How do you deal with retaining what you learned?

CFA Level III
#1

I have gone through all the schweser readings (except ethics) and schweser end of chapter questions once.

For the second round, I was planning to quickly skim through the readings again and doing CFA Institute end of chapter questions.

But now I find myself forgetting a lot of the stuff I have read earlier, and having to re-read in a lot more detailed manner than I would like to, which is costing me quite a bit of time.

I just feel like there is so much to memorize for CFA Level 3, many of which seem to be just hard memorization as opposed to understanding the concepts.

Should I stop dwelling on all the miniscule things and just go straight into questions? And just jump to whatever chapter that I have problems with? I do feel this method will run the risk of missing certain points.

I seriously feel like my memory has deteriorated.

#2

I’d encourage you to reread the material and write out flashcards; it’s a good way to set things into your memory.

#3

I would prefer to make small notes and then revisit notes when I give pratice exam. This gives me confidence that whatever I have read I am able to apply.

Hope it helps

#4

make sure you re-read the CFAI books every few months and prepare for every Dec and Jun exam time frame as if you were forced to retake it.

make sure to buy the newest CFAI books on ebay for the newest set of curriculum

#5

no s**t…L3 is available in june?

just practise and read the notes as and when…read the LOS and determine if memory work is needed

#6

I am also struggling with retention. For L 1 and 2 I anly needed two passes, I am finding though that I will need a third pass for this level…

#7

I’ve found writing out flash cards has helped… then I like to take the flash cards and write out a “cheat sheet” as if I was allowed to take one piece of paper into the exam for each topic area. The more times you write out this sheet the more it will be committed to memory!

#8

Jayman,

Running notes while first read is perhaps the best way to retain the large scope of study

Try this

Start with Behavioural Finance, First locate key topics based on exam My take would be

  • Utlity Concept

  • The Prospect theory

  • Bounded Rationality

  • EMH & Anamolies

  • Behavioural finance Models

Thats it

Then scribble down your notes for this topics - Preferably hand written

Next is memorise once, then start taking tests on this area and after every test update your notes manually on what you have missed or learned additionally

This will make an unbreakable connection in your mind with topic.