Hi Guys, I’ve just started preparing for June '09 L1…(hope its not tooo late!). Any ideas on how tough the statistics portion is on the actual test? How many questions approx? How much should one really spend on it? In other words, should one drill deep into the statistical concepts…or is a relatively-fair understanding good enough??? Thanks!..anyone else planning to start studying from Christmas? I’ve read about people having finished (or almost finished) their first go-through of the entire syllabus!..pretty scary for people like me…who just started! Anyway…keep studying…let the games begin! Best,
What page does quant start on? What page does quant end? Know everything in between, and well. This probably comes off as me being a smart ass, but I’m really not trying to be! You seriously have to know everything. Anything can and will be tested. I think quant is 12%. The breakdown is on the CFA website just google it or use the search function on this site.
Buster, Relax, most of people here whine too much about how hard the exam is and how they don’t have time to study. If you have any kind of previous experience with covered topics, you will find that you just have to refresh your memory. Don’t try to memorize the material, try to understand it. So I would say that six months are definitely overkill, 2-3 are more like it. Have you done statistics before? Most of it should make intuitive sense, as convoluted concepts are omitted from L1. Make sure you get basic understanding on normal distribution, mean&standard deviation, z&t tests. Get familiar with kurtosis, skewness, and other definitions. There are only few questions on statistics and they are really not hard.
Buster, Some people will say quant is easy, while others will say it is not. The only real fact is that 100% of the material in the CFAI texts (excluding anything noted “optional”) is testable. Here are some links on level I strategy that you might find helpful as you begin your studies. I bookmarked them when I first started. http://www.analystforum.com/phorums/read.php?11,583201 http://www.analystforum.com/phorums/read.php?11,800614 http://www.analystforum.com/phorums/read.php?11,804896