Where are you focusing?

I feel that I could try and be average in everything or excel in a few key areas to pass the test. Here is what I am putting extra time into: FSA Equity Ethics Economics Port Mgmt I am still going to work through the other stuff, but I plan on reading these items again and again. Is anyone else focusing on a few key areas or am I setting myself up for failure?

I’m building a firewall of ethics, quant, FSA, and Equity. Using the CFAI minimum weights per section, that’s 50% of the exam.

Everything is a key area. You never know what they put more weight on. Plus we have vignettes this time. So we need to be extra careful. Ilvino- Good to see you back at the Forum.

ilvino Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I’m building a firewall of ethics, quant, FSA, and > Equity. Using the CFAI minimum weights per > section, that’s 50% of the exam. Last year, I got >70% correct answers in topics that represented 65% of the points on the exam … Yes, that was at level 2 … and yes, I am sitting for level 2 this year.

Quant, FSA, Equity and Derivatives will probably be my focus areas since they are either the largest or I understand them the least.

Rooster- it’s good to be back. I took the week off work so I actually have the chance to do some posting on here. Still trying to spend more time working Q’s than reading the lively AF discussion , though.

Im working on remembering the Equity Reversion After Tax for the real estate section. It’s new for L2. Derivatives is my worst, i’ll be spending a lot of time on that section.

olivier Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > ilvino Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > I’m building a firewall of ethics, quant, FSA, > and > > Equity. Using the CFAI minimum weights per > > section, that’s 50% of the exam. > > > Last year, I got >70% correct answers in topics > that represented 65% of the points on the exam > … > > Yes, that was at level 2 … and yes, I am sitting > for level 2 this year. This is terrifying. You have answered about every question correctly that has been posted. Tell me you have done a lot of studying since last year.

Niblita75 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Im working on remembering the Equity Reversion > After Tax for the real estate section. It’s new > for L2. Derivatives is my worst, i’ll be spending > a lot of time on that section. I find the real estate section (or at least the quantitative part of it) to be very similar to the corporate finance readings. Isn’t the “After-Tax Equity Reversion” just a nice name for the non-operating cash flows during the final year (in the context of a real estate investment)?

mwvt9 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > This is terrifying. You have answered about every > question correctly that has been posted. Tell me > you have done a lot of studying since last year. I have done quite a bit of studying in the remaining 35% of the exam. I also did reviews for the 65% sections - trying not to forget But overall, the answers I posted in the past few days are stuff I already knew last year.

olivier Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > mwvt9 Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > This is terrifying. You have answered about > every > > question correctly that has been posted. Tell > me > > you have done a lot of studying since last > year. > > > I have done quite a bit of studying in the > remaining 35% of the exam. > > I also did reviews for the 65% sections - trying > not to forget > > But overall, the answers I posted in the past few > days are stuff I already knew last year. Wow…that’s scary then. I think you’re doing a great job already. If you already knew all this stuff last year and still failed…then I don’t know what we need to do to pass.

Niblita75 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Im working on remembering the Equity Reversion > After Tax for the real estate section. It’s new > for L2. Derivatives is my worst, i’ll be spending > a lot of time on that section. Nib - where the he!! is this?; haven’t come across it in the official curriculum (mind you, I still have two books to go)

ERAT is the winning amount you get on real estate investments. It’s the Selling Price - Selling Expense - Sales Tax - [Any non-zero Mortgage Principal Balance]. I don’t recall the exact formula now…

dinesh.sundrani Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > ERAT is the winning amount you get on real estate > investments. > > It’s the Selling Price - Selling Expense - Sales > Tax - . > > I don’t recall the exact formula now… Dinesh - this is DEFINITELY new material from last year…where abouts is this…in equity I’m assuming?

zim, It’s probably (Real Estate) AI stuff and intermingles with the Equity book. Don’t have the books to confirm the exact page though.

It is in the Equity Book First you need to find the capital gains: Selling Price - Cost of Selling = Net Selling Price Net Selling Price - Book Value (Purchase Price - Accumulated Depreciation) = Realized Gain Realized Gain - Accumulated Depreciation = Long Term Gain on Sale Taxes = (Recaptured Depreciation Tax * Accumulated Depreciation) + (Long Term Gain * Capital Gains Tax) Net Selling Price - Mortgage Repayment - Taxes = ERAT

Thanks for the refresher, Niblita75 !!

ruhi22 Wrote: > If you already knew all this > stuff last year and still failed…then I don’t > know what we need to do to pass. you of all people shouldn’t be worried about that

I think all of us are on the right track putting enough hours in reading and reviewing material, answering practice questions and discussing the things we want to understand better. We don’t know for sure that we will pass but it doesn’t really matter. What’s important is positioning ourselves well to increase our odds.

Absolutely. There are quite a few people doing L2 this year at our firm and none of them is even close to finishing reading the material. The majority of candidates is slowly going through the whole thing and then take two or three weeks of before the exam. I think all of us nutheads here are far ahead of the bunch and on our way to giving it a very good shot on June 7th.