Hi all, Considering that PM has high weightage, what are the key and tricky things there? I tried to go thru reading 68 which seems never ending. Seems it is pretty closely linked to Forex of econ, making it difficult to comprehend. S
PM has a tiny weightage, especially in relation to the amount of material involved. I’d want to tell you focus on the big stuff like ICAPM, etc… but in reality, both last year and the year before’s 6 questions on PM were on a completely random, tiny little bit of that massive PM text. it’s a tough topic because there’s a ton of testable material and you have no idea what’s coming at you come test day. I think some people who took the test last year would say that the minimum variance fronteir is tricky. Test takers in '07 probably would say Treynor Black. Your guess is as good as mine what they want this time around. Just keep plowing through it. PM is long and no joke in L2. I actually was thinking about starting it next (finishing corp fi this weekend and moving on), but I’m going to do equity during January. much bigger weighting, need to nail that. Q-bank is pretty robust in PM from what I remember. Do tons of questions to help reinforce.
Bannisja, What order are you following for your prep and are you solely relying on preparatory material for your prep? Also, if you could provide reasoning on how you structured your study plan, that would be great to know as well. Thanks.
everyone’s study plan is different- i’m much more of a slow and steady weekend studier, where as in feb/march you’ll meet dinesh who is all out hardcore no sleep go go go. whatever gets it done for you- just put in the hours and make a plan. i was a band 10 fail, and this year i’m trying to again do a full read of everything to try to soak it all up. i have done a 1st read of quant, econ, FSA, and i’m finishing corp fi today (so pretty much going in order). going to do equity next, then maybe PM, FI, and derivs last. the goal for me now is about 1 SS a week, finish the reading by end of march. I’m trying to utilize the CFAI books more this year- doing all end of chapter questions and kind of skimming through the material to see if things are missing from schweser, my main read. i will use the CFAI books as my primary reading source for ethics and alts. i think schweser does a good job with FSA and equity. i need to start q-bank… so far that’s my biggest regret this year- i will start using it to reinforce as i go during the week starting this week. i will have all of april/may for q-bank and reveiw/practice tests. that’s my plan, i’m sticking to it. and nodes, i oddly went over 70% on PM last year- i must be a good guesser b/c that section was out of left field completely. i missed a few easy questions in corp fi, equity, quant and ethics last year. if i keep on my plan, i think i can do well this time around. i just can’t get behind b/c i’m not much of a cram studier. so i’m up early, will try to finish up corp fi today and then move onto the massive beast that is equity. my biggest suggestion is just to dive in- doesn’t matter that much the order, just study something and often. i need to do that too from now til test time.
PM was complete bullsh*t last year. They threw 6 questions at us about the stability of the minimum variance frontier and ICAPM. It is amazing how they provide you with 250 pages of material, and then proceed to test you on 2 pages of it. Read through it all to get a good sense of what it is all about, but I would spend much more time on FSA and Equity.
For those that took L2 last year, do you think going just by Schweser would not cover 100% of the material and would leave out room for those random, left field questions?In other words, if you had used only CFAI last year, do you think you could have been comfortable with the left field questions? That is my main concern on just following Schweser that Id leave out some sections that Schweser doesnt cover in much detail and get hammered. Any thoughts on this? On the other hand, just doing CFAI would take too long and one stands at risk of lagging behind. So Im just trying to weigh the cost/benefit of using either. I think the doing the questions on CFAI are a good strategy (as I did the same in L1) but Im maybe over analyzing the L2 prep. Thanks for your comments.
was there ICAPM on the exam last year? i don’t remember that specifically… the markowitz stuff for sure i remember… one thing i would have done in hindsight for level 2 is really learn the assumptions behind the models (lognormal vs. normal… are the prices or the returns normally distributed?) i was that aware of it, but yes, PM is huge section for tiny points. but two years ago alot considered it a key differentiator. last year somewhat too (although those questions seemed almost random)
The question in this thread title may be harder than any question I have ever faced in the CFA program.
“What to focus on Portfolio Management?” - Even GOD hung-up in my morning prayers when I asked him this question.
This time I am going to start in Feb casually. Are you all doing the CFAI books or Schweser? I’ll open the CFAI pack in around Feb and see if they are too digressive. It’s too difficult to focus on LOS when you are studying from those dumbells and too easy to get lost in the trivial petty points or little to no relevance at all to the main LOS topics. I’ll see how the 1st month goes with CFAI and then order the Schweser Notes for a quick sprint. What’s another 400 dollar pop?