I have just finished my 2nd through. When I was passing through, I can memorize materials for short time. Yesterday, I found that I nearly forget everthing I have reviewed. So, pretty much anxious, what I am gonna do next?
I make a plan: go the 3rd through in 20 days, then finish sample, mock and maybe Kaplan Practice with last 20 days. I donot know whether it will work out. So, what u guying do now? Give me some better plan & suggestions.
Thanks
I think you can use the Secret sauce for 3rd review while doing practice exams + refer to the books. After finishing all the practice exams, you’d be at better shape for Mock exams, I guess I would not take the mock while im not 90% prepared yet , because the result might be very confusing and make me lose focus…
Just my 2 cents
If reading through the material twice didn’t make you remember it, what makes you think reading through it a third time will?
You’ve definitely retained more information than you think you have. You should start working mocks and practice questions, narrow down where your weak areas are, and review those. Applying the information you’ve learned through doing practice questions is going to help you retain alot more information than just reading through all the material again.
Edit: This was my 100th post on AF, so you should feel special.
I know many people here would suggest do lots of practice questions as soon as you finish reading. But what I strongly believe is that
REPETITION HELPS RETENTION!
In other words, reading many times definitely helps.
Personally, I did reading 3 times and it’s been very very effective:
First time - very detailed reading of SchweserNotes making highlights in the books and making sure I understand everything
Second time - reading SchweserNotes again (in consultation with CFAI books) and taking very detailed notes
Third time - reading personal notes only
Now, when I approach most of the practice questions, they seem pretty straightforward to me and I don’t struggle too much, just because I’ve already read through the materials in so much detail (so a few times). Most of the concepts and formulas have almost become my second nature (at least for the next couple of months).
Also, think about it this way… One practice exam has only 120 questions, and that’s a very very small sample concerning how massive the amount of materials is of the entire curriculum. The real exam is only going to be another sample of 120 questions. Reading through everything is the only way to make sure you master everything. Doing practice exams always leave you with the risk of running into something in the exam that none of your prior practice exams covered. This risk is very high for Level 2 compared to Level 1, again because of the increased amount of materials.
So, IMO, it is advisable to do your 3rd read if you find yourself still not able to memorize much of the materials.
P.S. Chris, it says you are from China, right? Isn’t there a saying from ancient China that says: “sharpening the knife longer can make it easier to hack the firewood.” So don’t panic or get anxious when you are still sharpening the knife while others are busy hacking the wood using their blunt knives. You know the more you sharpening it, the faster and easier it will be come the hacking day (by which time others’ knives are already blunt). 
Good luck!
I agree with michaelc…My approach is read,read,read,Q’s, Mock, read, read,read, Q’s, mock…Every time I do another mock I focus my next reading on my weak areas.
i went to level II without memorising anything, not a single formula… i think good understanding does it for these exams, esp that it is multi choice and you can see the choice infront of you
wow…just wow. I could never do that
I’ve noticed alot of this in the EOC questions. I’ve gotten alot of answeres correct on questions where they ask you to calculate something but when you look at the options all you really need to know is if it when up, down, or stayed the same.
I don’t have any formulas memorized and got 66% on the mock exam… I noticed this on their website:
The following principles have been established for the development of CFA Program curriculum. The material must be: • faithful to the practice analysis and CBOK; • valuable to members, employers, and investors; • globally relevant; • generalist (as opposed to specialist) in nature; • appropriate for a new charterholder; • replete with examples and practice problems both within and at the end of readings; • pedagogically sound in a self-study framework; and • testable.
Although you should know some key formulas by heart, I think for alot of the formulas if you know how each item in the formula affects the outcome you’ll go along way. I try to understand concepts, and leave memorization of the formulas I need for the end.
How would you ever solve a equity index forward value without knowing the formula that uses Euler’s number or how would you know how to caluclate a t stat in quant.
I didn’t say you can get 100% on the test without knowing memorizing formulas, however I believe if you got 100% on all the questions not involving the full memorization of a formula then you would pass…
Doesn’t mean you don’t need to know them, but blindly memorizing a formula might not be the best thing to do. Might be better to understand the concepts behind the formula, then once you have the concept down pat, put an effort in to memorize it.
Concepts are more important then memorizing formulas. Thats how I approach the exam anyways.
^^^ True that.
Understanding concepts > memorizing formulas. I plan on just reviewing some formula flash cards a couple weeks out, but I’m not sweating it if I blank of a formula right now. Especially if I understand the effects that the variables will have on the dependant.
I definitely feel that if you don’t remember things after 2nd, go for the 3rd, its just that your last reading should be close to the exam so things are fresh in your mind. At the same time important to understand topics and focus on problems that test such understanding. Also, memorize formulas as it is important to score on easy questions on exam (meomorizing formulas without solid understanding of topic is useless).
Cheers
I definitely feel that if you don’t remember things after 2nd, go for the 3rd, its just that your last reading should be close to the exam so things are fresh in your mind. At the same time important to understand topics and focus on problems that test such understanding. Also, memorize formulas as it is important to score on easy questions on exam (meomorizing formulas without solid understanding of topic is useless).
Cheers
While not memorizing formulas and fully getting the concepts sound good and noble, sometimes it’s just faster to memorize the dang thing
special thank to you, mate.
I appreciate your suggestion so much, and I am gonna think thoroughly and work on it.
You are so special and fancy. You even can decribe Chinese ancient sentence.
Yeah, I have to admit that I recently keep thinking as your way although other guys suggest me to take practice and mock.
I am still not pretty sure which way to go, Of course, either way can take me to the destination if I find a most suitable one for me. Probably I should work out in which stage I am and how deep I have reviewed the material.
In these two days, I made a quick review on Ethical ,Quantitive, and Financial Reporting, as you said, reptition really works.
While repititon might work, you might get more bang for your buck by doing practice questions.
Reading the text will present the material in one format. Doing questions will ask about the same material in different ways and open up insights and relationships that you might not have had.
I’ve personally read some pages and thought, “WTF does that mean?” Later when I do a few practice questions on said concept, I go back to read the same sentence, and it makes much more sense to me.