice test to build applied reasoning.
Click the download button (or the preview card) at the top of this page to open the PDF instantly. Bookmark this page so you can find it again during your final week before test day.
References
- 1.ACAMS. “CAMS — Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist Certification.” acams.org, 2026. ↑
- 2.Financial Action Task Force. “The FATF Recommendations (International Standards on Combating Money Laundering).” FATF. ↑
- 3.Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). “Bank Secrecy Act.” FinCEN, U.S. Department of the Treasury. ↑
- 4.Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). “Customer Due Diligence Requirements for Financial Institutions.” FinCEN. ↑
- 5.U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control. “Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List (SDN).” U.S. Department of the Treasury. ↑
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