I’m working thru Quant, however I’m some what curious what everyone else’s note taking strategies are. (mind you i’m an econ guy, i’m banking on being able to make up time by breezing thru that book) I’m taking notes on EVERY THING thru Quant and it feels like I’m working at a snail’s pace. This has me nervous. However, I haven’t taken a stats/ calc class since '00 when I graduated so I’m not current and most of this stuff is foggy since its been so long. I’m sure acctg/ fin./math guys are wizzing thru this, however I’m curious how others are addressing note taking. Are you just reading and moving along, or are you taking notes galore, or do you have another route to glory??? Is it safe to assume this is the slowest read of them all? thoughts? mc
The first time, I took notes on absolutely everything, but then didn’t have enough time to really go through and review them. This time, I’m only taking notes on things I don’t fully understand or are in the LOS, and hoping the extra review time I’m giving myself will allow me to learn the stuff I’m uncertain of better. However, I believe this is completely dependent on your learning style. Personally, quant, FSA, and derivatives took me a long time to get through…
I do every practice problem at the end of each reading, I write them down on papers. These plus the some of the important notes I pick up in reading the texts are my notes. Speaking of notes, I plan to order the Secret Sauce from Swcheser to save time from taking the basic notes of the material.
First thing you need to do is memorize all the formulas…your life will be a lot easier after you have that done.
I read through study notes, took note all memorable formulas or exercises in handbook for review. I used high-line pen to mark colorful every new words or difficult formulas. I took note and did exercises just after finishing theory reading…But it appears to me that i am going wrong way when moving from quantitative to economics. So i’ve decided to stop… Now i am finding the other way. Hope receiving your suggest of taking note effectively. Thank you.
…oh yea, forgot to mention that i am working exclusively off the CFAi material. I know everyone says it is excessively wordy, however with such a long gap since my academic endeavors i wanted to get all possible info. mc
I’ve been highlighting what I think is important, then when I go back to review the book upon completion, I type out the highlighted portions that I think are important or hard to remember. Hand writing notes takes me WAY too long.
I started taking notes from ethics thru econ and stopped cause it was taking too long, but I wish I would’ve completed it all the way thru because now that I’m going back and rereading the stuff that read I find it much easier to read what I wrote in those books then to read the text cause I recall when I was writing it and the point I was trying to get across to myself because it’s in my own words. Hope that helps.
I’m using the CFAI materials exclusively, but I’ve never been in the habit of taking notes. In fact I’ve never really understood the value but maybe it’s just me. In any event that’s how I roll. My strategy is to do the reading, set it aside for a little while, read the summary, set it aside again, and then do the problems. Anything that I can’t answer without looking back into the chapter, sans calculator questions, I re-read and maybe consult another source if I didn’t think the CFAI reading was clear. And to make use of my setting aside time I’ve been doing quant and econ together so that I keep myself busy and don’t get bored of the same type of material. A couple of hundred pages of stats reading in a day would make me loony, and I’m a dork like that. Seems to be working for me, thus far I’ve only missed a handful of the sample probs and those were all either silly mistakes or questions that were IMHO debatable.
I didn’t take any notes at all for Level I. Just Schweser and their QBank until nausea.
marcuscan Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > …oh yea, forgot to mention that i am working > exclusively off the CFAi material. I know > everyone says it is excessively wordy, however > with such a long gap since my academic endeavors i > wanted to get all possible info. > > > > > > > mc marcuscan, that’s exactly what I am doing, with no finance background, I have to read the CFAI material although I know it’s very lengthy and wordy and even confused sometimes. Highlighting is definitely a must otherwise it will be madness when you go back to review or look for something. I use CFAI material and plan to reinforce witn Swcheser.
paul_ledin Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I’m using the CFAI materials exclusively, but I’ve > never been in the habit of taking notes. In fact > I’ve never really understood the value but maybe > it’s just me. In any event that’s how I roll. > > My strategy is to do the reading, set it aside for > a little while, read the summary, set it aside > again, and then do the problems. Anything that I > can’t answer without looking back into the > chapter, sans calculator questions, I re-read and > maybe consult another source if I didn’t think the > CFAI reading was clear. And to make use of my > setting aside time I’ve been doing quant and econ > together so that I keep myself busy and don’t get > bored of the same type of material. A couple of > hundred pages of stats reading in a day would make > me loony, and I’m a dork like that. Seems to be > working for me, thus far I’ve only missed a > handful of the sample probs and those were all > either silly mistakes or questions that were IMHO > debatable. our studying style is so alike…
marcuscan, Let me caution against treating this program as you would an undergraduate class. I took several hundred pages of notes while reading the CFAI curriculum at LI. They didn’t prove very helpful and slowed my progress markedly. I had only two weeks to review before the exam and, well, let’s just say I wasn’t pleased the result. So, stick with the CFAI curriculum if you prefer, but I think repetition and practice problems will serve you better than comprehensive reading notes. Seriously consider complementing your CFAI volumes with Schweser’s QBank and/or study notes. I read the entire CFAI curriculum for LI and LII, plus Schweser’s notes, and will likely do it again for LIII. And while I’ll never take reading notes again, I use those tape flags to mark important sections of the curriculum, annotate in the margins, and use a dry-erase board to help learn tricky items. Spend your time wisely. Good luck.
everyone, Thanks for all the insight to variations of note taking. Hiredguns hit on a key point…as did others…taking all those notes is EXTREMELY time consuming. I think it may be wise for me to note equations but resist some of the other things. The dbl edged sword effect of taking massive notes is that when going back to review you have…well, a massive amount of notes to comb through. Time consuming on the front end as well as the back end… I’m going to give paul_ledin’s style a go…to a certain degree…in hopes of picking up the pace a bit. The exchange of ideas is invaluable. mc
My strategy was similar to paul_ledin’s: I would do problems on readings i did 2-3 readings before. That let me digest the material for a few days before diving into practice problems as well as provided an automatic review of every reading.
marcuscan… Dont mean to be the bearer of bad news but i dont think trying anything “new” will help at all unless youre somewhat comfortable with it. Econ, yeah it was simple, but still alot of material in there… i mean, alot. So, heres what you do… Think back to when you were in one of your econ classes, one of the tougher ones. highest level ones. If you got an A in this class, try to remember what was it that you did that helped you when you were studying… did you write notes? draw pictures? what was it? With me, i have a ridiculous photographic memory that helps me remember the words to a page… but not all of it… so what i do is i write important notes and draw a bubble around it it… then if anything else follows i draw a diagonal arrow pointing to a square with more info on it. For me this helps me recall info because i just find the box in my head and just read the info inside. I remember once in a study group this guy stopped me and said “you just said word for word for the past 5 minutes what the teacher wrote on the board in the exact order”
ive read through all of the schweser notes and am now working through the end of cfai questions. im also using secret sauce and making notes in that (of keys areas it misses or Qs i get wrong). im planning for that to be my study guide/notes coming up to the review stage.