I have been going since October with about 350 hours logged and a month to go. My confidence has been crushed by the CFA Mock and realization that there is absolutely no way to memorize and master every last item in the curriculum. I feel like every hour I study, I push something I learned previously out of my brain to make room. I expressed this concern to a buddy of mine who’s a charter holder, and his response was as follows: “Test day isn’t about knowing everything. It’s about knowing more than the guy next to you”. Hit the nail on the head for me and at least partially alleviated some stress. Important point to remember heading towards June.
I agree. The problem for me is that there is so much material tha often I’m not sure how to even aproach a question, but I’m not sure what they want me to use…I have to start scanning my brain for the desired concept and there’s just too much too remember. Level 1 really seems soooo easy after this,I feel like tere was maybe 1/4 the amount to memorize.
out of curiosity. you say 350 hours, what did you do in those 350 hours? did you do EOC? what else?
My 350 so far has consisted of reading the entire CFAI body of text, reading the Schweser notes through twice, the Schweser Secret Sauce twice and doing a crap ton of EOCs and three Schweser practice finals so far. I’ll be honest, the first hundred hours of reading the complete CFAI text back in October and November was a complete waste of time as that’s just way too long ago to really retain anything but high level concepts.
what is a “crap ton of EOCs” ? Have you done them all? twice? three times?
what is this secret sauce I keep reading about? I used schweser last year - this must be new!
Listen, you still have a lot of time between now and the big dance. Nobody is really well prepared at this point. You have lots of time to get in their and build up your familiarity with stuff and master the essentials. Don’t give up. A lot of people are just getting started with their studying in sincerity, if you’re on mocks you are right on track to pass this thing. This is an important point in the whole process where you assess yourself and start to doubt yourself no matter how well you are prepared. Expect the odd item set to send you crashing down at this point. It doesn’t mean you are getting killed, it just means you need to re-examine a small weekness that got exposed. Focus on the essentials and get the chinks out of your armour. I was in the same shoes as you a year ago and I got through it. Now I’m in the same shoes on the next level. Remember the white stripes song: Little Acorns Take all your problems And rip 'em apart, Carry them off in a shopping cart, And another thing you should’ve known from the start, The problems in hand are lighter than at heart, Be like the squirrel girl, be like the squirrel, Give it a whirl girl, be like the squirrel, And another thing you have to know in this world, Cut up your hair, straighten your curls, Well, your problems hide in your curls. So be like the squirrel EastCoastJ!
EastCoastJ Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I have been going since October with about 350 > hours logged and a month to go. My confidence has > been crushed by the CFA Mock I am sure the score wasnt all that bad. want to share it? I took first sample test last week and couldn’t even score 50%! That was a huge blow! and I am a retaker!
I have also been going since October and I feel the exact same way! I still haven’t taken the mock. I am trying the EOC’s 1 more time through before trying but I am scared to death of taking it!
Repetition is the mother of skill…Do you write down what you get wrong on a note card or in notes? How many timed mocks have you done? Keep pushing and don’t get discouraged. The more you fight before the exam the better you will perform in battle.
I feel you guys pain and going through the same kind of thinking. I am a retaker as well, so it’s like I’m battling the curriculum and a bit of a confidence problem as well. I’m doing my best to remember that if I get a bad score, it’s just my preparation or a mock exam doing EXACTLY what it is supposed to do at this point. That is communicating to me where I probably just need review to stay where I’m at and not loose ground, and other areas that need a little more work to bring them up to speed. That sinking feeling in my gut when I come up on something and it feels like, I should know this with as much time as I have spent studying at this point but I feel like I’m reading a vcr programming manual for beta max in mandarin chinese… sucks a big fat hairy sweaty black one.