My university made us get used to formula sheets for every exam. After finishing book 1, I was like wow that’s a lot of formulas and I still have 4 books left!!! I understood how to calculate each formula but I’m having so much difficulty trying to memorize them.
Also, my brother passed all the CFA levels and he was telling me I should take 90 seconds per equation, how is that possible!! Some of them take me 5 minutes (depending on the topic). Any advice?!
At this point, I wouldn’t deliberately try to memorize equations, but I would be purposeful in your approach to problem solving. I would first focus on doing questions untimed. Read the question, write down the formulas, manipulate them on paper, then crunch the numbers in your calculator. This should help with your retention.
Later on, worry about the timing. Try to increase your speed without a great loss of accuracy.
Index cards! But wait for that until you get closer (2 months out). Writing them worked well for me. I probably had over 300 index cards at the end.
Also, while 90 seconds is the time per question, not all questions are equations 
+1
Don’t try to look left and right at the same time…
After you done doing the things like tickersu said…memorization will come naturally & more easy…
But memorization phase must have been done 1 month before the exam.
The final phase should be mock exam with timed.
Good luck.
90 seconds per question is The entire length of the exam divided by the number of questions.
The questions in the exam are quite straightforward and don’t require you to work things out too long. If it’s simply testing your understanding of a concept or a term, it’s very quick. You either know it or you don’t, there’s nothing to calculate. On the other hand some of the numerical questions can take a bit longer.
It all comes down to you really. I finished the entire exam in about half the time. There were those who finished before me and those who worked the entire time.
I would agree; it will largely be a factor of YOU. If you can hit 90% accuracy by not really attempting 20 questions (just blind guessing), thats better than 65% accuracy and finishing with 40 minutes to spare. Find your balance and you will get a feel for your pace (later) during practice questions and mock exams. Some questions took me less than 20 seconds, while the longer ones took about 90-100 seconds. I averaged about 76 seconds per question (I monitored my pace during the mock and real exam) to answer, double check, and fill in the scantron.
If you’re comfortable later on, you can save time by only writing things down when needed. The STO and RCL functions on the calculator are pretty helpful when you are using only the calculator to work problems.
Thank you all!
Honestly, by the time i felt like I could answer >70% of the exam corrently on a consistent basis, I was naturally able to complete the exam within a 3 hour limit. Like snake said, the majority of the questions if you know it, you would know it immediately. If you don’t know it, even if you spent more time thinking about it you probably wouldnt be able to get the right answer. Personally I wouldn’t worry about timing each question to be under 90 seconds when your studying–just focus on learning and answering questions correctly and it would come naturally. The trick on the exam, then, is not being stubborn and sticking on a question if you don’t know it–be able to recognize questions you can answer and questions you cannot. Of course that is just my experience.
Flash cards worked for me. Both the process of writing them, then working through them helps, so I suggest writing out your own rather than using an online source, but everyone is different.
I also created a DuPont flow chart using MS Word that I taped to my bathroom mirror. So every time I was shaving or brushing my teeth I was looking at the DuPont ratios and how they relate to eachother. My wife felt like we had “A Beautiful Mind” situation going on in our bathroom, but it helped me cement the DuPont stages in my brain.
Don’t want to create another thread
Just wanted to ask if I’m right on track time-wise
Registered for level 1 in June -
and so far have read carefully throught the first 2 books - schweser
(understand the majority, eoc questions are not a problem to solve)
Should I keep moving faster or it’s ok ?