I’ve been taking the Schweser Practice test 1 as an open book exam and am planning to do the second one that way this week. This is what Andy Holmes recommended and I think it seems to be a good plan. I plan to take timed Mock exams next Saturday and next week. However, it’s taking a long time to review some topics. Most of my review is done but I’ve gotten hung up on bonds, they are a weakness of mine. I went over it in great detail for this reason but I did it back in October and have forgotten a lot of the material. I’ve only finished the morning session of the first test so far and I do anticipate that bonds will be the only SS that I need to spend a fair amount of time reviewing. But now I’m starting to get quite anxious with only 18 days left. I’d like suggestions on strategy going forward.
Thanks!
I personally don’t like the idea of taking open book mocks. It is my belief that the brain will retain information of an event better if there is a consequence that is associated with it, that consequence being a poor score or incorrect answer. Unless you are extremely unprepared, I think you should take the mocks closed book and then thoroughly review, seeing the mistakes will help increase retention rather than working through problems with the book. If you’re going to spend 6 hours + (possibly 10 if really looking up every question), you’ld be better served just doing a general review and not approaching the mock until you at least feel like you can crawl through it. I’m probably about two weeks ahead of you as I took my first Schweser mock two weekends ago. If I were you, take a closed book mock, review thoroughly and disect which sections are your weaknesses, along with which sections you want to target as strengths. Do a quick review of the weak sections to bring them up to an adequate state (IE: 60% score) and then do an in-depth review of your targeted strength areas. Take a second mock and do it again. You should be able to get in 2-3 more mocks before the exam. Meanwhile, try incorporating a general review of the material, with something similar to the Secret Sauce if you have it, just to keep all the minor details somewhat at the front of your brain, maybe like 1 hour a day. 18 days is a lot of time if you’re devoted. I still have a ton to cover myself and review but we got three weeks and one week has a built in vacation day the week of the exam which should help depending on your job. It’s GAME TIME, LETS GO
Biteme, This was my strategy for L1. I scored above 75 in all section but one. I stick to this strategy this year consistentely. But I open book or read the awnser after awnsering the question. This is very efficient strategy. Then 10 days before the exam do mock 2011 or 2012 with closed books nad then review the mocks with open books.
Thanks for your comments, I like the open book strategy for the first couple of exams because I know most of the material but my problem now is just retention of formulas. I like your strategy Pitmaster1, that’s pretty much how I’m doing it and I will do some mocks closed book and timed starting this Saturday to get a feel for how I’m scoring and getting my timing down. I feel very comfortable with the vingentte form of the exam. Thanks for your help.