I’ll share what worked for me, and let me preface it by saying I only used Schweser material, and did 2 full Schweser mocks (scoring below the pass range on both) and then obviously the CFAI mocks to gauge where the institute was at for the exam (where I scored a 65 and 62 in AM/PM respectively).
I began reading in early October and hit the biggest sections that I knew would be most critical to my success. I started with Equity, Accounting and Corp Fin, in that order. After reading each book, I went through and outlined in very condensed format, and made formula note cards. After I had read all 3 books I went back and did some light note card memorization, and did all CFAI EOC’s for these chapters. This took me till the beginning of January. Continued this process with the rest of the material till about the end of March, early April. Saved ethics for last, and read CFAI & Schweser. With about 2 weeks left in April I had read all the Schweser material and completed all the CFAI EOC’s, and also had 90% of my notecards made. If I stumbled on a section that was particularly challenging I would watch lecture videos on the topic via Youtube or Schweser videos.
The final push was a shitload of questions, revisiting all CFAI EOC’s, solving all CFAI item sets on the website, and most importantly, from about mid-April until exam day, I was notecarding formulas and core concepts for about an hour everyday (sometimes more). Memorizing everything can be very fleeting on your memory, so if you aren’t engaging it everyday, you will lose it. I took 2 test environment 120Q Schweser mocks as mentioned, and didn’t pass either (low 60’s). After that, I was still hammering questions from other mocks when I needed to drill a concept, but I didn’t have time in the final two weeks to go through any more test simulation mocks, I was still addressing the gaps in my knowledge.
The final two weeks was very challenging. I felt very far off from passing a mock, but I knew that I was retaining more than the mock exams were indicating. I was cycling as many questions in my weaker areas as possible, while making sure to continue hammering questions in my stronger areas so that it would all stick together on test day. I began condensing my notes, and making condensed sheets of the most important topics I knew would be tested.
Final 10 days I had off from work, so I studied around the clock. Continued to condense notes and do problems, as well as notecarding 2+ hours per day, sometimes 3-4 hours. I was still filling in gaps as I went, and reviewing CFAI EOCs, practice problems, and doing new practice problems in areas I needed work. I completed both CFAI mocks with about 4 days to-go and scored near the pass mark, which gave me confidence. The final days was pure revision of gaps, hammering deriv’s formulas and accounting differences, and making sure I was strong in basic areas for all chapters. I didnt meddle to much in the fine details and punted a couple small areas in certain sections, but nothing major.
I scored >70 in Equity, Fixed Income, Derivatives, Economics and 50-70 in the rest. The only area I received below 50 was Alternatives, which is surprising to me, because I felt very very solid in this section and I work in Alt’s. Either way, I think I was safely above the pass line.
