Without getting into too long of a sob story, an issue with losing my old passport and not getting my updated info to the CFA Institute in time caused me to have my Level 1 exam results from Saturday disallowed due to “invalid ID”. So my question is, what is the best way to keep all my skills and knowledge sharp for the next six months and the test in June?
I have no doubt in my mind I passed the test this time (I averaged 93.4% over 6 mock exams) even though I won’t get to see the results. So I really just want to make sure to keep the information top of mind so I don’t have to kill myself studying for June the way I did this time. Anyone have thoughts?
I would suggest you to keep practicing often. If you are using any test bank you can make your own tests and a part from that you can go through news picks which relate to the material which you’ve studied in Level I. I often log into bloomberg.com and keep myself updated with developments in the financial world. Believe me there are innumerable terminologies which I only understood after preparing for Level I. It can create a connectivity between what you’ve studied with what is happening in the real world. In fact I am planning posts over my blog which connect CFAI topics to the real life scenarios.
I would think that still taking a bit of time off from studies and preparation are still a good idea. As long as you do some periodic practice and review for a while, you should be ok. You can ramp up your review closer to the exam, but this way you won’t burn out.
if it makes you feel any better I have an even worse story. The night before I got all worked up about it and couldn’t get any sleep, like literally no sleep…0 minutes. Was considering not even going cuz i wasn’t sure if any1 had ever passed it with 0 sleep b4. Ended up having a coffee and jackassing to the site hoping id catch a wind. I absolutely crashed at like hour 2 after prob close to 100 questions. Knew there was no way i had another 120 in me and left. I was unbelievably pissed but to console myself I knew any time after the first doesnt require nearly the same effort. I mean once u know everything you know everything. I’ll prob just take one of those 3 day intensive courses and a couple mocks the month b4 IF i even decide to hop rit back in for June. good job on 93.4 avg. on the mocks btw, i havent seen anything even close to that
You know, a really useful survival skill for a finance professional is to have the right meds to deal with these kinds of stresses. Is taking a CFA exam any more stressful than watching some Asian event happen that you know will blow up your negative gamma position the next morning? The true finance professional reaches into his kit and pulls out his benzodiazepines of choice and has a nice night’s sleep anyway. I personally like Valium and Ambien, but Ambien makes some people crazy. Everyone likes Valium. 5-15 mg of Valium would have saved your exam. You can take enough Valium that you don’t care about your execution in the morning. Try this “Doctor, I am a finance professional and sometimes I get so stressed I can’t sleep and I get so agitated I am no good at my job. My friend JoeyDVivre recommended that I try Valium. Could you write me a prescription for 5 mg Valium tablets prn so I can sleep and do my job?” Edit: Also, Valium is useful as an antidote for VX nerve gas. Possibly you can tell your doctor that you are concerned about a VX attack on your workplace if dropping my name didn’t convince him to give you a prescription. For VX you should also combine with atropine but I have never found a use for atropine either therapeutic or recreational so I don’t know if you want a prescription for that or not.
lol, yea i have sleeping pills. was just afraid if i took them i wouldn’t wake up in time. Unfortunately, the CFA didn’t beat me, I beat myself. I have this really bad habit of building things up in my mind to be bigger than they really are (not saying it isnt a big test, but in the grand scheme of things pass/fail isnt the end of the world). It’s def something I gotta work on and this just reminded me of it.
I actually fell asleep during an exam once. My exam paper had a trail mark from the pencil resulting from my hand sliding down when I fell asleep. I didn’t even think I was that sleepy.