I’m stuck on the CFAI materials Ethics section - Not finding the motivation to get through it, but I don’t have that much left of the Standards section. I have the Schweser and Wiley materials but haven’t touched them yet. What would your recommendation be for moving ahead? Slop through the rest of ethics and circle back at the end, use Schweser/Wiley to finish, or, drop it, start quant, and circle back around once I’ve gone through all of the other material?
A lot of people read ethics last. 
It’s helpful to read it in small doses.
Ethics sucks but it’s a very necessary evil. It’s a huge part of all three of the exams so gets used to slopping your way through it. It is what it is.
I’d recommend continuing on reading ethics and answering all the EOCs. Then, in the final couple weeks before the exam, go back and read it again.
I gave up reading ethics … Just drilling the QBank and that’s all.
It’s a total mess to read all this BS about nothing.
That attitude will carry you far in this endeavor.
Hi, @S2000magician.
To my mind, the exams like FINRA Series 65 or CISI UK Regulation are much more effective than the CFA ethics. CFA Institute tried to develop some general implications and wishes not applied to any local regulation, so it became almost impossible to learn the Code of Ethics and the Standards by heart. Of course, members and candidates should respect CFA Institute, but the ethics part in a whole suffers from materiality. I believe CFA Institute should better discuss major exaples of local regulation comparing them and building ethics part on them. Thus candidates would get a better understanding of what they will be required of in the real world.
I think that you might be conflating regulations with ethics.
I don’t think so. Ethics as well as regulations have the same (or, at least, similar) grounds, and these grounds are perfectly material. However, the CFA Curriculum says absolutely nothing about the reasons, the Code and Standards provisions are based on. For instance, the Standard II(A) prohibits insider dealing. Why? It’s said nothing about it. Should candidates have heard about the cases of Michael Milken and Ivan Boesky? Should they recognize the different aspects of insider dealing? Should they be aware of the special reporting regimes for insiders? No, they are just not allowed to use the ‘material non-public information’ (except in the case of mosaic theory) and that’s all.
That’s what I call ‘BS about nothing’. The authors of the Curriculum have just compiled the rules they thought important into several vague documents and put them into the exam requirements. And lots of people are obliged to repeat and repeat after they repeat.
Mosaic theory _ isn’t _ a use of material nonpublic information.
Understanding the CFAI Ethics ciriculum to the point of answering exam questions correctly on a consistent basis is a bit more like art than science. Well, to me anyways. I found it to be a mindset, one which can only come from reading the material a couple of times. Once you’ve read the material it becomes easier to put yourself in that mindset in an exam setting (whether it be practice or the real deal) and the correct answers come easier. When you work through some practice questions you’ll find that the correct answer is not always cut and dry.
I’d recommend pushing through and reading it, but most importantly, read the given case examples in detail. Then read through the entire Ethics section again the week before the exam. You want to score 70%+ in Ethics, and reading through it twice, especially closer to the exam date, can help make that happen.
I’d suggest you use the schweser or wiley material to get through it faster, then go through the questions in the schweser qbank to understand the material better.
the tricky thing with ethics is how the questions are set. the multiple choice qns mean you will need to know your stuff properly and that comes with being familiar with the questions and answers. you will often get multiple answers that might all seem correct to you but if you have seen the same question before, you will know how to go about those with no problems.
good luck.
If you’re going to move away from the official curriculum, I think it is imperative that you complete all blue box and EOC questions from the CFA Institute books as well as the Institute’s online questions and mocks. In my opinion, you have plenty of time to read the official books, and you should at least read ethics from them. The Q-bank is a tool only for nailing down basic ideas; the questions are too easy and about medium quality (for a product). Use as much CFAI material as possible.
Thank you all for the feedback. Any recommendations on how to incorporate Schweser/Wiley materials into my studies? I feel a bit overwhelmed by all of the material and am not sure how to use them appropriately to supplement the CFAI material.
Honestly, anything not contained within the official curriculum isn’t testable. Therefore, you won’t gain “extra” material from a third-party prep provider. A third-party provider might be helpful for review or a different explanation, though.
At Level I, I thought the Schweser Q-bank (and a few mock exams) was good for drilling down unfamiliar calculation topics, but it was superficial at times. The CFAI online practice questions and mock exams were good for gauging preparedness. I personally didn’t like Schweser books for Level I (stopped Schweser after reading half of one book and moved to the official curriculum), so I avoided them for Level II. (In fact, I’ve found a few of their test prep materials for other exams to be (maybe) average, especially for the price.)
For Level II, I again used the official curriculum for the first pass of material, doing the blue boxes and EOCs as I covered a chapter. I then used the Wiley 11th Hour Guide to refresh topics after I finished the entire curriculum, but before I began the online CFAI assessments and mock.
Obviously, I like my own approach, but maybe there’s something useful to you in my post. Short and sweet: read the official books and do the EOCs to build a foundation, then revise with a third-party (or the curriculum, if you don’t want to buy the third-party stuff-- it’s definitely not necessary, but it can help a bit), then drill all the CFAI questions/mocks you’re given.
Just make a plan and stick to it (unless it’s really not working).