How to prepare for Exams?

CFA Level I
#1

Hi

I am appearing for june2016.

Can Anyone help me with how to go about with studying a particular topic for level 1 CFA exams?

For e.g if suppose I have taken up Ethics . Then once I am done with reading part then apart from solving the End of chapter questions what else i will have to solve?

and from where will I get past exam questions?

when to solve the mock tests?

#2

Mock exams:

  • I felt comfortable taking a total of 5 mocks, about 1 mock exam per week. So I took my first mock 5 weeks out from exam day, taking the CFA mock exam several days before the actual exam
  • I would suggest dividing the mock exam up into two days (ex. morning session on Saturday and afternoon session on Sunday). I tried to do a full mock all in one day and it is pretty draining. It was more effective for me to take half of it one day, go over the material that I missed and review concepts and a repeat the process the next day. Be confident you can take 1 full exam on exam day, to me that is the only time you need to grind through a six hour exam
  • I used 4 Schweser Mocks and 1 CFA mock that is given to you online. I don’t know where to get more CFA mocks. That can be a dangerous thing at times since CFAI can change the curriculum from year to year and you may be taking exam questions from previous years that may not be on the exam. There could be some value in looking at old CFA exams though, but I didn’t feel the need for them
  • The Schweser package I used supplied me with 6 mock exams and you still have the 1 CFAI exam on the CFA website. That was more than enough
  • Don’t be shocked if you don’t do well on the first mock. The key is to feel like you understand what they are asking you, the concepts are familiar, and you at least feel like you know how to do the problems. If you find yourself totally clueless and guessing at many problems, that is more a cause of concern than your actual score. Who knows, you might just be an absolute beast, and do really well on your first mock in that case never mind what I said
  • The first mock I took I got a 52% – those scores increased to 60%, 64% 71% and a 74% on the CFA mock exam. The key with the exams is always figure out what you missed a why you missed it. Also, if you guessed right, be sure to go back a get the real answer to those problems. You can’t assume that you will guess right on the exam

Additional Questions:

  • I used the Qbank a lot from Schweser. The Qbank is made up of about 4,000 questions from all ten topics of the curriculum. Some people don’t like the Qbank, but I thought it was great for reinforcing concepts and asking you problems in different ways
  • Some of the questions are easier, and some are more difficult. To me, the point is to get the repetition in and continue to familiarize yourself with the problems. Most of the questions aren’t exam level questions, but to use it as a review tool it is great.
  • I liked taking 10 question quizzes. There aren’t too many questions to go over when you are done, and I felt like I stayed engaged with the studying. The curriculum can be a grind; you don’t want to get bogged down taking 50 question quizzes and having to go over all that you missed. There will be enough time for that during the mock exams
  • If you are looking for harder questions, look at the CFA sample questions on their website. Those questions are more difficult, and build on the fundamentals you have learned from the books and doing some of the Qbank questions.

Hope this helps.