hi, I am preparing for the CFA level I in Dec. 2007, and I just start to read the fifth book, the last book, of Schwester Notes. I found that there is too much material to read in this book, and feel a little anxious. How can I arrange my time? Thanks a lot.
by the way, I can only study 1-4 hours a day.
Arrange your time to finish the book ASAP. Reviewing all of the books and taking practice exams is much more crucial.
I disagree. First of all, study session 17 & 18 will only be approxiamtely 5% & 3% respectively. 15 and 16 are much more important. If you only have 1-4 hours a day to study, your not gona have enough time to take practice exams. Practice exams are CRUCIAL to passing this test. You could read schweser notes two times through nice and slowly and you will still ahve trouble. Read as mucha s possible before the end of the weekend. Concentrate on understanding Fixed Income. Start taking practice exams no later than the beginning of next week.
Don’t skip 17 and 18, all of the material is inter-related and having atleast a base understanding of each topic will actually help you better understand the rest of the material, and thus do better on the test. I just finished book 5 and was feeling similarily apprehensive. Those last two readings are tough to get through when you are starting to stress about the exam, and especially if you don’t have the financial background where you have covered that stuff before which was the case for me. I would say “skim” through it rough just to get it done, then review it and you will pick it up as you read through it a 2nd and 3rd time. Finishing book 5 will be a moral victory and take some pressure off you…just keep plugging along, the end is in sight!!
whatever you do just make sure you know duration/convexity &alt. inv cold. No question those are going to be on the exam, and with less than 4 wks till go time, you have to think strategically. Joey will tell you that derivatives are grossly underrepresented on the exam considering how huge the derivatives market is (and I completely agree, I don’t think you can call yourself a finance professional if you don’t have an idea of how those markets work), but if your goal is to pass the exam, you can study derivatives at your own leisure later. Keep your eyes on the prize and give yourself a deadline when to finish book 5, then plan how many exams to take and when. good luck.
Thanks for all of your advice 