I fnished the 1st review last week end then did a mock which I scored terribly. I was so frustrated because I DO NOT remember the stuff reviewed 6 months ago. Even stuff reivewed 2 months ago are very blurry. Obviously there is not enough time to do the 2nd review.
So what’s your strategy now? What’s your secret getting 80s and 90s on those mocks?
Review my notes, key examples and EOC problems for both schweser and Curriculum, take couple of mock test in the last week. If time allows take schweser question banks problems
I seriously don’t know if this would be sufficient. Also I did not find Schweser QB good enough.
Its perfectly normal not to remember stuff you did 2-6 months ago. What’s working in your favor is that you have already gone through the concepts and they’re not alien to you. You are not in the same position as someone who has never seen the material before. You just need to warm up.
The hardest part is getting the concept down, mechanics just come down to repeated practice.
My serious suggestion is to do as many practice exams as possible (regardless of how terribly you may do) and most important, spend a lot of time reviewing each answer INCLUDING the correct answers. If you just focus on the incorrect answers, you’re missing a chance to a) figure out if you got a problem right just by luck, and b) get some extra input that you may have not thought of when answering the question.
Also, I find that reading or at least skimming the CFAI end of chapter summaries (as well as Scwheiser end of chapter summaries which are paired to learning outcome statements) can help jog concepts.
Thanks a lot for the suggestions.
I do plan to go over all the EOC questions. I’m also thinking about Qbank, does it worth buying?
Personally I’d focus on doing as many mock exams as possible and simulating the exam experience. I’d do all six Schweisers, the CFAI’s 2 120 minute long sample exams, and of course the CFAI mock exam. That’s 7 full exams and you could view the two sample exams as making up another exam together, so that’s a total of 8. Multiply that by 6 hours a piece and you’ve got 48 hours of work, plus I’d give at least another three hours per exam for review so that’s an additional 24 hours, totalling 72 hours.
Only after having done all of those I’d consider doing CFAI EOCs, though not all EOCs because I ignore the ones that aren’t in the multiple choice format (they simply take too much time to do and its a bad use of time).
That’s just my two c’s.
Giovanni, do you think that doing 6 schweser mocks is worthwhile? I’ve done 4 and found every of them to be much easier than official CFAI 2012 mock. Isn’t it better to do some more offical mocks 2010,11,13 or even 2009 (probably many concept are out but still our favourtie FRA is in;))??
I have made notes for basically every section. These notes contain mostly details that I might forget, I don’t bother writing down the super easy stuff.
I do practice exams and then I update my notes with stuff that I got wrong and likely to forget again.
Before every practice exam, I spent 20 minutes or so scanning through all my notes. I’m soaking up all the information up into my short term memory again. Then I do a practice exam.
Slowly my scores are improving.
I created a similar set of notes during my review phase. I printed out the LOS pages from each SS/Reading and went through each LOS and wrote brief notes on those I wasn’t totally confident I knew. That’s one ‘packet.’ I have another set of notes with ONLY my mistakes on mocks/practice tests sorted by topic area. I read one of these packets each night to fall asleep. I also have tons of notecards I used throughout the process that I’ve consolidated to a short stack that includes problem formulae for me (like those associated with the market model) that I review on my way to work every day.
My days the past couple weeks and up until exam day are wake up, reeeeal quick workout (weightlifting or running), study, work, study at lunch, study after work, sleep, repeat. Week off before the exam. I’m totally done with this crap - exhausting.
I’ve heard mixed opinions about Schweser mocks but I personally found them to be very close to the real thing when I was doing level 1. Can’t speak for Level 2 of course. I honestly get the impression that some people may psychologically find the CFAI stuff harder, because I couldn’t really find any quantifiable difference. Granted I’m talking about the mock exams, not the questions in the notes or the qbanks (the latter I never even saw but heard it was considerably easier).
I remember when I took the in house Schweser mock in NYC (where you can punch in your grades and see how you did on the curve) I was told by the people there that day that this exam is made to be even more like the actual exam, though I didn’t notice a difference from the others.
Personally I don’t like the idea of having to search for older exams (which btw is technically a violation of CFAI policy) and then having to figure out what was covered and what wasn’t. To me, the CFAI mock they give you was good enough, along with the two sample exams. The sample exams for level 1 were actually, imho, the toughest.
is this your first time giving the level 2 exam?
[quote=“pierrewoodman_fan”]
no, first time, why do you ask? Do I strike you as a retaker?
As a lowly re-taker (Band 8… I TANKED financial reporting and analysis, my worst subject. Being at a Fixed Income HF, I just don’t look at financial statements. If I would have even gotten 50-70% I think I would have passed). Here is where I am at ~3 weeks out.
Past 3.5 months: Ran through entire Schweser Curriculum (…again) in full detail (doing all questions, tests, note taking) as well as Qbank Topic Review Quizzes for all LoS.
Now I’m basically in review:
Plan on taking 6 mocks from Schweser as well as the 1 provided from CFA in the next ~3 weeks.
I do approx 120 to 180 Qbank problems a night. Usually 60 questions on one specific topic, then 60 or 120 on all topics (a mini-mock if you will).
