Its not that i dont understand it, its just that its really…painfull…Im spending 1.5 hours on 10 pages… Is it normal this struggle with it like I am
You should sign up for elanguides if you haven’t already. Level II quant videos and readings for free.
I have, I want to finish the QM first and then watch the video and read the Elan notes which are a whole lot less tham from the curriculum 80 pages vs 300 of the CFAI
I HATE QUANT. With every nerve in my body. But what are the odds, this level 2 result that is the only section I got >70 in. Probably cos I practiced it a lot cos I hated it, but it is still annoying!
i tried to cope with Quant for last whole week, and its really painful. still feel nowehere…passed level one with Quant less than 50 .
i tried to cope with Quant for last whole week, and its really painful. still feel nowehere…passed level one with Quant less than 50 .
I would definitely suggest DO NOT READ CFAI BOOK FOR QUANTS. You can go mad literally! I spent upto 15 days trying to go through the books and never succeeded. There are videos available on youtube, watch it.
Note: Below advice is based on assumption that 2013 curriculum is same as 2012.
There are basically 3 stuff you need to worry about.
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Linear regression
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Multiple regression
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Time series analysis.
There would be brilliant people telling you that you should NOT do Linear regression and that nothing would come from that chapter. But please spend time on that, this chapter is the basic stuff for everything else. If you really understand this, then Multiple regression is a cake walk. And remember Linear regression could be tested even if people tell you other way (just like any other reading in the curriculum)!
In linear regression, clearly understand what is correlation, ways to calculate it, correlation coefficient and its relationships with other parameters! Its basically a TEMPLATE, just learn the template and everything would fall in place. And remember this Quant is actually far far easier than level 1 quant actually.
I have a presentation from my classes which I can share. If you guys need it, You could send me a message from my AF contact page and I can send you the same. Please dont post your email Id as a reply to this thread as it becomes difficult for me to come and check this thread…
All the best for your preps!
Haa, forgot to add the usual point - prepare from the presentation and then go ahead and do the EOCs and Blue boxes - as if you guys didnt know it 
Well actually the Quantitative Methods section is one of the simplest of the CFA topics. The reason lots of people have difficulty with it is usually because they haven’t done an introductory statistics course.
after reading hypothesis, suddenly i thought of leaving CFA. yeah, so u r not alone. I scored less than 50% on L2 on this one. So if you dont like it, just prepare a list of formulas and mug it up. Then hope you get something straightforward
I think this is exactly how you should not prepare All you need to mug up in this is some useless test names to correct your regression. But other than that everything is actually straight forward.
Yeah Sooraj is right the topic is not hard, its just that the CFAI books make it hard. Since Elan put up the QM notes and videos up, what im going to do, its that im going to study QM from there and still do the EOC and blue boxes of the CFAI books. Hey Sooraj is there any other topic that you studied from any other book than the CFAI book?
Traditionally I have hated this topic, but this year it was simple really. I read the CFAI (really concise but long) and made notes regarding when to use what formulas and when to use which tests. Then I practiced interpreting the information samples until I got the hang of it. Solid pass.
3 keys to this section are:
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know when to use what test and it’s parameters
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know when to use which formula
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know how to interpret the data!
+1
QM is a pain…I tried it for the first week…couldnt get anywhere so I left it for last. And the trick worked, got +70.
Also watch out for Portfolio Management …there are two guys called Messrs Treynor and Black. They are there to make your life hell.
I am just hoping that when i get to the problems it will make sense. Ive always had this problem that the theory of explaining something mathematical, i just dont make sense of it ultl i see the problems.
There were two areas hamada which I found CFAI very confusing:
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Derivatives is another section which CFAI book really killed me. I dont have this habit of matching LOS and then studying things, I generaly like to study in one flow… But in Derivatives it was very very important as in Schweser notes, they omitted lot of stuff which were not part of LOS. Dont depend on finquiz notes for derivatives as well, they also dont abridge the stuff like Schweser does. For derivatives I would say match LOS and then study or go with Schweser for that alone. I heard Elan was good from my email study partner.
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Pensions in FRA - Its actually a very interesting chapter, but it can scare you too. What is the problem with CFAI material here? They actually make a comparison between IFRS and US GAAP at the very start and dont do a good job of explaining what is common in them. The way this chapter should be taught is that somebody explains you US GAAP completely (because of lesser rules in GAAP), then goes on to explain the changes with respect to IFRS. This is not handled really well in the CFAI text. Also the economic pension expense which is a must must know topic is not really well explained. I went for classes and the professors notes were really good for me - of course I would solve all the problems all over again. I think watching videos on this topic a couple of times is really helpful.
For some reason I can’t download the free Elan notes for QM. Anyone willing to email them to me?
Hey make sure you’re in the Level II June part of the Elan website. Check the top right corner for the dropdown. You may have to create another account. If that doesn’t work, pm me and i’ll email em to you. good luck
I think everybody finds Quants very confusing/anoying in the start. Probably, the best way to look at quants its to know the basics. The more you try diving deep into regression and time-series, the more confusing it can get. I would suggest watching the schweser videos, I think they do a good job in explaning quants. Also, the Schweser guides do much better job in explaining quants than the CFA curricullum and are more than enough for the exam…
Well to be honest, i did not have much trouble with this subject but i did have to review it thrice and very systematically.
At first, i started off with the free readings of Elan. Finishing the curriculum summary and the EOCs after each reading. Also, i marked down the hard EOCs to review for the next time around.
After about two months, i realized that the subject has again become alien to me. So this time, i started again fresh, took my own notes and watched the elan videos. Then i hit the EOCs again. Although making own notes and watching videos is really not my style of studying, but i believe these two things really helped me here.
I fast reviewed the subjectagain, for the third time, during the gaps between my mock days. It was rock solid in my mind by then.
Got >70 in this subject. Unfortunately though, it has a very less weightage, else i might would have broken the band 10 barrier. SIGH!