Hey everyone, CFA level 1 candidate here, set to take the exam in T minus 24 days!
Do other L1 candidates (and L2, L3, charterholders, in your experience) have trouble memorizing everything? As in, there has to be a lot of concepts/facts/things that you just simply can’t remember right? So as you do mock exams - the right answer kind of just “comes to mind” from the question or from putting the pieces together, vs. actually the answer coming from what you memorized? I’m finding it hard because of the sheer amount of material. Any help appreciated!
Thanks
Actually, when an answer “comes to mind” when working on the problem it is a good sign. It means that you know your stuff. There are some questions, however, that require memorization. For these questions, you either know it or you do not. For example, there is no way around knowing financial statements disclosures for long lived assets and inventory. You will need to go through them and remember. But also think about cost-benefit, if you really need to learn something by heart, I would start with the topics that are heavily weighted. Start with FRA then move your way down to the least weighted topics. Chances are that you will get these memorization questions for more heavily weighted topics simply because they have more opportunities to ask them (i.e more questions).
I am currently reviewing financial statements disclosures. I also need to review the lagging, coincident and leading indicators (which I can never remember).
Thank you cfageist. That was some great advice. What else, other than FS disclosures and Economic indicators do you recommend simply memorizing?
You’re going to need to memorize and understand a lot at every level and be capable of applying and interpreting. He could give you a list of easily 100 things you need to memorize. Try and get on top of that yourself by identifying those areas through review and repetition.