Be honest.. Am i in a good or bad position?

Hello everyone, sorry i have not been posting quite as much after i received my june results (fail band 7), but ive been looking for work and stuff. I have been reading your posts and for the most part trying to take it in. But heres my dilemma: I never actually read book 6 (derivatives and AI), so i scored terrible on those sections. Everything else i was in the middle with the exception of ethics which i got over 70 on (the only section i actually reviewed for the test). Ive started reading derivatives and AI and im halfway through the book (page 100). Am i in a bad position or can i still make it? I cant afford anything but the CFAI texts right now since money is extremely tight and i dont work. I was hoping to finish this book and go back to the begining and use index cards to remember vital points and such and just review from there. I kind of feel really lost right now and dont know what i should do… specially since its been over 2 months since i studied. And not finding a job is really hurting my motivation…

you’re looking good. no worries.

I presume you will be using the Schweser Question Bank, if not then you are making a mistake. Practise will make you perfect and build your confidence.

Knowing the concepts will make you even better.

If you put in the hours, you’re fine. If you don’t you’ll fail. Since you didn’t make it through one of the books last time, it sounds like you either started too late, or didn’t put in enough hours. Ask yourself if you can realistically study 20-30 hours per week from now until the test. If the answer is yes, go for it.

Looks like you failed every section other than ethics? You better start cramming soon. If you’re out of work, you should be able to put in the 20 hours per week. Drill, drill drill from here on out. You should be fine.

  1. Study book 6 2. Do all the questions in the CFAI books. 3. Review all the sections that you score poorly on, or that you guess on. 4. If you can get some money and buy the Qbank. If you can’t, get some money and buy some mock exam papers from CFA when they come out. 5. If you score highly on these, you’re ready. If you don’t, you need to review. Repeat until you are scoring >75 on the mocks.

Just read the CFAI books. You guys take the exam TOO serious and in the end your “overthink” a question and end up with a wrong answer. And now the changes of guessing a correct answer is 33%, much higher than the previous 25%. And there is no “time wasting” reading a useless forth answer…so u are cool. Dont worry, give it another push.

Is it confirmed that there will be only 3 choices in December? Also, if you can find a way to get the Schweser notes, use those. CFA books have over 2,700 pages, compared to around 1,400 for Schweser. Much less time consuming. I would spend most of my time on FSA if I were you, and once I was done with derivatives, I’d just read the summaries of AI, because there’s barely any questions asked on that anyways.

Mukaranga Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > You guys take the exam TOO serious and in the end your “overthink” a > question and end up with a wrong answer. Could Mukaranga be right? I hope not but I am fearful he is. But is there any other way to study for CFA granted out of every three who sit for the exam,two will fail and one pass? My two cents though- if you have time for the CFA notes, they are super. Best wishes.

Teldar Paper Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Is it confirmed that there will be only 3 choices > in December? > > Also, if you can find a way to get the Schweser > notes, use those. CFA books have over 2,700 > pages, compared to around 1,400 for Schweser. > Much less time consuming. > > I would spend most of my time on FSA if I were > you, and once I was done with derivatives, I’d > just read the summaries of AI, because there’s > barely any questions asked on that anyways. I may not be right for other candidates. But for me it was the way I escaped level 1 and level 2. Wihs me the best for level 3. I just read the books and sought to understand the stuff. Here and there I checked the LOS, but not the way I have read here. People talk of reading LOSs before u study, carrying “flashcard” with you in the car etc. I never did. But then one man’s beuaty is another’s beast. Wish u the best.

Ah… Thanks for all the input. Yeah i started pretty late into the program so even from the begining i knew i would never read derivatives and AI. And i only had like 3 days to review in which i did one mock exam and reviewed ethics a bit. During the exam i never felt like i was surprised at anything i saw, just that i wasnt able to remember some things more clearly. For the most part i left pretty comfortable, which is a sign that you got tricked on alot of questions (except for part 1, i did good in part 1, not part 2). Okay, i will dedicate 20 hours a week to this beast from here on out! 3 hours from mon-fri 5 hours on sunday! Thanks everyone i dont know what came over me… maybe some sort of level1 repeat cold…

As far as I know, the 3 answers thing starts with the June 2009 exam not the Dec one.

hmmm, i know how you feel man. I would honestly focus on the test and less on the job search. failing level 1 again will not only despirit you, but hurt your chances of a job land even more. so pass level 1 in december, because it will motivate you (give you fresh wind) and make your resume a bit better. failing in june and then taking time off instead of ramping back in was a big mistake. in fact, you should be more pumped. you have 3 months, so it is not the end of the world.