I have the Schweser Videos, but I feel they don’t substitute for doing problems. I plan on watching the Financial Reporting and Anaylsis Videos the week before the test, just in case I pick something up.
Plan to do CFA Curriculum problems during last week, focusing on weak areas based on mock exams.
From my experience (including my band 8 fiasco from last year). I would rank the following from most difficult to least dificult:
Schweser Mock, CFA Mock, CFA Actual, Schweser Q bank.
Q-bank is great for keeping topics fresh, but not much more. It will keep formulas on the brain, and keep you on your toes in remembering definitions… but It’s in no way a real accurate representation of what you will see on the exam. Even the multi-part advanced questions (formatted to be like Exam) aren’t really up to snuff. In my view, I learned the material over the past 4 months… the Qbank is now just keeping it warm for me.
Although I scored Band 8 and failed, I firmly believe the CFA actual was the easiest exam between Schweser and CFA Mock. Its just the SCOPE of what you can be tested on is so big, that makes the test a true challenge. ( I literally remember the specific questions I bombed on the exam. I completely understood what was being asked, and what needed to be done to get the answer… but the details hung me out to dry, I just needed to focus more on my weak areas during prep).
I think the CFA and Schweser Mocks do a great job of making you link concepts and get you prepared for how you will be presented problems on Exam day, and I found myself scratching my head on these more so than the actual exam. It may just be me, but the granularity in the Schweser and CFA mocks was just not there in the Actual, kind of seeemed like whoever wrote it understood the time-limit). I went into last year’s exam scoring low to mid 70s on mocks.
So I plan my final weeks to look like this:
This Week and Next Week:
T-F: 120-180 Q bank problems a night then some CFA Curriculum problems to beef up any weakness discovered, followed by laying in bed cycling through my notecards till I pass out. (I work 12-13 hours with a 1.25 commute… unfortunately M-F I’m basically afforded only about 2-3 hours to study a day. I am thinking about putting my notecards on Quizlet and keeping that up on one of my screens at work on continuous shuffle for some subliminal absorbtion).
Sat-Sun: 1 Mock exam each day, followed by CFA Curriculum problems in my weak areas until I get a migrane (usually 8-10 hours of continuous study is my absolute limit). Maybe some schweser videos of weak areas. Watching them doesn’t really feel like studying and gives you a break from reading. And I have to admit, sometimes they present stuff in a light that I haven’t thought of before.
The Last Week:
Memorial Day: Have off, so will finish Mock exams, doing Q-bank to keep me fresh in between.
T-Thurs: Split time between Q-bank and Curriculum.
Friday: Took the day off: Will do a quick refresher of ethics (the easiest points up for grabs on the exam, imo), and maybe half a day spent on misc. curriculum, Q-bank, or videos. Then just try to relax from 4pm on.
Definately think Mock exams are key. I wish I did more last year (i think i did 3?)
villnius is 70% decent in old CFA mock ?
I beleive I took three mocks last year (2 Schweser and the CFA), and averaged mid to low 70s on all. That being said, nothing “suprised” me on the actual exam, I just didn’t really use those results to my advantage (meaning, the results showed I was weak in cetain areas…namely FRA, but I just kept doing a broad review of all topics, rather than focusing on the weak areas the mock’s identified). Going in this year, I plan on doing at least 2 mocks this weekend and then focusing the next week on what they tell me I’m weak at. Then plan to repeat for the final week.
I think getting 70s means you got a good grasp of the material, but clearly there are some areas you need improvement on. Just really focus on what you know are your weak areas, because with the scope of testable material, something can pop up to bite you that you weren’t prepared for, as it did for me last year. On the other side of the coin, questions may be focued on something you know like the back of your hand… All we can do is try to have a good grasp of as much material as possible.
If I were to (hopefully 
) continue to get 70s and higher on the mocks when I begin taking them later this week, That would ease my mind and I’d go into the test comfortable as long as I kept to my plan and reviewd my weak areas.
One test tip that I CAN’T STRESS ENOUGH though, is TAKE YOUR TIME. I find myself going gung-ho into mocks/quizes and end up getting stupid questions wrong on occasion just becasue I didn’t take the 10 seconds to re-read the question. With wording of questions that include “least likely” and such, I now literally underline the “least likely” and “most likely” in the question and write a big “TRUE” or FALSE" to remind me what they are looking for. Nothing is worse than grading a quiz and seeing a wrong answer becasue you assumed they were looking for the True response when they wanted the False. Im getting high 80s-90s on the Qbank stuff, and most of the time my incorrect answers are becasue I rushed through the question. I know time is an issue on test day, but that double check can grab an extra point or two on a test where every point counts. Also, if you finish early, DO NOT LEAVE EARLY. Go right back to page one and just verify that you answered what they were looking for. Do not second guess yourself, but just verify that you understood the question and answered accordingly. No one wants to get out of that test center faster than me, but when you spent the last 4+ months studying, it won’t kill you to hang around for an extra 20 mins to double check your work if you happen to finish a tad early.
I’m so paranoid about rushing through the test, I go so far as to cut out caffeine two weeks out from the test, just so I have nothing in my system as a stimulant to encourage me to not take my time. (I cut two weeks out, so I’m over the caffeine withdrawal which. lasts a few days). Overkill? …maybe.