- Stop at ~80%. You can’t learn it all to perfection. Hit the high notes and be proficient in all sections. “Well rounded in all” > than “expert only in the heavily weighted sections”.
- Find a way to practice all problems quickly. Mastery decays. All sections need to be refreshed and tested often. It’s amazing what you will trip on if you don’t practice what you assumed you mastered.
- Manage your time well on the exam. You can’t be stubborn on any specific problem. You can’t assume the 4 minute questions will balance out with 2 minute questions. If you don’t see the way to the answer within a few seconds move on.
- Obvious but… check for cirriculum changes… E.g. soft dollar standards. What a waste of study time.
- Do not underestimate mental fatigue. Friday before the exam keep it light, maybe Thursday too depending on how hard you have been going.
Become proficient at using the function keys on your calculator, especially STO & RCL.
Dont sport a man-bun
I’ll engage in this hypothetical. I agree this test seemed to guage width of knowledge and not depth, but it’s hard to say if they will do that in future tests.That’s what makes it so tough, the material is both wide and deep, and even if you know 70% of it perfectly, there’s no way you be certain you will pass. That’s frustrating, but we all knew what we were getting into, so… but, I disagree with that line of thinking with ethics.
I took the 80% road in Ethics and I think it hurt me because it’s a “either you know it all or you don’t know it” kind of section. Oddly enough, perhaps it was in the heat of the test, but I remember thinking the way questions were framed in Ethics would be unethical if we presented questions/data to clients in the same manner.
If I failed, it will be because I ignored the smaller sections (and Ethics, obvs). Things like FI, AI, PM, and Devs can add up. There’s a lot of speculation out there…a lot can be taken with a grain of salt. So I wish I would have ignored the advice to spend all your time on FRA, CF, and Equity (overexaggering a bit, but you get the point) and studied more on the smaller segs…especially PM.
Focus on relationships and theories. As an easy example (and in no way indicative of anything I may or may not have encountered on the test), you may forget exactly how to perform a capitalized asset writedown, but you know that it will lower net income this quarter and lower depreciation later (so higher net income later, ceteris paribus). As an aside, I felt Wiley’s 11th hour review was good for this.
I did the following advice this year, so it’s mostly a hangover from my first attempt, but don’t ignore the CFA material! Even if you’re using Schweser Notes, the EOCs and online questions from CFAI should be reviewed. I’d also not stress out about Kaplan’s mocks because they are generally harder than the test.
True. For the most part I spent way too much time in Financial Reporting. The 80% rule should apply to Alt Investments, and PM. For the most part the 80% rule and a little common sense should net you between 3 to 5/6 in those sections which is fine if you are getting averaging 4 to 5 in the rest.
Derivatives, Equity, CF go 100% as they aren’t time traps and it’s not terribly difficult to get to averaging 5/6 in those.
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stick to your deadlines. it is absolutely imperative to not get behind schedule and make sure you’re in full blown practise mode at least a month from exam. that means you need to hurry and finish a section and keep it moving rather than learn it until you know it sort of deal.
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do the blue boxes first time through, BUT leave the EOCs until your 2nd revision. anything to save time on 1st read is beneficial, b/c you’ll likely completely forget how to do EOCs anyway when you come back to them.
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i need to condense my notes, big time. really put more thought into what may be asked on an exam. my notes were too detailed, and I wasted a lot of time doing them when a lot of it was not “very” key and the revision of the notes was too overwhelming/impossible (double whammy of time blown…).
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pretend you’re writing the exam 3 weeks earlier (like do everything in your power to actually pretend the exam is on the Saturday 3 weeks before). This way you’ll still have 3 weeks for absolute mastery, and the pressure/stakes will be reduced rather than a 3 week mad-dash/scramble to the finish line.
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ignore all previous/above advices/goals b/c chances are you will revise your plan about 100 times over before that exam date…and from the sounds of it, that is more normal than actually sticking to a plan.
Oh, I forgot. I’d also tell myself the Mega Millions jackpot numbers right before the big payouts, to buy (more) Zoe’s Kitchen stock in June…I mean leveraged buying, and Kendrick Lamar’s new CD isn’t as good as his last…so ignore the media here.
ok…time warp back to Jan/2015, I’m wearing flared jeans and shoving the peace sign.
Wouldn’t change a thing in my prep/study style. I think I was overprepared for the exam which is a good position to be in. But being a retaker has its advantage of tweaking study plans to hone in on the weak areas.
But for the 1st timers, I think this exam shows that it’s so important to nail the major concepts in the big weights…don’t worry about the obscure tiny stuff that only represent a few questions on the exam.
Back in Jan 2015…I was 15 lbs…lighter…more muscular…
Tip #1
Don’t give up the gym…going to the gym helps your mind focus better…your health is more important than this d**n exam…
Tip #2
Start doing the d**n blue boxes and EOCs earlier…To make sure you have enough time to do it 3 times.
Tip #3
Do mocks earlier…it may be painful and a blow to your confidence…but the more times you do and redo mocks and do more mocks even if you’re guessing the better you will get at not falling for traps.
Tip #4
Stop looking at what other people are doing here on analyst forum…to see if there are any short cuts or easier methods to learn something…this stuff is a grind…there’s no way around a grind.
Tip #5
Write your own d**n formula sheet…that Elan formula sheet p****d me off…I didn’t realize there was several errors in it until the last few weeks to the exam…which had me flipping back into the CFA curriculum again.
Take this advice VERY seriously; DO NOT waste January and wait to start in February, it looks like its only a month but ITS NOT. Starting in Feb means you wont have any days or weekends to waste (relax), it would make your life very tight.
But, I enjoyed my nice break until the last week in February (and a few days off here and there until test day–balance is key)! Granted, I had just finished school and Level I in December, so the break was more enticing…
Starting earlier would have been helpful, though. I could have taken my own notes as a initially wanted to do, and I would have been able to read the official books at a more relaxed pace 
Not to be that guy, but I really don’t have any regrets this time through. I prepared to the absolute best of my ability and gave it all I had on exam day. If it doesn’t go my way… well then I’ll re-assess come late July.
Dude, thats when you’re not working! When you have full time job and family then one should start latest by January.
I had a full time job and spent time with my family as well…
I did about 3-4 hours a day for about five weeks (and about 7-8 per day on the weekend) until the beginning of April. My motivation declined after that, since I hadn’t been having too much fun. I took another break and picked up studying again in the middle of May when my motivation came back.
during the exam I would have said.-
dont skip any readings. if you run short of time, just pull out all the formulas and plug-and-chug some examples.
however… now I would probably say try to ace EQ and FRA then you are setup.
I’ll give you another answer in 6weeks.
What I mean is you dont have much room to Relax if you start in Feb. Studying 3-4 hours a day and 10+ on weekends translate to no life, so your schedule becomes very tight.
Yeah, I tried to keep a balance with a day off here and there, but it was closer than I would have preferred. I think keeping one’s sanity is just as important as knowing the material.
You’re assuming that anyone who’s decided to take these tests has some sanity to begin with.
I’ve heard something similar for NHL netminders— you need to question the player’s sanity when he’s willing to put his body in front of solid rubber that’s blasted at +90 miles per hour…
So true, especially #1 and #5.