How to study ethics

This doesn’t (can’t) apply to Dec07, but for all you June folks, if you have the CFAI books, the best way to study is flip to the ethics reading, which is #2 I believe, and set aside about 15-20 hours to do the following … * For a particular standard, read through and highlight/memorize/take a picture/whatever the purpose and how to comply. Being able to recite verbatim is serious overkill. You just have to know the gist and any exceptions that they make a point of mentioning (which are common). * When you get to “Application of the Standard”, read each one and paraphrase what you think the problem is. It’s pretty easy because they’re illustrating very specific points. Do this for every application of that particular standard. Repeat those two bullets for each section of ethics and test yourself on the 25 questions at the end of the reading and I’d be surprised if you missed more than one or two. You will find that this is not rocket surgery, it’s just a matter of exposing yourself to ALL of their little examples so that they click when you see similar situations on the exam. I sucked at ethics until I made the time to do this. I have been nailing these questions since. You’re on your own with the other sections!

Any suggestions for people taking the dec exam. I’ve found that my ethics section varies HUGHLY depending on the questions.

I almost always get any questions about independence and objectivity wrong. the rest is okay for me.

I only said that this won’t work for tomorrow’s test because of the time required to do it right. However, if you’ve studied it and if you have the CFAI volume I, then you could probably skip straight to the Application of the Standard piece in each standard and read/paraphrase each one. I’m not the sharpest knife in the drawer, so the repetition of paraphrasing and writing it down helps me synthesize what I just read. I’d recommend that for anyone, but maybe you can just read them. The point is to review each and every application so that you understand what the deal-breaker is in each one. They’re all subtly different. Good luck.