Notes Poll

Just seeing if ppl here are taking notes on the assigned reading or not. If not, what are you relying on to retain all the info?

Since my mind is all I’m allowed to bring test day, thats it. I write things down, just to reinforce what I read but I dont ever look at the notes again. I do have a list of “problem topics” that I keep. As I come accross a topic I’m fuzzy on I write it down. Then when I have time I study it and cross it off the list once I’m confident in it.

Summarized the entire set of CFAI books (except where it occasionally just got too obscure and I had to use Schweser). As I then go through practice exams I also make my own Secret Sauce - about 40 pages on key core topics, formulae, concepts etc. I aim to read through my summarized notes at least 3 times in the last month (it takes about 20 hours to read my entire set of notes).

Highlighting, notes in the margin, and about a million note cards. Pretty soon I’ll make a giant outline for each study session as well. It really helps me to categorically look at the information and “store” things where they need to go. Organization is huge for me… so that’s how I do it.

I’ve got a stack of a few hundred notecards that mostly are organized by LOS, but some are just by reading as a general topic. As I start questions I use the to help answer the problem…if I don’t have the info to answer it on the card I try to update it. Same goes for stumble list, I try to redo those cards. I’ll start trying to memorize the cards as best as possible and probably practice rewriting some of the lists to cement them. I’ve gone through and done yellow cards for equations and white for non equations.

I basically do the same as newsuper. One read through to make sure I understand everything and then the second time around taking detailed notes of everything with the hope that I can just work from my notes here on out. Really helps my retention since if I just tried to read it again I wouldn’t absorb much. Only 3 SS’s left to take notes on and then I’ll be hitting the practice exams hard!

I take notes and then make note cards off my notes, basically write the whole curriculum down twice…

I typed notes my first time through the material, then wrote additional items in the margins my second time through (I only read Schweser, so I suppose they are actually just notes of notes). I generally have just studied from the notes, unless I need additional info or examples, then I go back to the books.

Wrote summary notes based on the CFAI text. Will be reading these whenever I find spare time. Took a long time to summarise the notes but I think the act of writing them helps retention, and re-reading them again and again also helps. So it’s time well spent!

1morelevel Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I write things down, just to > reinforce what I read but I dont ever look at the > notes again. Exactly - even I write down stuff to emphasize and keep the concentration levels ON, and not let my mind wander in the woods but I never go back and refer to them as a review tool. I have like around 5+ notebooks full of scribble and if you see my Schweser book you will be shocked and probably faint!

i rewrite the schweser curriculum in my own notebook - roughly 40 pgs front and back. Much easier for me to read this on the subway to and from work, and eliminates most of the noise from the main curriculum.

I used a highlighter when I read through the material.

Sorry OP, forgot to answer the second part - in terms of retaining the material, I go for repetition in solving problems. Understanding every page of the material is great if you have the time and are so inclined (I’m 0 for 2 on those counts), so in my mind, since I’m going to be tested on questions, I do all the problems that I can get my hands on. It’s almost impossible to master the material, but you can master a handful of mock exams and feel confident going into the test. To me, everything has the same relevance when first reading through the material, so I’d focus as much time on X as I would Y, when after a few practice tests you see that Y shows up on every one whereas X has never been seen - to me, that’s a waste of time and resources. Oh, and I make a couple of notecards (like 10-20) for when I’m on the can.