My background is a middle age man in the financial services industry (series 6,63) with a degree in engineering. I had a economic and probability class years ago in college but Im not remembering it being on this level. Also, I had zero accounting background. I am studying full time to prepare for the test.
I have been studying over the past month covering sections 1-6 at moderate success. Apx a week and a half ago, I started 7 and 8 and got blown away… Late last week it started making sense but I am still having trouble creating CFO sheets, etc as I tend to leave things off. then I hit the last section of 8 with apx 50 ratios to memorize (of which I got much down but not instinctive yet ) and started ch 9 first two sections tonight.
My question arises is what I should expect to take place next or any strategies to maximize my studying? I was originally planning to have it done within 2 months and then have 2-3 weeks left to do practice, however so far the accounting section has taken about a half a week to a week more than i anticipated.
Im curious for non accounting/ financial services industry is the accounting section the most challenging part. or should i be expecting to get even more difficult with the remaining sections. Is what im doing doable for Dec?
I found accounting for Level I to be very difficult. There is just so much information and memorization.
There is a lot more “understanding” in later topics like fixed income, portfolio management, derivatives…
I found myself in a similar situation for L1. I cut all EOCS until 2 weeks before the exam and then I went nonstop EOCS and mocks for the final 2 weeks.
As for the ratios: I have a degree in accounting, and I cannot recall all of those ratios. You just have to practice a ton to keep them in your active memory.
Accounting undoubtedly has the most memorization of all topics.
What I’ve done in trying to memorize ratios is create my own flashcards. Since there are so many, instead of trying to memorize what composes the ratio, I first try to understand what a ratio is trying to explain, then decompose it from there into the different parts. Personally, this is especially helpful in the “days in” ratios, where figuring turnover could be part of getting to the final answer.
Bottom line, trying to memorize the ratios themselves is tough. Trying to understand what a ratio explains helps me figure what components are included.
Sounds lilke you’ve got yourself on a pretty short time frame. On L1, accounting is definitely the most difficult in my opinion aside from Ethics (Ethics questions are nothing short of unfair). It all depends on your background but I found that fixed income, equity, deriviatives, and AI were all pretty easy in L1. Accounting and ethics are the killers on L1 so def get to know those.
Still, 2 months of studying is not much, so you could run into trouble depending on your background.