What worked for me, and we’ll have to see if i even pass although i feel fairly confident.
1 - Study out of the CFAI material. After taking Schweser AM mocks i realized that they are virtually useless. The questions are usually not well written and can be discouraging because of their ambiguity. With that being said i believe i still did 3 Schweser mocks, the PM portion is a bit better but for the AM I would stick with CFAI. Not ssaying you can’t pass with Schweser. I just think you have a better chance if you use the CFAI.
2 - Started early and finished early. Started in mid to late December and finished reading entire cirriculum sans ethics and gips by early April. I used almost the entire last 2 months for practicing mocks and drilling questions. You will NOT remember everything after you have finished the initial run, but just having the “coloring” in your brain will help trigger your memory when the questions come up. Once that triggering occurs you at least know what to study and where to find it in the text.
3 - Built my own notes and memorized most formulas. Although a lot of the formulas are easily derived and should be conceptually engrained at this point, knowing key formulas such as payoff of a butterfly spread, key tax formulas, attribution analysis, and Singer Tahaar helps keep your brain engaged and help maintain a sort of pulse with the material. I would rewrite 10 to 15 different formulas out of the blue on a blank sheet of paper a few times a week just to keep fresh.
4 - Studied Ethics and did all EOC even the case studies including making a solid attempt at AMC. Same with GIPS. I think because i started early i had this luxury, and it definitely helped on exam day. Don’t treat these sections as less important or gimme’s because they are not, however if you actually put in the time you should be able to knock out 4/6 to 6/6 on the exam.
5 – Answered all the online questions provided by CFAI multiple times, these are really great at testing the bulk of the material that will be tested on the exam.
6 – Did previous mocks multiple times. Yes you will memorize the answers,and it can be tedious knowing the answers before-hand; and yes your score will be biased upwards. But it is worth it. You will most likely see the same material tested in a slightly different fashion on the exam especially for IPS type questions, endowments, foundations, individual, etc.
What didn’t work
1 – Lacking focus. It is real easy to “half study” where I would just sit with the book and try my best to read and do the work, but after a long day it can be difficult to really buckle down. There unfortunately is no real solution to this, I generally believe half studying is better than no studying and although I may not be retaining everything I am still priming myself for recognition.
2 – Third party material. I had Schweser materials, videos, and tests as well as FINQUIZ. The FINQUIZ was absolute garbage in my opinion, and although Schweser is better it still does not test the concepts the way CFAI does in my opinion. I recommend using the curriculum but if you need to supplement, use Schweser as well.
Maybe it’s overkill but I really think this is the only way to ensure a passing score, and even then it’s still not a guarantee.