Any brilliant ideas out there? I am speding this week doing Schweser Test Q’s for FSA and Equity only. Then on Saturday I will take my first full 6 hour test. After that I will review the test Sunday and throughout the week. Same thing next Saturday (new test obviously) all the way up until the end. Taking 3 days off work before test. Thoughts or suggestions?
I am going to try one of the schweser tests this coming weekend. Depending on how much I get out of it I may work on more, if not, I am going strait to the CFAI online tests and starting with those. I have covered 95% of the material, still need to do a couple of the readings in Ethics, also need to spend more time in derivatives and PM, but overall more or less on track. I’ve heard many times that working problems is key to the final month. Most of us have seen the topics once or twice, so we will just need to hammer away at practicing to figure out our weak areas and polish up on them.
Have you started? Wish I had the time.
I think you are much better off scattering your days off over the next month then taking them on the day right before the test. You’ll get burned-out and you won’t study as much on those days as you think you will. space out the days and you’ll be much more effective. I’ve scheduled one day off a week for the 6 weeks up to the exam. I’m strictly doing CFAI online tests, schweser practice exams and q-bank.
Study what you don’t want to study and try to have the greatest understanding of your weaknesses. The practice test should illuminate this and I would suggested taking as manay practice tests as possible. Take the time off from work…that’s a good plan.
For L1, I made flashcards for every topic/formula I messed up on practice exams and my daily qbank test. After a few weeks of using the cards I started to remove the areas I finally “learned” so I could concentrate on the topics I was not learning. If I was doing particularly bad in one reading I would write my own notes because it forces you to go through the material slowly. Then, after doing the notes, I would take a reading test in the Qbank (might do this with CFAI text as well this year). Pour some secret sauce and 30 Qbank questions on that everyday, with a side of CFAI practice exams, and you should be fine.
Danhoop21 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I think you are much better off scattering your > days off over the next month then taking them on > the day right before the test. You’ll get > burned-out and you won’t study as much on those > days as you think you will. space out the days and > you’ll be much more effective. I’ve scheduled one > day off a week for the 6 weeks up to the exam. > I’m strictly doing CFAI online tests, schweser > practice exams and q-bank. I disagree. The week before the exam is key.
nodes Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I will do book 6/7 + all the CFAI mock/sample > exam. + all end of chapter questions of the > official books. Same thing, although I may skip book 7, and I will also review the wrong answers from SchweserPro. Last year I focused intently on the Schweser mocks and came away very prepared for doing quantitative questions…and was disappointed by the lack of those on the actual exam.
thepinkman Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > > I disagree. The week before the exam is key. I agree - a couple of practice exams the week leading into (if you have it off as I do) is important cause you get that test taking mindset hard wired and go right into the exam. I’m also with psn on the cards for the weak areas - I do the same. For L1 I did the same thing, took two full Schweser exams the week of, and was confident going into the exam. Like pink I was way over-prepared for the quantitative stuff that they only moderately threw at us in the second half. To prevent burnout I’m thinking that 1 practice exam for each of the next three weekends and then 3 the week going into the exam (Sat, Mon, Wed) should do it without making me nuts. If I can’t get it by then, see you here next year…
psn0706 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > For L1, I made flashcards for every topic/formula > I messed up on practice exams and my daily qbank > test. After a few weeks of using the cards I > started to remove the areas I finally “learned” > so I could concentrate on the topics I was not > learning. > > If I was doing particularly bad in one reading I > would write my own notes because it forces you to > go through the material slowly. Then, after doing > the notes, I would take a reading test in the > Qbank (might do this with CFAI text as well this > year). I pretty much did the same thing as psn for Level I and I thought it worked really well. For every question I got wrong or that I had to guess on, I wrote down in a notebook the formula or the concept that I needed to know to get that question right. I had different sections in the notebook for the main topics, and was constantly re-reading through them in between practice tests. It really helped eliminate my weak areas before test-day.
