So Ive been stuck on the statistics part in book 1 for almost 2-3 weeks now. Granted I get side tracked watching football on Sunday or playing games.
But still its because I feel like I have not fully mastered the subject.
I dont move until “I get it” and I am having a hard time remembering everything about statistics like I did with PV/FV problems or ethics. Also I dont move until I am able to do all the EOC questions correctly without looking at the answers or formulas.
I feel like this method has really slowed me down in my time keep and I am getting a little worried as January is almost over and I feel like I should be on book 2 by now on Schweiser.
In short, if statistics is killing you, stop studying statistics and start studying something that won’t kill you. By spending so much time without progress you’re not gaining points in statistics, and you’re not gaining points in anything else either. If you start studying, say, FRA, you’re still not gaining points in statistics, but you are (presumably) gaining points in FRA.
I really like s2000magician’s comment–that is pertinent and (i think) really useful advice.
If it makes you feel better, I don’t feel that I have mastered the statistics section either. However, I got through it with (what I would call proficiency) and have moved on to Economics, which is considerably more interesting to me. I’d suggest moving on as well if you know that is your weak spot.
There is a lot of informaiton to cover for the CFA Level 1 exam. It can become overwhelming since you are not sure what to expect from the exam. It is important not to avoid getting stuck on one particular topic for too long if you do not understand it. If you do that, you will begin to procrastinate and loose the momentum in your studies.
Here is what we recommend to candidates:
Read the material thoroughly and try to understand what you can. Take notes of the concepts, highlight what you feel is important and make sure to note what you don’t understand now so that you can come back to it again.
Make sure to do the practice questions at the end of each study session. Those questions summarize the most important things to remember. It could be that the thing you are stuck on is not that important and you are wasting precious time and energy on it.
Be reading everything once, you will then understand where you stand and you will see where you should really spend more time.
You should definitely re-read everything at least once more. The best way to prepare for the CFA exams is by doing as many practice questions and practice exams as you can and really focus on your weak areas.
So don’t worry too much about not understanding a particular topic now, just keep moving forward. You will understand statistics better once you begin to do practice problems.
I don’t get most of Quant questions of EOC and got nervous then I read the LOS and perceived that a bunch of questions tested on EOC are not going to be on test (e.g., calculate kurtosis, etc).
Most calculation in quant will not be on the test. CFAI realizes that if you need to calculate a standard deviation, you can do that in about two seconds on Excel. What they will test you on is what it means and how you can use it.
However, one exception is the TVM stuff. You need to be able to do those calculations in your sleep.
if you don’t understand one topic, move on! for L1, the topics are not integrated, and the next session has nothing to do with the last, you could be acing every other session given TIME TO STUDY. but if you keep dwelling on this one, you are seriously hurting your chances of passing.
TRUST ME, many charterholders STILL can’t master statistics.
