after reading few recent posts seems like quantitative questions are going to be one of the most challenging sections. i sat down this morning to review the schweser quant questions, after reading secret sauce, and felt like it was the first time i saw the material. so after few explitives and trying to figure out what is wrong with my brain, went back and read most of CFAI text on correlation, s.deviation, probability, etc. it’s been two months since i went through it the 1st time, so probbaly should not have been surprised. anyways, seems like there are some formulas that just need to be memorized. any suggestions, ideas, for reviewing this joyous material would be appreciated. going to see the bionic turtle can impart some of his infinite wisdom. keep on, keepn on John
Somehow I always remember little phrases like “sum of the squared deviations” for variance and “excess return over risk” for the sharpe (and SF) ratio. In my econ degree, we had hypothesis testing drilled into our heads, so it’s just become second nature. It would be pretty confusing if you haven’t done a whole bunch of them though. I don’t know what to suggest except to do a lot of questions.
there is none of the detail from the lvl 1 exam that cant be learnt from the schweser notes. dont complicated it by looking at the CFA text (except the Qs). i did it in december and quant was definately one of my weaker areas, but got >70% by just knowing the basics. you dont/shouldnt need to do a F/chi squared test for example, but will definately need to know when to use this or a paired comps test etc. in relation to the formulas, its pretty tough to just memorise these. the best way to learn these is by doing the questions that use them. that way you start understanding the theory and concept around it. qbank (doing 50% of the total Qs) and frequently rereading secret sauce were enough for me to fully understand quant. of course coming up to the exam i did the CFAi text questions also.
The Only strategy is a deeper understanding of what you doing.
djjk1 - this was very helpful and precisely what I was looking for. The F/Chi sq examples, finding z-values other than std confidence levels on tables, looked a bit more stretched to appear on tests. But concepts around them yes. also the q-bank, secret sauce and cfai text q’s is something on my plan but was not really sure how far that would work, bcz looking at CFAi text material and solved questions throws me off sometimes. But good to know the above thing works. Thanks. djjk1 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > there is none of the detail from the lvl 1 exam > that cant be learnt from the schweser notes. dont > complicated it by looking at the CFA text (except > the Qs). i did it in december and quant was > definately one of my weaker areas, but got >70% by > just knowing the basics. you dont/shouldnt need > to do a F/chi squared test for example, but will > definately need to know when to use this or a > paired comps test etc. > > in relation to the formulas, its pretty tough to > just memorise these. the best way to learn these > is by doing the questions that use them. that way > you start understanding the theory and concept > around it. qbank (doing 50% of the total Qs) and > frequently rereading secret sauce were enough for > me to fully understand quant. of course coming up > to the exam i did the CFAi text questions also.
The way i have been able to make progress on quant is this formula: Read Schweser Notes (not the secret sauce). Review one LOS at a time. While doing so, make flash cards for any formulas you may need to remember and notes on them reminding you what they actually are - if you understand their actual utility, you will have an easier time remembering them in my opinion. Then do the QBank questions for it. Then go to the next LOS. I take the flash cards with me when I ride the train to/from work, and go through one cycle a trip and mix them up each day. It has been working really well for me. (I also use this process with other material.) Good luck.