Dealing with item set questions

CFA Level II
#1

So i just had my first interactions with the Item set questions of reading 2 of the CFAI books. I did horribly, not because i didnt know the material. I scored 83% on the Level 1 format questions, but when it came to the item set i dint know how to approach them. I would like some advice on how to approach these bad boys, Do you guys read the whole case and then the questions, or do you read one question, read the case until you answer the question, then read the other quuestion. Thanks

#2

Hi there…

Thats nothing new and each of us faced this trouble. As you rightly said, the difficulty was not just about grasping the subject, but about finding details to whats being asked from the myriad information given in the itemset.

  1. First read the first question alone quickly, understand whats being asked.

  2. Go back to vignette, read and collect the relevant information.

  3. Underline things which you believe could be useful/important. Say like reporting in IFRS or GAAP, resides in Switzerland (for currency translation questions)

  4. Perform calculations and answer the question, if you cant answer it just move on to the next question.

  5. Repeat 1-4 till the end…

Now, some pointers which could be helpful are that:

  1. MOSTLY, questions are in the same sequence as the way vignette is written as well.

  2. This could be in a different order for ETHICS, be very very careful of vignettes in Ethics. They can literally ***** you with umpteen details which are not important.

  3. Creating a diagram for Economics currency translations helps, Schweser would teach you how to do it.

  4. Practise is the key, dont waste your time doing standalone ethics questions. You have to practise in Itemset format. The earlier you start the better it is. (I understand as if You didnt know this already, but repeated it for the sake of completeness mate :slight_smile: ).

All the very best. You are in a good place as you have already started, good on you!

#3

thank you sooraj thats really helpful details…

#4

Thanks this is really helpfull

#5

I am happy to be of any help friends!

#6

thanks sooraj, thats really helpful.

#7

Thanks for the help soraj. Just a clarifying question - would you recommend reading all of the questions first and then refer to the vignette? Or read one question at a time, and then read the entire vignette to seek the answer?

#8

No mate, reading all the questions would be an overkill IMHO. Just need to glance through question by question and pick the required information from the vignette.

#9

LIke Sooraj said, the questions are ordered according to the flow of the vignettes. When I started practicing questions for level 2, I used to read the vignettes first and then move on to the questions, which I found took a lot of time… but it does help initially. After quite a bit of practice you actually know what you are looking for… and closer towards the exam with enough practice… I used to start of by reading the first 3 questions of the vignette and then read the vignette itself. This helps because, you know exactly what information you are looking for which helps save A LOT of time… which is very necessary for Level 2.

The more you practice the better!

#10

thanks guys appreciate the insights.