Spreadsheet to keep track of studying

CFA Level II
#1

I’ve seen several posters mention keeping track of their studying with a spreadsheet. Can anyone share in general how they set it up. The one I just prepared has following column headings - date, hours studied, topic studied, type of study (reading, practices test), comments, and finally topic to study next time. But I figure other people might have different approaches, which really helped them. Thanks

#2

I’d say it keep it as simple as possible. I keep track of the weekly hours just to make sure I study at least the required 250.

#3

I just have dates on the left, then hours per day and cumulative hours. It lets me know if I have been slacking off and keeps me on track.

#4

I jot down notes in my calendar or on the front page of each Schweser book. I’m not concerned with the number of cumulative hours, only with keeping in par with the proposed schedule and whether or not I score “enough” on the QBank.

#5

I set out a schedule in Excel. I then compared my expected hours per week to my actual study hours and then used a scatter plot to track the deviations. Then I added a trend line and unfortunately I discovered that I had a low R-squared.

#6

Instead of setting hours, why don’t you just list the numbers of chapters you have left? And the number of days that are left to the exam? Repeat if necessary for chapters that you went through but aren’t too sure. I feel that keeping track of how much time you spent (looking at the past) is not as useful as keeping track of how much time you have left (looking at the future) and what you should do. Then again, everyone works differently.

#7

You should use an option pricing model. Obviously, your time value will decrease as the exam approaches You can also compute the value of your studies based on the underlying (the # of knowledge you have accumulated)

#8

I find it very usefull, i keep a record of everything done over the week. I ate 4 oranges, around a couple of hundred of grapes (sorry lost count) over the week. I met my expectations on time spent on asset valuation and got the an extra ss done. Farted 43 time, 4 more then last week. I have been keeping a record for around 10 years now and have noted that farting has considerably increased with age. I might be on to something…sorry guys got to go and do more research on this

#9

Don’t do it - 350 hours on an excel spreadsheet doesn’t mean you know Black-Scholes or will remember a paragraph about Trayner-Black. My advice would be to just f’in know everything; no spread sheet or amount of hours will dictate that - trust me.