Thanks for taking out the time guys! Good karma is coming your way.
Read all the blue highlighted terms and memorize the definitions. They may not be critical to learning the underlying concept of the study session or volume but that memorization will probably get you 10-15% correct leaving more room for error on the trickier computation stuff.
andytrader Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Read all the blue highlighted terms and memorize > the definitions. They may not be critical to > learning the underlying concept of the study > session or volume but that memorization will > probably get you 10-15% correct leaving more room > for error on the trickier computation stuff. That’s actually a really good tip. Make sure you go through the glossary at the end of the CFA books before the exam.
Cheers mates! Hope the rest of the June crew will keep chiming in with their thoughts.
For people who used Schweser, how are the difficulty of the actual exam versus the Concept Checkers on the Schweser books? What about the Comprehensive Problems?
l2 candidate here. 70% on all subjects except derv and alts. my two cents and i know some people will disagree with this but here it goes. you simply dont need the CFA books for level 1. just stick with schweser, do alot of qbank, do all the mocks you can get your hands on, and you are gold. have a good day.
let me also add that i found the elan mocks far more representative to the real exam than the schweser mocks. unfortuately there are no elan mocks for level 2 as of yet, however i am not sure if this is the case for 2012. i did all the schweser concept checkers but they probably werent too representative of the real exam, doing them doesnt hurt though, they will solidify your understanding of the basic concepts.
Any new insights now that you lot have got your results?
Qbank should be sufficient.
Just passed L1 - using Schweser only, except for Ethics, I used the book. Here are some tips: -Start early (I started in Feb, but was sufficient for me as I’m a business major) -Make notes (point forms) if you can with Schweser; I found it helped me grasp the concepts better as I was reading Schweser, rather than just reading and forgetting -Near the end, start learning the quicksheet and secret sauce; by the end of it I basically had the quicksheet memorized -Do mocks, they will help, but when I left the exam I felt that questions were more like the format of Qbank than (long) mock exams. I highly recommend Qbank. Mocks I was scoring mid 70s to low 80s. -So last month or 3wks, dedicate to quicksheet,mocks,and qbank…as many times as neccessary -Go to the gym and do some cardio! Will help clear out your mind and relieve stress, esp. last month, its already going to be depressing in the winter!
I passed this time around having failed the first time. I learned some expensive but critical lessons. The important one being: DO NOT FOOL YOURSELF. IF YOU FEEL GUILTY BEFORE THE EXAM AT ANYTIME - TAKING DAYS OFF, SNEAKING IN A FILM ETC - GO BACK AND STUDY. Plenty of time for that post exam. You want to start exam morning thinking “I could not have put in any more time and effort than I did”. Start with a comparison of my results: Last time (Dec 2010): Q# Topic Max Pts <=50% 51%-70% >70% - Alternative Investments 8 - - * - Corporate Finance 20 - * - - Derivatives 12 - * - - Economics 24 - * - - Equity Investments 24 - - * - Ethical & Professional Standards 36 - * - - Financial Reporting & Analysis 48 - * - - Fixed Income Investments 28 - - * - Portfolio Management 12 - - * - Quantitative Methods 28 - * - This time(June 2011): Q# Topic Max Pts <=50% 51%-70% >70% - Alternative Investments 8 - - * - Corporate Finance 20 - - * - Derivatives 12 * - - - Economics 24 - * - - Equity Investments 24 - * - - Ethical & Professional Standards 36 - - * - Financial Reporting & Analysis 48 - - * - Fixed Income Investments 28 - * - - Portfolio Management 12 - - * - Quantitative Methods 28 - - * Yeah not stellar but I made it. Look at what improved: Quantitative Methods, FRA and Ethics all moved into the >70% area. Derivatives and Equity fell and I still passed! That’s how important those first 3 topics are. Here’s what got me through: 1. Focus on the big subject areas - Quantitative Methods, FRA and Ethics. When the books arrive, open FRA and chew on it. For me with no accounting background this almost had me in tears. But you will get through it, one chapter at a time. Next do Quants. Afterwards ‘reward’ yourself with derivatives or Alt investments then jump back into ethics. (What you choose in between the big 3 is up to you but make sure you get through the 3 sooner rather than later). 2. Do the questions at the end of the book. Had I done this sooner first time I believe I would have passed. It’s the most accurate way to judge if you really ‘get’ the topic. When you get a question wrong, look at the answer and keep looking until you get the concept standing behind the answer. To be sure you get it, redo the questions you got wrong with an explanation of why it’s right. (Now this is the part where your brain goes ‘boooring’, having to do a question again even though you just starred at the answer for 10 minutes is no fun. But that’s the wall, and you need to climb it). 3. When finished the questions in the book move on to the same sections questions in Schweser (or whatever study tool you use). Any trends in the questions you get wrong? Focus on those areas. 4. If it does not click don’t worry, step back from analysing and skim. Don’t decide to walk away or jump to an (in your opinion) easier topic. Stay on that topic and just read the chapter without stopping to scrutinize one area, skim through. Read it like a book and then when you get to the summary page go through the points carefully. Your brain will still absorb some conceptual ideas - then when on form again revisit and study at your peak performance. 