90 days... Where to from here???

Hey guys

Just wanted to see what your thoughts are regarding the new steps in my study efforts. to give you a run down this is what I have done so far. note: I started a while ago because i’m not an analyst by trade (i’m in asset management sales) and learning via books has always taken me a while…

Start: feb 2012

Round 1

  • Watched Schweser videos

  • Read Schweser books (each chapter around 1-2 times)

  • Schweser end of chapter questions

End June 2012

Start: mid June 2012

Round 2

  • Watched Schweser videos

  • Read Schweser books (each chapter twice)

  • Made notes on every single LOS (mostly from the slides and schweser book)

  • CFA Institue end of chapter questions (every single one)

  • Schweser end of topic reviews (end of each topic - at the back of the schweser books)

End: August 31st

Im taking a few days off, for the final push…

  • im aware that there are areas of weakness, e.g. FRA, bits of quant and economics, fixed income etc. that i need to address - I have made notes here and there

  • i think i undersand all the material however if you ask me to calcualte covaraince, or make a direct or indirect CFO i’m going to stuggle - I have a terrible memory…

  • i’m still not very confident to be honest as i dont recall everything concept…

Other things I have avaliable to me is:

1. Q bank (hardly touched it)

2. Secret sauce

So my question is:

  • What is the best strategy to review everything agian?

  • should I read the books again?

  • is it just better to smash every question on Qbank for the next 2.5 months - then 0.5 months for mocks and NOT even touch the material again?

My proposal strategy is:

  1. read over my notes (they are very comprehensive however - so i’m worried it’ll take ages) OR skim over every chapter on schweser - _ or is it better just to read the secret sauce book to get you warmed up for q bank? _

  2. do every question on Q bank for the next 2.5 months (0.5 remaining for mock exams)

  • thoughts everyone?

Hello dsj,

I have been preparing for exams for over 4 months but not consistently but since past week my approach has changed and I devote 3 to 4 hours of study per day.

So far my progress is

Reading completed from Elan guides: Quant, Economics, Fixed Income, Derivatives, Alt Inv

Practice completed on Q Bank: Quant, Economics, Fixed Income, Derivative, Alt Inv

Practice complted on Elan Practice: Quant, Economics, Fixed Income, Derivatives, Alt Inv

Practice completed on EOC: Quant

I am planning to devote September & October for doing EOC’s & Qbank for remaining chapters and reading FRA, PM, Equity from Elan. And november will be for revision and mocks.

For ethics, I am planning to read it from CFAI material. Good idea? I read a couple of Level 1 Pass candidates suggesting that. What do you suggest?

I think you are doing a pretty good job here, since you have revised the material twice you will be familiar with all the concepts.

How much have you been scoring on EOC’s of CFAI material (an approx %)?

I believe you have done enough reading so I would suggest you practice now.

Doing Qbank will help you build confidence.

This sounds good.

Dude…by now you should be able to pass the test with all topics over 70%

My advise:

Forget reviewing notes again. Reading the material so many times will be a complete waste of time. It doesn’t matter if you read the material 20 times, you will never master all the details and you will always have weak areas. Just be sure you are not weak in topics that have too much weight.

Start doing practice tests as much as possible. By doing that you will better understand your weak areas.

It is also beneficial in that it forces you to touch all topics at once.

Save a week to review your notes (if you want to), 5 weeks before the test. But be sure that during the last month all you do is practice tests.

Dude, you are fine, you are going to pass if you have been doing this since February! I have only studied Ethics and FRA…and its Septemeber! I know I have A LOT of work to do. Just think there are probably thousands of people like me just getting started and then are people like you who are more prepared and will likely crush the exam. Good Luck!

thanks mate, but like i said before it takes me a while to really absorb information, so hence why i started early… added to that i was never a model student at university so I had alot of catching up to do!

Ive decided to take a new approach to my final pass over the material:

  1. Quicky skim over each LOS - taking around 2 minutes

  2. Attempt the Qbank LOS- Test

  3. Completete each reading LOS by LOS (takes me around 2 readings per night so far)

  4. once I finish the readings in the study session, build a quiz: 5 tests x 20 questions

  5. then move on to the next reading…

That should bring me up to mid october, early november I think… then practice exams…

Thoughts anyone?