I’ve always felt that most AFers are waaayyy too anxious to start taking practice exams. I see people posting here who haven’t even gone through all the material and think they’re ready. I just don’t buy into the argument that you need a practice exam to tell you what you already (don’t know) – study the sections you are weak on and keep practicing that section until you have it done, then move onto the next one. I suspect that some are just hoping that they’ll skate by on their weaker sections and they may just find a practice exam that lets them get away with it. I think full blown practice exams are for the last two weeks alone.
Agreed, Pylon.
agree that you should be done reading all the material before you take a practice test. but disagree that practice exams are solely for the last 2 weeks. at this point i feel like mixing in a practice exam between review is more benefical to me than rereading my notes. it gets me used to the all -vignette style and helps build stamina. the key thing i think is to review all the answers after you’ve taken an exam and to actually learn from it. if you’re just taking a test to see if you’'d pass, then i agree with plyon that it’s kind of useless. but to me, it’s a review tool.
I totally agree. When I work on question bank i even look at the correct answers. I know it takes me longer however I want to ensure that I master the material as I go along. Ok working questions gives an indication of your weaknesses however, I would not rely on whether I pass or not. A question on the exam can throw me away from the pass rate.
plyon Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I’ve always felt that most AFers are waaayyy too > anxious to start taking practice exams. I see > people posting here who haven’t even gone through > all the material and think they’re ready. > > I just don’t buy into the argument that you need a > practice exam to tell you what you already (don’t > know) – study the sections you are weak on and > keep practicing that section until you have it > done, then move onto the next one. > > I suspect that some are just hoping that they’ll > skate by on their weaker sections and they may > just find a practice exam that lets them get away > with it. I think full blown practice exams are > for the last two weeks alone. Thanks for your advice. i needed this as have panicked over the weekend and consequently done virtually nothing
I planned every day of next month. I have some days to revise each study session, with most days to the most difficult stuff. I basically do the same I did before level 1. Re-read Schweser notes, then solve 60 questions test. If it is more than 75%, i move on, if it is less I do it once again. After I finish some SS’s on same subject (like FSA), I do 60q tests on whole study session. In the last 10 days I will probably just solve 120q tests and revise everything which seems difficult to me. I also plan to try $100 mock exam about a couple of weeks before exam.
Kjarro Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I planned every day of next month. I have some > days to revise each study session, with most days > to the most difficult stuff. Now that is a great strategy. We’re close enough that it’s relatively easy. And it provides some peace of mind as you can see exactly the path you’re going to take to success. I should do that.
Thanks for all of the feed back…I’ve also heard from people who have successfully passed all 3 levels say to not take too many tests. If you keep it limited to about 4 tests, you will know those 4 very well and it is likely that you have seen a decent sample of the types of questions you may encounter. I’ve even heard one CFA charterholder say to try to memorize 1 question for each of the different areas/types of questions you are having trouble with. Memorize the steps and this will pay off come exam time. I fully understand and agree with the fact that you are giving yourself false hope if you keep taking the same exams over and over. That said, if you take the same ones over and over and don’t let this false sense of security get to your head, it can be a really effective way to study. Good luck to all…
I don’t think taking several practice tests is harmful, as long as you make sure you’re properly reviewing what went right and wrong during the tests and mix in some review time. I took one yesterday and, maybe its just because I hate being wrong, but I’m 10 times more likely to remember a concept after I’m told I gave an incorrect answer. It’s not worthwhile if you haven’t properly reviewed before the test, but active studying is much more helpful to me than re-reading the notes for the nth time. I will probably do vol 1 and 2 plus all of the CFA sample/mock exams, and BSAS if there’s any time left. Worked for me at L1, anyways. I would advise against memorizing problems from practice exams, though… that seems to be asking for trouble. The actual questions are not likely to be that similar to the practice exams. You should certainly learn from your mistakes and review to make sure that you can answer the question, but I wouldn’t go so far as to memorizing them.
I agree with you Aimee. What I meant by memorizing a problem was really to pick a problem you will remember and memorize the steps to finding your answer. But I hear what you are saying.