so how many hours per day/week is everyone putting in? any routines that seem to be working well?
I am studying 12 pages / week day and 23 pages / week-end day. Pretty slow I know but it includes EOCs and taking notes, etc. So hopefully there is some retention.
No exception and no break until I am finished with CFAI mid-may. Then 2 weeks of mocks.
I average about 4 hours/day on Sat and Sun and about 1.5 hours on week days.
sounds like you are combing the CFA material pretty good.
my routine is to read the schweser material for a given reading, then watch their video, and then go through the gray box examples and EOCs. Seems like the retention has been there because i have been able to do the problems without going back too much. I feel like i am moving at a snail’s pace though…
I am pretty close to this as well…except i do about 2.5 per day including wknds. if i dont start knocking this out i will probably have to pick up the pace. june seems pretty close as it is…lol
My approach is similar to Viceroy’s, slow pace because of note taking and minimizing any exceptions so that I can finish the CFAI readings two months before the exam. Although the pace is slow, the effort is humongous!
so do you go back through your notes and periodically study them as you go?
What about the retention in May ? I hope will be strong.
I would agrue that there has been retention because your interval between readings/video is short, so you may be prone to overconfident bias.
My approach is to read Shweser Notes with medium-to-high understanding and after the whole reading I go back to EOCs, and examples, qbank. When I do not remember anything then I open book and focus on my weakness.
This gives me faster insight into my strengths and weeknesses.
This method worked for me every time.
Im almost done with the readings and my notetaking. Will be heading back through the material to do practice questions.
I must admit, level-III is broing
After finishing a given CFAI reading, including taking my notes, I move on to the next reading - I don’t keep coming back to all the readings previously done, as I think that would slow me down too much. By keeping an intense effort, I plan to keep to my schedule of being done with the whole material at least 7 weeks prior to the exam. At that point, I will do practice exams, using my notes as reference.
I’m trying to do 20-25 hours a week, one study session a week.
Doing 2-3 hours weekdays except Wed. Weekends is another 8 hours. Sundays are for sanity. At least for a while…
When I was studying I spent 2 hours after work every day, and 4+ hours on Saturday and Sunday.
Caveat: this worked only three times for me: small sample size.
My schedule so far is about 17 hours a week.
Monday-Library 5-9
Tuesday-Coffee Shop 1 hour on way home
Wednesday-Library 5-9
Thursday Library 6-8 (with 6 year old)
Friday - relax
Saturday 9-noon
Sunday 4-8
I am going through the CFA material reading 90 % of it, and then working Schweser Q-bank questions for a few hours after each study session.
At this point I do not have the willpower to study at home. My children are either too cute or too loud or the TV is too easy to turn on. Even chores around the house become appealing after 30 minutes.
Since we’re sharing…
On weekends I spend 6+ hours a day reading through the CFAI texts, creating flashcards with Anki, and working all practice problems and blue boxes. I can try to finish a reading each day of the weekend, and am targeting finishing the first pass by the end of March.
On weekdays I try to spend 1-2 hours a day reviewing the flashcards I create on the weekends.
Repeat.
This will steadily intensify as we get closer to T-day.
If I can suggest mate, leaving mocks for 2 weeks before exams is not great. L1/L2 this worked, but might not work for L3.
I failed band 10 in 2013, understood it was my AM which killed me. Started mocks from mid April in 2014, kind of aced through the exam.
^^
Txs for comment and you are right that it is not great.
The thing with me is that my retention is crap. If I do what most people do here, which is to do a first quick read- through in order to start with the mocks early, I really won’t have remembered much by the time I do the mocks.
Besides, I honestly think that 2 weeks of mocks will be sufficient…
^ Understand we all are different, Good luck Viceroy!
For long-memory retention retention techniques, I would suggest this document:
(in google) Study Tips for Improving Long-Term Memory Retention and Recall
One of the most importan suggestion found there is:
Review information you’re trying to memorize right before you go to sleep. Deep sleep plays an important role in memory consolidation. This is a good time to spend a few minutes reviewing a chart or going through some flashcards. To further enhance your memory, try to recall the information shortly after you wake up.
Spread studying out over several days, rather than cramming
i’ll be the first to admit that i suffer from overconfidence bias…but that’s just my innate nature. lol
i do try to periodically go back through material i have already learned so that way im not forgetting it come may. takes a long time to get through the material, but like you said, retention is key here.