Wow… I held my own in undergrad micro and macro, but I have a feeling this is going to be my Achilles heel. I cut through the preliminary Stalla readings for econ (what the CFAi deems optional or prerequisite) and boy did this section take it to me. Anyway, just ranting, but is anyone else struggling with Econ? Hopefully the required sections (elasticity, efficiency, market structures, money & banking, etc) come to me a little easier.
Econ and quant have been difficult for me.
ya i was an econ major as well and im having problems trying to do some of this stuff its been almost 8 years since i did it.
I noted one thing: Most econ majors I know seem to struggle with the CFAI econ curriculum. After having my own difficulties (I’m a CS major) with econ, I was totally shocked to see that I got >70% on the exam. I assume that most econ material in school is just very in-depth factual material. While the CFA study material is rather analytical. It seems that thinking too hard about computing Lagrange multipliers just gets you confused. I choose to not think about these things when studying for the exam.
I few people I know who are writing are having troubles in Econ as well. I didn’t find it that bad personally, but I more than make up for it with some of the FSA stuff… ouch.
I have just 2 more readings left in Econ. I am an MBA but we didnt have Economics in our syllabus…anyways, I did find it difficult at first but as you go along the readings, the concepts become clearer…I am at Phillips Curve right now. Watched video on that at youtube…and ready to finish it. I feel that sometimes it is just common sense that applies in Econ. For example, why wud a tax cut increase the GDP. Simple: more disposal income, increase in expenditure and increase in real GDP…but initially I was looking for a formula or chart to get to the relationship… 2 more days and I am off Econ, and into FSA…have kept a month for that… Good luck to all.
FWIW, on all the schweser book 6 practice exams, my avg in Econ was about 58% and passed in Dec with >70% in Econ.
Ok, I was wrong. My avg in Econ was around 65%. My FI avg was about 58% and I passed that with >70%. This thread may help you guys out in a few months: http://www.analystforum.com/phorums/read.php?11,869533,869533#msg-869533 Those were my Schweser scores (in link above) and I passed Dec with >70 except for: <50 in Alt 51 - 70 in derivatives.
Yeah, I am struggling with Econs. Quants was OK for me, probably thanks to my engineering background. Fixed Income, Equity, were OK too. But Econs graphs are just a bit too baffling to me. I find myself having to read CFAI book because the brief explanation in Schweser wasn’t clear enough for me.
yaeh right after Quant, when i started Eco it felt so light! but by the mid of SS5 it started to drag, bore and kick! :-/ I am done with Eco now…and i m really wondering whether i should review it all or move on to FSA…
egal Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I noted one thing: Most econ majors I know seem to > struggle with the CFAI econ curriculum. are you sure they majored in economics?
Review econ later, econ is all about repetition. Review it three times and you should be ok. Level 1 Dec 08 guys, agree?
definitely agree with ^^^ i treated Econ like Ethics spend more time in other things
Feeling better… cut through elasticity this morning, completed pass master problems at lunch (20/20 on the first attempt)… Stalla videos definitely help drive the material home.
TheAliMan Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Review econ later, econ is all about repetition. > Review it three times and you should be ok. Level > 1 Dec 08 guys, agree? I agree for the most part. I’d put some time into the Phillips curve from the get-go, but that could just be a personal thing, since I seemed to struggle with that the most.
I don’t think phillips curve is on the 2009 curriculum.
Just kidding, its just in a diff spot from the 2008 book so i looked it over =/