Practice questions, practice exams, Qbank… practice and apply to get the best out of learning. Quality over quantity, someone might study for 5 hours and only accomplish the same as another that study for 1. I read through the schweser notes once and did nothing but Qbank (~3,000 questions) the CFAI practice exam and 1 schweser exam (much less than the 300 recommended hours). it’s about getting to know how a question is asked to test a certain knowledge, after doing so many practice questions, on the actual exam, on the June 2012 exam every question I felt I knew what it was going to be asking just glancing at it, just that familiarity alone helps you reduce stress so you can think better, even if its a question don’t know.
Not recommending my way of studying though, but just stressing the importance of practice and getting familiar with all questions that can be asked. I felt practice helped even more than actually reading the materials.
And to the OP and anyone that failed, retake; you’ve committed to the CFA program by studying all those hours, to give up this early is throwing all that effort away in vain.
U are very correct Man. Your results were almost the same as mine- but I passed.Meaning Ethics actually helped me out. Detal result: FRA, Ethics, Derivative& & Corpoarate Finance>70 and Portfolio Management =<50 and the rest were b/w 50 & 70. Borderline!
Just to add… I think the reason why I was successful in passing the exam was because when I read any new concept, I immediately started to think, how can this be framed into a question and what will the answer be? I had only given my self about 18 days to study for the exam due to work commitments and also completely underestimating the exam, coming from an finance undergrad. This gave me no choice but to be extremely efficient with my time. I did not read any of the material for PM, AI, derivatives, quant, and CF and only watched the schewser videos (which I thought were great). I solely relied on the schewser notes for the rest of the major topics and did eoc, about 300 qbank, and one schewser mock the night before. I pulled an all nighter and was completely exhausted during the exam. The key was to not jus read the material ( or just listen/watch the videos) but immediately thinking about how can this concept be tested and what would the answer look like? I put in less than 200 hours and somehow managed to pass. I m sure that luck has a huge part in it but being efficient with your time really goes a long way.
You should be doing every practice exam timed without looking at any reference material. Do you get to revise every section on the actual test after competing? Of course not so why do this on the “practice” exam. You want to simulate the test as closely as possible. An additional tip I would give you is when you are going through to highlight problems you are guessing on. When I did review of my practice exams I would go over any question I got wrong or any question I guessed on because if I did guess truly I didn’t know the concept. You should aim to do practice exams Vol#1 and Vol #2 of Schweser and at least 1 full CFA mock if not more (if you can get your hands on them). The practice tests and mocks are much more effective in terms of getting you to retain the material than simply reading the content. MAke sure you can committ enough to studying to be successful otherwise the amount of time you do committ will be wasted. Hope this helps.
Thanks, swatty27 . I know I need to resist the urge to look up the answers to the questions that I’m having problems with and just leave them till after. I’ll follow your advice this time round.
Dont give up guys…My advice for the retakers is…since you have already read the notes once or maybe twice theres no need to do that…My advice from now until december start off by doind eversingle EOC at least 2 or 3 times…and review everysingle question on why it was right or why it was wrong and take notes. Thats what I did. The same with practice exams I would take 6 hours to do them and 7 hours to review them because I would go over the right answer, over the wrong answers and try to figure out how the question should have been for me to pick the wrong answers. You have so much time to devote to practice questions which is so essential and it makes you learn more than reading notes ever will. Best of luck guys.
Hi, I’ve bin in ur position last dec.failed with band 5. But trust me retaking and registering immidiately helped.started studying seriously 3 months prior to exam and combed thru the text book as I didn’t have to spend time learning concept again I had plenty of time and filled my gaps.started with Eco as it has new topics introduced.did problems at the end of every chapter.saved the last 1 month to jus do practice questions and exams.revisted my problems areas.this time around passed 6 subjects with > 70 score.
As I said in the other thread … I failed as well … I did start farely late but I really put a lot of effort in it, especially the last few weeks …
I won’t go into details about what scores I achived because it’s simply not relevant for the story. The main point of this story is that I am really pi**ed because I used Stalla mobile app planer - it planned the wrong things, it wasn’t thourogh and detailed enough … yes, this is also an “excuse” but I really thought that it would help me …
at the end of the day, it’s not wrong to use an app planner - it really helps a candidate in organizing the looong studies, it helps the candidate stay on track and keep its discipline … it’s certainly not a cliche, it does help … but, I spend a lot of time on setting the Stalla mobile app … it doesn’t have the neccesary functions I needed …
On the other hand - right at the end of the study period, at the end of May, I discovered the TimePrep app … it’s intuitive, it’s got the Schweser materials that I actually use … BUT, it was too late and I couldn’t switch then …
So, for me … quiting is not an option for me … I will pass the exam in Decemeber for sure! And that’s what I would recommend to everybody - don’t quit, don’t give up, just stay focused and don’t lose time on unneccessary things!
i’d be seriously questioning retaking it if you were below band 8. It really wasn’t THAT hard of a test. If you have a job that requires it, go ahead. Otherwise there has to be a better use of your resources. I have a (somewhat) relevant job, passed on my first shot but am not proceeding to level II. Just too many reasons not to bother with it for now.
Pass rates are low for a reason - this exam is HARD. There is no shame in not passing. The real shame is giving up before you HONESTLY assess your study plan and what you feel you can do differently next time.
We are humans and learn differently. I subscribed to a video series because I needed to hear things explained to me. It took a a lot longer, but for me it worked. I wouldn’t have passed without it.
I don’t think it’s useful to compare how much time you studied. I studied waaaay more than the average person, but I knew I needed to. I’ve been out of school for twenty years and am a professional trader. There’s very little CFA material I knew (or remembered). Had I failed, I wouldn’t have worried about the time I spent, but rather would focus on how I could have used that time MORE EFFECTIVELY.
Also ask yourself a few questions about how much you learned and how much you enjoyed it and why you’re doing it. I really thought I failed and knew there were jobs for me with or without passing. Ask yourself what do you stand to gain by passing and what happens worst case scenario if you don’t. It may help you answer your question about whether or not to take it again.
