hi guys, i am giving level 1 in december 7. I will have exactly 44 days to go when i fininsh going through the sheweser books for the first time. (a couple of days from now). STUDYING THROUGH SHEWESER ONLY. I can study about 6 hours everyday. Am i going too slow.? how can i best utilize the rest of the 44 days. to prepare well. your guidance and comMents are much appreciated as I am really nervous.
First thing, just calm down man. It’s good to be motivated, but freaking out will only cause you to lose your concentration. How far are you into the schweser books? If you can really study for 6 hours per day for 44 days, that puts you somewhere around 260 hours. Plenty of time. The absolute best way to prepare is to do practice problems over and over and over and over. You have Q-Bank right? Do at least one 120Q quiz, once or twice a week that covers EVERYTHING that you’ve read so far. Don’t neglect the stuff that you think you know or that you covered early, because you may end up having to relearn it days before the exam (like I did). Best way to utilize your time? Finish reading anything you haven’t covered at least once, and then drill, drill, drill on the practice problems. Do all of the CFAI mock exams during the last week before the test. Doing practice problems, for me, was also more “fun” than just reading chapters and trying not to fall asleep.
yeah man your looking gravy to me as long as you dont burn out. i passed level one first try, but i feel like i barely passed. i put in over 300 hrs of studying logged to the minute. i was scoring in the 80-90’s range on the qbank (only hard and moderate questions). then i took the CFAI sample exams and didnt pass a single one. i got like 68 and 65. Last week before exam, i crammed in an additional 30 hours which i think really helped.
^^I was in the same boat as Skip and passed with no real trouble using only Schweser. Just identify your weaknesses and work on them. And make sure you have the larger weighted sections under your belt (FSA, Equity, Ethics).
to gator and skip, hopefully i will finish going through the readings in 2 or 3 days, but i dont retain more then 5o percent of the material there was just so much inofrmation. i think i might need atelast 2 solid revision to reatin this stuff. but gator advised me to start questions, how can i start question when i dont retain all the stuff? plus how did u guys revise after going through the books the first time? how thorougly and how many times? and how much time it took U. Ur comments will be very helpful to me. thanks
i meant how did u revise after going through the books the first time
This is where a review tool like QBank or some such tool helps. You set yourself a bunch of questions, solve them and then use your review of those questions. Over a period of time you would start to get the material together. Currently after the first read, it is disjointed pieces of material in your preparation. With questions you will start to see how concepts tie together, which makes for better understanding.
If you want to revise, just read the end of chapter summaries in both CFAI and Schweser. If you come across something you have absolutely no recollection of, go back and read that reading. But really, the best thing to do is drill your ass off with the practice problems. Don’t feel bad about pausing the test, going back and reading, then getting the question right. Use the practice problems to shore up your weak spots. Here’s what I did: 1) Read all the end of chapter summaries (CFAI & Schweser) for one study session. (I had the secret sauce book too, but in my opinion it’s not worth the $100… EOC summaries are just as good) 2) Did a 120Q quiz on ONLY that study session. 3) After finding my weak spots, went back and reread anything I needed to. 4) Go to next study section, rinse, repeat
everyone has the same feeling the first time they read the material all the way through. its like “what the heck? i dont remember anything about quant or emh or corp finances formulas!” repetition is key and that comes through raw hours of studying. i posted yellow post it notes with formulas and important information all over my desk at work. you may be able to luck out and pick the right studying strategy, or you can improve your overall chances of passing by putting in as much time as is friggin possible without burning out. remember that this is a curved test and you are competing against a lot of other smart people that study a lot for this thing. my one recommendation to you is to not fool yourself with the amount of studying this exam takes. they recommend 250, so put in 300. most people “think” they studied hard, but only logged 100 hours or 180 hours. track your hours and aim for 300. the rest should fall into place. GOOD LUCK!
First you should TOTALLY master FSA and Ethics. Know each and every bit. Then work the rest through qbank
floyd Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > to gator and skip, hopefully i will finish going > through the readings in 2 or 3 days, but i dont > retain more then 5o percent of the material there > was just so much inofrmation. i think i might need > atelast 2 solid revision to reatin this stuff. > but gator advised me to start questions, how can i > start question when i dont retain all the stuff? > plus how did u guys revise after going through > the books the first time? how thorougly and how > many times? and how much time it took U. Ur > comments will be very helpful to me. thanks “…how can i start question when i dont retain all the stuff?..” Its the same old cycle…you cant start the questions till you retain the stuff…and you wont retain the stuff till you start the questions… you will have to jump in somewhere to get into the loop…
Florida_Gator, I like your revision plan and am thinking I might follow it after I finish the readings. Is this what you did during your last month before the exam date? If so, how long did it take to get through all the study sessions with this plan? And for Qbank, does everyone print out their tests or do them on the computer? Do you guys check answers while doing the problems or after your through the entire test? I’m trying to plan out my last month of review during Nov. If anyone has any specific suggestions, please share! Thanks in advance for everyone’s help.
thank you for everyone who took the time to reply.
One thing that helped me was printing the tests. Definitely not eco-grovy, but (for me at least) it give me the ability to learn and manage the spacing for the test. My avgs didn’t go up until I start printing them. Also develops your own time management skills.
It will be a miracle if you pass. The most imposrtant thing is to do not keep reading unless you understood in full what you just read. Otherwise you will not retain anything,.
florida gator thats a useful revision plan. i might try that! thanx