I just finished the Quant book & it took me a really long time to get through… I just did the Self-test at the end of the book (Schweser) & most of the questions I couldn’t answer w/o looking back through the text. At this point in time, is it normal not to remember all the concepts & not be able to answer all the questions? I know I need a lot more work on Quant but I’ve spent too much time on it already… So is it better to move onto the next topic (FSA) w/o having a great understanding of Quant (& revisit it at a later date) or should I spend more time on Quant now? What’d you guys think??
Quant can be tough if you don’t have a background in it, so definitely understandable. Every question on the test is worth the same, and there are many more questions on FSA and ethics than there are on quant…so probably focus more on those. I would say move on for now and set aside a lot of time later to revisit it.
i agree… i almost want to say that they throw quant in the early part of the exam/study material to scare people away… quant is the most numerical/formula/mathematical section and prolly the hardest to learn, i say remember how the exam breakdown is, FSA and Ethics count way more than quant…econ and quant are almost the same ,then you have the stragglers like derivatives and alt invstmts, which , unfortunately, will also take a ridiculous amount of study time to learn. i hit 300 hours of solidly, anally, tracked study hours from sept 07 (where i started with 1 hour per day) to jne 08, i hit 250 hours from jan to june 7. 2 hrs before work every day, then 3 hours with one and half months left. i felt good taking it, but i will let you know july 29
cfa08 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > At this point in time, is > it normal not to remember all the concepts & not > be able to answer all the questions? It will come together during the final month when you sit and work those many mock exams that you plan to do before the actual test. Don’t worry about it now.
Just post the questions or the concepts that you are having difficulty understanding. Don’t shy away ‘oh this is to easy’ or anything, post it and make sure that you understand the concepts.
I actually bought a quantative methods textbook to supplement the CFAI text. I was in the same boat as you starting out, but by the time I took the test, quant was actually my best section.
when I took level 1, quant worked me pretty good while I was studying, moreso on my first and second read through the text. It was pretty bleak for a while. I think I actually posted a thread to the effect of “I just don’t get quant”. I went from it being easily my weakest area to scoring >70 on that section of the test, and I literally walked out of there knowing that I only had 1 question in the entire quant section I was unsure of. Just keep at it, post questions here, read through old threads, and most/some of it should click eventually. It can be done. Most topics there are “lightbulb” topics, where one day it will click and after that point you can handle most anything the throw at you in that area. And seriously, focus on the concepts, not the calculations. I think I used my calculator on 2 questions on test day.
TheChad Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I actually bought a quantative methods textbook to > supplement the CFAI text. I was in the same boat > as you starting out, but by the time I took the > test, quant was actually my best section. Hey TheChad, which book did you buy?
cfaBANANA Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > TheChad Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > I actually bought a quantative methods textbook > to > > supplement the CFAI text. I was in the same > boat > > as you starting out, but by the time I took the > > test, quant was actually my best section. > > > > Hey TheChad, which book did you buy? I will check when I get home this evening…I can’t remember the name or author right now.
Thanks for all the comments & advice… you guys are all so nice, I love this forum! : ) I’m going to move onto FSA & hopefully it won’t be as bad as Quant!
Statistics for Management and Economics (Keller/Warrick) was the one I bought. $10 used on Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=statistics+for+management+and+economics&x=19&y=23 It helped quite a bit in some areas.
Sorry to kill the optimism but you’re going to miss quant once you hit FSA
Good luck, FSA is nuts compared to Quant in my opinion. Just memorize all the formulas for Quant and things will start to make more sense. Do the same for FSA and you will be way ahead. I did this and it made the readings and doing the problems that much easier. Gl bud
I would suggest not trying to force yourself to memorize all the quant formulas, just focus on trying to understand the concepts. Then do practice questions on a regular basis - you’ll find the formulas just kind of come to you after a while.
Quant is one of the hardest. For me… the hardest. Good thing you don’t really need to know the stuff in detail…
don’t dwell too long on quant theories and formulas… you are not required to derive them… just learn how to use the calculator and know how to apply the formulas… you need to memorize some of them i think. move on to other books… FSA and econs will need a lot of time…
i am doing quant from schweser… first 2 ss very pretty ok, they have given formulas and example…just keep one example of each in mind… it would be really helpful happy studying