Hi, I will register for the CFA 2008 Exam in June. I have the books from CFA books for 2007. Can I use the same books for 2008 as well. I know that CFA is now giving books free once you register for the exam but I do not want to register so early because I want to make sure that I am prepared to give the exam before spending that kind of money. So, does anyone know if there is any major difference in the material. Also, since many people on this forum appeared for the Dec 1st exam, any tips on exam preparations will be highly appreciated. Do you think it is better to start with economics or as recommended by CFA. I know Ethics is theory and I want to study it in the end. Can anyone throw some light. Thanks in advance
Study Ethics early and often. Its too important for the exam to put off. The 08 material won’t differ a whole lot. The major topics will still be there. I do know that they are dropping regression from quant beginning in 2008.
“I know that CFA is now giving books free once you register for the exam…” either you’re writing a different an exam from a different CFA or you didn’t read your invoice correctly…CFA doesn’t give anything out for free, I’m sure they priced the cost of the books into your registration fee…
http://www.analystforum.com/phorums/read.php?11,639051 Make sure you don’t push FSA off too long. Big points on the exam.
When reading, always ask yourself why does this happen? and if this changes,what happens to this. The majority of the qestions on test are asking you to answer these questions, well thats what i think.
oh i love how they drop off regression analysis for 2008. regression was my weakest area in quant. but for saturday’s exam they didn’t ask many questions so i’m cool with it. anyway, study advice: study a lot whenever you can. some days focus on reading and retention, other days focus on problems…and remember to review and read ethics often. it’s the third most tested part of the exam…it’s really underrated. there is no way you should ever be studying portfolio management more than ethics, for example. oh, and focus HEAVILY on FSA.
CFA_Aspirant - There is substantial change in the content for 2008 material from '07. 100 LOS are changed, many more are re-worded. Almost a change of 40% overall. Read somewhere in Schwesers introductory stuff. Would suggest to buy '08 ones.
my advice: 1) start fsa early 2) read ethics at least twice 3) do lots of questions 4) do at least one practice exam at least two weeks before the exam. pref a cfa sample one. 5) if you find it hard to remember something make a flashcard. these were my savior the night before the exam.
>Almost a change of 40% overall. Read somewhere in Schwesers introductory stuff. Keep in mind that Schweser has a motive for getting you to believe that there is a huge amount of change. They don’t want their goods being resold, which is what will happen if people believe that this years books are no better than last year’s - it costs them revenue when past customers resell to potential new customers! (aka price discrimination, a topic in monopolistic competition I believe … reading 20?) Aside from that, make it your goal to be ready for a CFAI practice test by mid-March. Topics that gave you trouble should move to the top of the priority list. Do that every two weeks (all five tests) and hopefully you’ll be over the 70% mark on your last couple of tests.
Thank you all for the responses. I really appreciate it. Manavsachdeva thanks for that link. It seems I can use the same books for most part.