Some strong responses here indeed. I never suggested we were optimising the chance of success with a poorly planned & last minute revision strategy, and I’m under no illusions that Level II is very tough. However, come exam day I will actually have put in 200 hours of solid study (not including audio notes, reading on train etc.). Yes it’s all been compressed into a final 5 weeks of misery, but at least that improves the chance of retention.
Currently at 100 hours worked, 100 hours to go till exam day on my schedule with 72% of the syllabus read. Should be finished reading with enough time for 70 hours worth of mock exams & practice questions which has got to be enough!?
I also agree with one of the comments earlier that in terms of revision time, I’ve spent more time on the CFA than I did for my undergrad (which was no pushover), quite a depressing thought actually.
Yeah, i got a bit too worked up, but a discussion without passion is booring
Anyways see the discussions, about surviourship bias, smaple size, analyzing pass-rates lol. Damn i would love to work at a place where we all think & talk like that, instead of all the crappy gossip
Best of luck Guys, another motivational link found on different thread -
I don’t think this last sentence is true. Actually, I think the brain can only learn so quickly. e.g., if you are going to spend 100 hours studying something, retention will probably be highest if you spend 4hr/day for 25 days, rather than cramming 10hrs/day for 10 days. I think there’s a diminishing return after spending more than a few hours in a day studying a particular subject.
I think the brain needs time to process new material, like sand pouring through an hourglass. You can’t just speed it up.
Clark, I’ve read stuff on memory & brain functions, and our long-term memories are created in sleep, so best way to remember stuff is to read, and then take a nap…
BUT in CFA i think we need to understand, and trying to memorize is a sure way to fail (even the equations can be understaood and recalled by the reasons behind them), a little bit of memorization is required, but the focus is on understanding and analysing, and for that i think there is a small difference in return whether you put in 4hr or 10hr, provided you do it with focus, which comes itself form the intersting material,
yeah if all of the stuff would be new it wouldn’t be effective to study 10hr, but i think all of us know a little bit about all the topics and just need to get the analyzing part for the exams. I liked CFA because it involves very less cramming compared to almost all the exams i’ve given.
I agree with Clark, brain retention doesn’t work best with 10 hr a day cram sessions. It needs time to rest, it needs repetition and repetition over various time intervals.
i know regular study seems nice, but i always end up forgetting most of the stuff, I have read about only one retention method(Spaced Retention) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaced_repetition
But the problem is revisiting the material, so i end up forgetting the stuff i read long time ago.
This problem doesn’t exists if you cram near the exam date
Cramming is one thing, but ideally we could retain this knowledge for years, for our work, or at least for the L3 test as well, assuming we pass L2 on this try.
I agree that it depends whether we’re talking about long/short term memory, as well as the difference between memorisation & understanding.
My belief and experience is that 10-12 hour days in the last few weeks means your golden on exam day, but most of the detail is gone a few weeks/months later, especially if a lot of memorisation is involved. So, yes, long term retention of everything will require several passes of the material over the course of months and months.
Also, if we were purely memorising then I don’t think the brain could take more than a few hours per day, but when you’re reading new material, understanding it, digesting it & making connections then I think 12 hour days are just as effective as 4 hour days as aditya says. I guess it partly depends on how you study, e.g. do you just memorise a formula or do you derive it yourself, understand the mechanics behind it and do some dimensional analysis so that if & when you forget it on exam day you can hopefully figure it out.
My study personally is heavily based on understanding. If there are a few random bits than need memorising, then I’ll stick them on flashcards and drill them the day before the exam & the morning before. I make no effort to comit that stuff to my long term memory, there just isn’t the time.
I’m doing 10 hour days at the moment to drill the material into complete and utter submission. Don’t care about how much I remember on June 3, to be frank!
@ilikecupcakes (lol double meaning? or is it me),that’s good for you. Since you don’t care about the effectiveness of your study method, why join a discussion on it, hehe. Troll alert…
@nanoblade, just curious, how many flash cards have you made till now? (approx. total for L2). Always thought that’s a nice idea, but i can’t keep my books & notes organized, flash cards seem too much hassle, are they effective for the effort you put in? I don’t know anyone who uses them…
Aditya, didn’t actually make any flashcards last year, or this year so far, just takes so long! Will just add some extra forumlae to the quicksheet, and make some noted on GAAP vs IFRS and random little details like that.
Anyway, finished reading end of last week, finished 50% of the EOC questions, and just took my first practice exam… which I do have a question about.
Schweser Practice Book Volume 1, Exam 1 (Afternoon Session), is this exam a joke? I got 83% and finished it in like 2 hours. It was unbelievably easy, some of the questions were even guessable with practically no knowledge. Does anyone have suggestions on the best exams to be practicing on since clearly these Schweser exams are too easy, will give the 2012 CFAI mock a go next.
i would quit while you’re ahead. if you score 83 after 5 weeks of study, you’ve got near perfect recall and/or have a above average Mensa IQ. the exam will be a joke to you. we should all be so lucky.
