Would it be advisable to complete the Alternative Investments and Portfolio Management sections before Derivatives? My concern is that the Derivatives section is hard and a real “time burner”. Any advice is appreciated!
Derivatives was a big gaping hole for me in back in January, and there’s no way I’d be able to focus on another topic knowing this. Sometimes it’s good to go for the low hanging fruit, but my suggestion is to dive in it early when you have time rather than scramble through it the month before the exam. Even if that means finishing a quick first read and getting back to it later.
Your concern is on point - it’s a real time burner and I’d get through it as soon as possible. You can cover PM and AE in a couple weeks, but I needed a full month to finish FI and D. I had never encountered swaps and models like BSM before, so they took a bit of time. I’m going to need to do more practice questions to convince myself that I know this stuff (at least enough for the exam).
Not to mention the formulas…oh so many formulas to remember.
I agree with Tactics, I wouldn’t advise waiting on Derivatives. Instead you could go through it in a pre-specified amount of time and then move on to Alt Inv & PM. The main goal for me would be to get a decent idea of what questions/concepts I understand vs those that I don’t.
Then you can drill it later on once you have your arms (somewhat) around the other subjects you haven’t gotten to.