Lists, characteristics, acronyms, anagrams, initialisms, alphabetisms, mnemonics. I hate them. I find it so difficult and tedious trying to commit lists to memory. And there are so many of them on this curriculum. In truth I have very little of these memorized, although implicitly I think I know a lot of them. What I mean is that altough I find it difficult to tell you each item on a list, the majority of the time I find that if i am given a question such as “which of the following is least likely a characteristic of X” I can generally get the correct answer. Are most forum members memorizing these lists or trying to learn them from repeated exposure to problems?
Memorization is probably the dumbest way to prepare for this test. Most of the questions are based on interpreting a formula, rather than just plugging numbers into it. You want to know what a formula does, and memorization does not provide that. There will be a few things you’ll want to memorize, but you do that stuff the last week.
Yeah I’m fine with the quants part of the curriculum. It’s more stuff in FRA & Corp Finance. Eg, what the warning flags for Sunbeam and Enron are, and all the stuff within the fraud triangle. I’m just starting to get completely paranoid about lists etc and whether i’m spending too little time trying to memorize them. Cheers for the advice!
soddy - we r really on the same boat, man! I HATE memorizing and I SUCK at memorizing big time!! The biggest challenge for me is to remember the differences between IFRS and US GAAP. ugh!
sumz Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > soddy - we r really on the same boat, man! I HATE > memorizing and I SUCK at memorizing big time!! The > biggest challenge for me is to remember the > differences between IFRS and US GAAP. ugh! I agree with the IFRS vs. GAAP differences. For those and things like them, I’m going to put them all on a few pieces of paper and review them periodically. Then actually try and memorize most of them on the few days prior to the exam. Ethics will be mostly memorization.
Hi sbmarti - I should have mentioned in my opening post that I can’t see any other way around ethics but learning, reading examples and memorising the key points. The way i’m approaching ethics is as follows: 1. to memorize the code of ethics. 2. I’m also memorizing the names of each standard and the subheadings under each (it provides me with a point of reference if I need to think through a problem that may effect more than one standard) 3. Memorize headings and subheadings under GIPS. 4. Work through qbank after qbank trying to apply a thought process that incorporates the above points. 5. Rereading and reviewing the details, examples and guidance notes under the standard 6. More qbanks & qbanks.
Im definitely in the same boat! I think the practice exams help with what you need to memorize and what you don’t. I have been doing quick rereads of reading summaries which have helped (or starting to lol). Im def a lot more confident after a practice exam and rereading summaries/notes. and keep in mind, we only have 1.5mins per question so there is no need to sit there and crunch out a problem that takes 5-10mins to complete, just know whats going on and what the result means. Someone def tell me if im wrong :-/ , but that’s the way i see it. and I agree. Ethics is just memorization.
Everyone here will probably find this thread very helpful: http://www.analystforum.com/phorums/read.php?11,902066,page=1 For ethics I found that the stalla cue cards really helped drill it down in my brain. I followed a similar process, although its kind of a inverted version. 1) Understand the key components under primary headings 2) Memorize the primary headings 3) Recite the primary headings and key components on a blank piece of paper 4) Qbank & Stalla cue cards
> Are most forum members memorizing these lists or > trying to learn them from repeated exposure to > problems? I think lists are often overlooked, so its a good place to focus your efforts closer to the exam. After you have sufficient practice problems under your belt its all about reviewing notes, solidifying those pesky lists and so on. Personally, the combination of secret sauce, my personal notes, and stalla cue cards has solidified this nicely for me.