I’ve seen some references here to “don’t get bogged down in quants”. Well, I’m bogged down in quants. I started studying on 8/17 and after studying ethics for about a week and a half have just spent about 2.5 weeks solid on studying quants which equates to about 60 hours. At my current pace and the fact that I’m on page 273 of the Schweser quant book out of about 350, I think I will need another week which will put me a week behind my study plan. The procedure I’m using for quants is not moving forward until I know every formula and every concept cold. Is that wrong? If it is wrong, I wish that I would’ve spent less time on TVM and the easier things - near the back of this book things are getting more complicated and I feel if I spend less time on it now I’ll regret it. Any thoughts appreciated because I guess I’m starting to freak out.
I was there with you ACFACandidate. Spent roughly the same amount of time myself with the intention of totally understanding everything before I moved on. However, if I’m going to give myself any chance at success on this exam I realized time just would not allow me to do that. And once I did a rather informal cost-benefit analysis of my total comprehension of QUANTS versus the other materials’ weight and the importance of having seen all the material I came out with the answer that the cost of sticking in QUANTS for full comprehension surely outweighs the benefits of having gotten through all the materials once. Besides, I think you will find that no matter how much time you spend on QUANTS once you spend weeks in FRA, CF and the other materials you will have forgotten the formulas (and even application thereof). Refreshing your memory will just be much better during your review and mock testing. At least I truly hope that is the case. All the feedback (from this site and friends who’ve gone through it) suggest this is the case. GOOD LUCK!
in my opinion, you should move on. If you have a thorough “idea” about the course material and can tackle (most) practice questions, then its time for the rest of the syllabus. You’ll have to review the material at least once before the exams anyways, and it’ll be a lot easier on your mind once you know you’ve covered most of the concepts in all syllabus areas.
Agree with lifes2short. Quant is too many concepts and formulas. I was bogged down by it myself when I was doing my L1 preparation. I would say dont stress too much on formulas at this time, as you are going to forget them anyways later. Also, more than trying to remember these formulas, focus on the logic behind them. This is true for formulas in the entire material. For now, just go thru quant material with whatever concepts you can understand and move on. Once you have read thru the entire material, then come back to Quant for revision. That way you would have greater confidence that you have already read thru the material once and will not freek out with the pressure of so much more remaining. Also, taking more questions help a lot in understanding concepts better. I found it specially true for Quant. Material alone appears quite abstract and hence difficult to comprehend, but taking questions clarify these concepts and make them less abstract. Good Luck.
But won’t we need a basic understanding of quant before starting off with any other topic ?
How to approach quant for the first time then? Which topics to cover and how much time to allocate for them?
Make sure you know how to use your calculator!!! Let it do the grunt TVM calculations!!! 
And there’s all sorts of non-quant stuff to read, so don’t get too hung up on the quant section.
Hi all - thanks for the recent replies! Was a fun reminder of this post that I made about 15.5 years ago.
I started studying for the Level 1 CFA on August 17, 2009 and took the test December 5, 2009. I work in technology so this was quite a hurdle for me. The test had a 34% pass rate when I took it and I very fortunately passed.
My study plan was Schweiser books, flash cards for each L.O.S. and a “daily sheet” that was a physical piece of paper that I would solve every day for each L.O.S. with questions like “What’s the formula for standard deviation of a portfolio of three assets?” I also listened to Schweiser MP3 files every day on my 2-hour total commute. To this day if I ever hear that guy’s voice that narrated them, “The following is a review of the…” I’ll probably break out in a cold sweat. I didn’t include my commute MP3 listening time in my total study hours. I planned on 350 hours and easily went over 400.
If you’re studying for any level of the CFA - God bless you. Hardest thing I’ve ever done.
I’m glad you posted this because I am going through this right now… I’m bogged down in quantitative methods. I’ve been slowly going through it for the past month and am stuck in “common probability distributions.” The normal distribution stuff just isn’t clicking for me… thinking of just moving on and coming back to this stuff at the end.