I tried a search and didn’t come up with what was looking for so I apoligize if this has been talked about already. This might be a stupid question but what are the chances of passing by focusing most of your time on the heavily weighted topics and not knowing the itty bitty details of the smaller ones? I’ve read that the small topics are the ones that have screwed people in the past ie. PM, BOP, time series but they just sometimes feel like a waste of time studying. PM is the last section I have to go through and I know I am going to hate it by reading what most of you have to say about it. By focusing primarily on FSA, Equity, Ethics and the easier sections of say Alt Inv, Corp Fin and Quant (for example), is there a chance of getting by with basic knowledge of the rest?? Obviously all material will have been read, questions completed etc but just focus the remainder of the time on the most important sections. Thoughts?
Already there is luck factor involved 
If you do this, you will be relying on luck even more…Very risky strategy… Know the basic idea about most of the LOS… At least you should be able to narrow down answer options to two…on most (preferably all) of the questions…
This is kind of the strategy I followed last year because I had about 4 months total to study, and here I am again this year. The problem with this is that you have to basically avoid stepping on any landmines in the areas you think you can pass in and that’s just really unlikely. I thought I would do really well in equity and econ, but a residual income model completely tripped me up and the BOP thing also threw me for a loop. Obviously you have to give the proper amount of time to the big areas or you don’t stand a chance, but the curveballs can come from anywhere so it’s a really risk strategy. I feel ya, I hate derivatives, quant and fixed income myself but I am aiming for _at least_ 50-70 in those areas because it’s really tough to recover from a 2/6 or worse in any one vignette… plus, you never know: I hate FI and quant but I got 50-70 last year because the questions they asked weren’t horrible.
yeah Aimee … its kinda tough in 4 months and burning me out already… I started on Feb 1st, after results got declared on Jan 28th. I have studied rigorously for 2 months 15 days so far…and came very long way during tht time…Just hoping for the best now … I would have definitely liked to do this at more leisurely pace though. You said it correct…curveball comes on your very strong topic then …its tough
Your best tactic rather than skipping the sections entirely would be to do a quick read a couple of days before the exam and watch the video on the section. Whatever sticks, sticks.
That makes sense…I could totally see that happen to me if I tried that…just trying to find a lazy way around the sections I hate haha. Trying to be optimistic about this exam is getting harder and harder as it gets closer.
join the party. my strategy will be (assuming I get to study) to get low hanging fruits in every section and then do really well on Equity Ethics and FRA. so I am focussing my time with those three… but I knwo as ppl have pointed out… … if CFAI decides to challenge us on any of those 3 topics, ill be in trouble. plsu have no time anymore to study as rigorously we’d like.
What if you learn all other subject and just dump PM, do you have a good chance of passing, I just dont think I have time to cover it.