My mocks are showing I’m borderline passing right now…has been getting either 67% or 72%, aka I got all the major concepts, but it’s just the minor points hidden somewhere in the textbook that tripped me over. Re-reading chapters hasn’t done any good for me cuz idk what I should be paying attention to… Any advice on what to do at this point?
I am rereading the entire Ethics section in the CFAI books (skipping the optional sections obviously) and making sure I know the Code and Standards well, as well as the sections of GIPS. I’ve found that if you know the Code and Standards (not by heart, but at least the general outline and structure), reasoning to an answer becomes much easier, especially once you’ve eliminated the clearly wrong answer. In case you haven’t heard of it before, here’s the CFAI website’s definition of the “ethics adjustment”:
"The Board of Governors instituted a policy to place particular emphasis on ethics. Starting with the 1996 exams, the performance on the ethics section became a factor in the pass/fail decision for candidates whose total scores bordered the minimum passing score. The ethics adjustment can have a positive or negative impact on these candidates’ final results.
CFA Institute has a policy of not releasing either the minimum passing score or individual candidate scores. Consequently, CFA Institute does not release specific information about the ethics adjustment or the candidates who were affected. The adjustment has had a net positive effect on candidate scores (and thus pass rates) in most exam sessions. The published pass rates always take into account the ethics adjustment for borderline candidates."
I’d also review mock tests, practice questions, etc. and figure out WHY you’re missing questions, not just memorizing the right answer. E.g. I was missing a lot of equity questions earlier on because I didn’t know the different dividend discount formulas, when to use a two-stage vs. Gordon Growth formula, yada yada ya. Once I learned the formulas and when to use them, my equity score shot up on the mocks. Same with fixed income (duration and convexity formulas) and FRA (ratios, random equations like OI + purchases = EI + COGS, lease calculations, and so on).
Some sections might require flash card time, others might require a review of the fundamental framework of the section, some may require memorizing definitions and concepts, especially sections like fixed income and econ. It just depends on what you’re scoring on each section and why your score is improving (or not improving).
Then lastly I’d really focus on heavily-weighted topics–Ethics, FRA, Equity, and FI, especially if these aren’t your strong topics. Not only will it help moving on to L2 and L3 from what I’ve heard, but these four sections make up over half the exam.
Schweser quicksheet is a good review for level 1. All key concepts and formulas summarized in a few pages.