Two weeks left… Here are some things that worked for me and helped me pass L1 the first time. Hopefully they will help you too. 1) No matter how many times people tell you and what you expect, the Ethics questions will rock your world. From now till exam day, re-read the CFAI ethics book. Twice if possible. 2) Take two hours to blast through the books and make flash cards for every single formula you see. Memorize them all. Don’t give up any easy points because you didn’t know a formula. 3) With that said, you will use your calculator far less than you expect. The exam is far more conceptual than you expect. Know the conceptual side of each topic inside and out. 4) If you haven’t done a full 6 hour practice exam under strict exam conditions, do it. You’ll need the experience in time management and endurance. 5) Take off as much time from work as you can in the last week. The whole week if possible. 6) Take two calculators to the exam, put fresh batteries in them. You never know… 7) Don’t talk to anyone about the exam during lunch break. You have nothing to gain, and it will likely only hurt your confidence. 8) Two weeks left…Do what you need to do…sacrifice what you need to sacrifice…and study twice as much as you think you have to. This exam is going to punch you in the face harder than you’ve ever been punched. Don’t regret these last two weeks of prep…trust me, when you PASS in July, everything you had to do and sacrifice is extremely worth it.
On exam day, best advice I have for all levels is to understand what the question iis asking and what they are looking for. A lot of questions will have familiar parts that you recognize as used to answer one thing, but they are asking for something different. Understanding the question will save easy points. Good luck.
Level 2 candidate here. I’ll add to the advice: 9) READ THE FULL QUESTION. If the phrase LEAST LIKELY or INCORRECT appears in what they are asking for, circle it, star it, draw a nude woman next to it, whatever you need to do, but BE SURE OF WHAT YOU ARE ANSWERING. The number of problems that I almost got caught on with this stupid phrasing was mind-boggling. CFAI won’t ask impossible questions, but asking tricky questions is definitely fair game. For me, it helped to strikeout the phrase LEAST when they asked “which of the following is the least likely result of [whatever]” and then I would cross out the MOST likely results until I had the answer.
I just read the question and circle most likely or least likely. If its a most likely I write a BIG TRUE next to the questions, and if its least likely i write a BIG FALSE. Then I just mark each of the choices as true or false. It might help you guys as well.