Memorizing Formulas

Someone reccomended in another thread that you repeatedly re-write the formulas to aid in memorizing them. I think that would work well but I just copied the formulas from only one Schweser book and it took quite some time. I am just wondering if this time expenditure is worth it? Maybe i’ll just limit to the the FSA ratios and others which I am lacking a fluency in.

I probably was the one who wrote that, because that’s exactly what I did. Unfortunately, there is an opportunity cost with time that is probably getting larger for you by the day (especially if you are taking the exam in December). As for me, I didn’t want to go into the exam without knowing every formula. I believe that there were some conceptual questions (not just mathematical), where you probably needed to know the formula to get the correct answer. Can’t really remember now though. It worked for me, but you’re right, it was somewhat time consuming. I believe it was vital though. Whatever you choose to do, good luck.

For the most part, if you understand the concepts, the formulas will follow. Better to understand the main concepts than trying to memorize every formula.

projectplatnyc Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > For the most part, if you understand the concepts, > the formulas will follow. Better to understand the > main concepts than trying to memorize every > formula. I believe that’s the key to getting the designation!

I think its the opposite, if you know all the formulas you can figure out the concepts. That was the first thing I did and it was very helpful. There are sooo many easy questions where you just pull and plug numbers into the formula it would be silly to not have them all memorized.

why not use flash cards instead of re-writing them?

i haven’t formally memorized forumlas. but after working enough problems they just start to get ingrained in your head.

maratikus Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > projectplatnyc Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > For the most part, if you understand the > concepts, > > the formulas will follow. Better to understand > the > > main concepts than trying to memorize every > > formula. > > I believe that’s the key to getting the > designation! I understood the concepts as a college student. I now aim to know them.

I think the “do it a lot of times” -> “ingrained in brain” is the best method. you have to repeat a calculation a lot of times, then you’ll just remember it. after a while, the single components get meaning, and you won’t forget.

you can also try silly anagrams if your having trouble with a particular formula. Like I remember put call parity as Stocks can Exhibit Parity. makes no sense but it lets me memorize S-C=x-p

Most of them are intuitive. The exception are those ridiculous chi/F test formulas which I reckon won’t be too heavily tested

S + P = X + C Sexy Pamela is an X-rated Cougar It’s the only thing I could come up with… don’t judge

Alot of people seem to say the formulas are not used on the exam explicitly but I would bet that you need to know them to get the correct answer. For instance they may not ask you to calculate the sharpe ratio, but they will probably ask what the sharpe ratio measures. If you know the formula you don’t have to try and remember 1 sentence out of a million in the texts you can just look at what the formula accomplishes and deduce in the case of the sharpe that it measures excess return above RFR per unit of risk (portfolio sd) I’d rather just know the formula, in all cases this way your equipped to answer explicitly quantitative Q’s and conceptual Q’s.

All these formula’s to remember freaking pointless, just to be tested for 1 day and then to be forgotten 4 months down the line.

Making sure that you OWN every formula is probably the single easiest thing that you can do to increase your passing chances. For me, rewriting the formula sheet helped to burn the formulas for L1 and L2 directly into my brain. Obviously you need to understand exactly what the formulas mean, but if you don’t know what they mean by now you have other problems… People who try to cut corners in order to pass with the minimal required effort will probably fail. And who said anything about forgetting the formulas after 4 months?

TheAliMan Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > S + P = X + C > > Sexy Pamela is an X-rated Cougar > > > It’s the only thing I could come up with… don’t > judge Haha this is awesome

Are the formula sheets fairly extensive? Or will they be missing most of the ratios? I don’t know if i could remember every ratio… all of the average inventories ones are pretty similar.