Full disclosure - I’m a retaker (failed Band 10 in 2014).
Going into last year’s exam I was fairly confident. I felt like I knew most of the major concepts and that I would be able to think my way through the curveballs. I wasn’t concered with memorizing items that I felt had little real world relevance…I was bitten.
As you will see in the 2014 AM exam, there is a question about selecting investments based on expected utility (the function is based on the one from the curiculum). During my studies, I must had seen this function a handful of times (there is even a EOC on it) and each time, I dismissed taking the 3 minutes to memorize it, becuase I felt that there is no way that the exam will ask us to remember some arbitrairy utility function.
On a sunny day in August, I really regretted not learning this simple formula. It was 3 EASY marks that I threw away, and it could have been the edge I needed to get over the hump.
This time around, I’m trying to learn as much as possible without thinking about gaming the exam.
Oh, and : E(U) = E® - 0.5%*Risk Aversion*St.Dev^2
*forumla has been edited … it is still haunting me.
Cheers