I suppose every person who gets their Private Pilot certificate is told "now you have a license to learn" and while cliched it's true.... but that's even more true for the CFI I think. You study to learn requirements and rules and the importance of understanding psychology and having a written plan for training students, then you take the intense check ride and 5 minutes later you're a CFI.... a CFI who knows pretty much diddly squat about teaching. So, I'd say focus on really knowing the rules and requirements. Build a great reference library because after a year, you likely wont remember all the endorsement requirements for every situation, nor what a Commercial helicopter pilot needs to do to get his fixed wing rating, etc. but you should know how to look it up right away. Intensity can be a great tool to focus and learn a lot of material, material you will inevitably forget... just dont forget how to find it again. Remember, all the technical details you focus on for the CFI are about 1/3 of what you need as a CFI, the other 2/3 are the people skills, assessment skills, teaching & communication skills that you will only develop through teaching people to fly, along with developing a greater skill and understanding of the airplane so you can safely maintain SA and comfortably let students fly the airplane badly while still learning.
