Is it me or the EOC practice is really hard? It takes me good half hour to go through one case, on a good day, I dont know how you guys go through this. I am going through derivatives, reading 48 49 are driving me insane i can barely go through one hour without wanting to pinch myself. Also the last reading in financial statement analysis too, the questions are really good but all i can think is there is no way i can freaking get this right
I am studying by video+ notes for learning, EOC example and EOC practice for practice, it takes about 1-2 days for normal readings and for big ones takes even more, it is painful and slow, is it how it is suppose to be?
I also doubt how much I can retain the practice learning, I did all EOC practice on level one but barely remember anything and only later realize the notes practice is not as good, thats why i am focusing on EOC practice this time, but it is…so …slow. I guess that’s what CFA is all about?
I am with you. The reason for it IMO is to help drill concepts down though. Some of these questions will NOT be asked on the test. Even if you know what you are doing they can take 10 minutes to drill down and plug and chug. What the exam will do though is have you fill in some of the blanks which is why it is important to understand the concept. The topic tests are quite a bit different than the EOC problems and in some cases, easier IMO (and also quicker to complete). What it comes down to is if you can do the EOC you can do the Topic Tests which means you can do the exam.
I am about to start going through the EOC for the 2nd time and am hoping it can be completed in about 2 weeks (with 3 hours a day alotted). We will see if it can be done and what I retained.
Some of the derivatives EOC are definitely designed to teach as much as to prepare for the exam.
If they’re hard and time consuming, my view is to repeat until they’re not hard. If they’re easy and time consuming, I usually make a “superset” of core EOC for a reading so I can refresh that topic in about 30 min. Also, I find I can usually cut my time to answer a problem by about 2/3 – at least in L1 I could. So, the tiresome repetition of similar problems applying the same equations in slightly different ways does have huge value for me.
Some EOC practice sections are longer than others, and the Derivatives EOCs are some of the longest, especially the reading on Swaps where you have to do alot of simple yet time intensive math. I have 2 Readings left before I finish the entire curriculum, and I’ve done every EOC after each reading. According to my study log, I’ve spent around 100 hours on the EOC practice questions thus far (rough estimate). I’ll probably put in another 100 hours between the CFA online practice questions and mock exams. Yeah, practice practice practice. It’s a lot of work but pretty important.