5. For quants, not as hard as it seems but concepts can tie you down for a long time. If so, come on here and use the search function - surely somebody has the same problem and someone else probably provided an excellent way to solve it. Also remember with quants it’s not all about adding stuff up on the calculator. Understand how the math is applied. 6. Time value of money questions - these should be second nature. Just do as many as them as possible and you’ll notice that it’s the same set of steps with different digits plugged in. 7. For ethics - Qbank baby! The only difficult thing about these is the amount of reading. The concepts do not change and once you get it it will be hard to forget. You should not get a Ethics question wrong twice. Look for the ‘Why’ in the answer explanations. 8. Use a plan. This is probably as important as not fooling yourself. Record your progress and your achievements. It keeps you focused and it’s nice to suddenly say “wow I’ve covered 50% of the curriculum already”. A link to a plan I used is here: http://www.mediafire.com/?sq2b0doacs7ulku (admins it’s OK to post link yes?). The green means done, orange is working on and red means do this next. 9. Do some all nighters if you’re really boned in the month before the exam. You can (but you should not have to) learn a lot in the weeks, even days, before the exam. Pick up some energy drinks, sit at a table and study until dawn. And then kick yourself for not taking everybody’s advice to start sooner. 10. Take breaks but schedule them. A trip to the gym, a run around the block, a night out - set them as rewards and don’t let the non productive gap between Study_________Something else___________study get too big. This ___________ is where people procrastinate. That’s my advice. Other people here did much better with all above 70% - listen to them. But know that the main problem you encounter will not be a complex formula or concept, it will be you fooling yourself. Anytime you want to chill out for ‘just another hour’ or so think to yourself - an extra hour of play now could cost me 6 months later. That’s just a raw deal. It’s an exam, you can do it, thousands have. Best of luck.
Start early, get at least 250 hours in, minimum. Read through the material at least thrice (first to familiarize yourself, second time to understand it, third to master it); leave the last 3 weeks for mock exams, doing a quick scan-over of the material a couple of last times. Take your own set of notes while reading through the CFA books, to put it in your own words that you can understand. I had three notebooks of my own interpretations/summary of each chapter. Know EVERY term in the glossary. I would wager to say that this is the most underrated part of Level I. Use only the CFA material; schweser is garbage. Put it this way: why trust anyone else except for the people who will be putting the test together?? Finally, take all of the EOC questions multiple times, as you’re reading through the material. I got >70% in all areas, save alternative investments, using this method.
I put in a lot of time reading posts like these on the forum to figure out what would be the best strategy to study before I started, and I’m confident that it was the best, or close to the best, strategy for the level I exam. I am not a finance or related major and have no work experience. I bought the Elan Ultimate package but really only used the study notes-- a little of the Eleventh Hour and a little of the video (their video is very long and not as well produced/interesting as Schweser videos-- which I did watch before any studying just as a primer for all of the subjects). The way I studied was I would read a few chapters in the Elan Notes and then do the EOC’s at the end of the CFAI curriculum that covered those chapters; then move on. One of the biggest things you can do for yourself is to finish the material and take mock exams as early as possible. You may be surprised at what you actually remember. Take a mock (either a half or a full-- AM and PM), then review weaknesses and repeat. I took 3 Elan mocks and the CFAI mock… starting about a month before the test. As for taking time off before the exam, I took off a little more than a week for vacation and a wedding two weeks before the exam. I don’t think that’s ideal, but it didn’t prevent me from passing. If you have something like this on your schedule, don’t panic, just plan on having all of your studying done before something like this and then review when you get back. I scored between 70-80% on the Elan and CFAI mock exams, so it was hard for me to force myself to study more during that last month, even though I didn’t feel as though I had really mastered the material. Last thing… the average person on this forum (especially some of the ones that will post regularly) do not represent the average CFA candidate. Don’t get freaked out when you see people saying that they are on their second read through of the CFAI texts and you haven’t even started with 3 months to go. Also, a fair amount of the questions on here are rather specific, which may not really benefit you come time for the exam and can just freak you out if you don’t even remember the topic the question is about. Make sure you understand the big picture, big concepts-- don’t get bogged down in too much detail. To be honest, unless I had specific questions, I really didn’t spend much time on the forum-- it can be counterproductive or anxiety provoking. Set a schedule and stick to it. Build in some time off so you don’t completely burn out. All the best. -bb