Hey all, I failed Band 8 in June and I am registered to take it again in December. I was wondering if anyone has any advice of how to aproach my study plan for the retake. I’ve been hammering Ethics as I know that’s important to get above 70%. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!
Here are my June results
Alt Inv: >70%
Corp Fin: 51-70%
Deriv: <50%
Econ: >70%
Equity: >70%
Ethics: 51-70%
FRA: >70%
Fixed Inc: 51-70%
Portfolio Man: < 50%
Quant: <50%
I would focus on Fixed Income (heavyweight topic) and Quants (large topic). Whilst it is right to do well in ethics, as recently covered in the 300 Hours blog this is the best performing area amongst failing candidates:
http://www.300hours.com/1/post/2012/08/cfa-level-i-results-analysis-topics.html#.UGDkS0JZH0s
Just looking at your scores I would actually focus a lot more time on the little topics. I hear people basically say that they are ignoring things like derivatives and PM and alt investments. Personally, I found these topics to be easy points and when you look at what they’re worth in aggregate, they’re worth like 15% or so. I found these topics a lot easier also in the fact that if you focus on the “likely suspects” questions and just nail these down, you should get a >70% on all these sections. Whereas, when you look at FRA, there is just so much fiddly material that can so easily trip you up and there is no amount of studying that will guarantee you a good score.
Lastly, practice exams, practice exams, practise exams. The Schweser ones are awesome, spend the money and get the 6 exams, plus the CFAI one, and do them. With each exam, go over your wrong answers and the ones you were unsure about. It’s all about practice, and just make sure you nail down the questions that come up over and over and over again. These should be no brainers.
I failed my first attempt too my friend, I had a band of 10. What you can do now is a lot easier since the material is still fresh in your mind. Read the whole Material CAREFULLY for at least 2 times, then practice a lot… I suggest to complete most you can from schweser Qbank “intermediate + hard” especially ethics. On your final week before the exam do a mock exam every day “at least 4”. And please revise your answers solutions patiently even the right ones. This worked well with me. Best of luck for you.
I suggest you to review the material just briefly. Skim over your strong areas and give a little more attention to your week areas, but overall, do a quick review and move on to testing, problems, EOC, blue boxes.
Keep in mind that L1 is simple…basic conepts…but thousands of them…doing tests and practice problems will help you keep all those concepts fresh in mind.
Do more mock exams! Practice, Practice, Practice. You easily figure out which areas require the most review