these *^%*&# cfai end of chapter questions!

so i’m getting bogged down on these cfai end of chap questions… i just got done with reading 41 - currency risk mgmt. i still have a whole book left after i finish book 5. i’m wondering if i’m approaching this the right way with 2 months left or going too slowly… what are you guys doing now? mcleod, i think you finished all these problems in like a week? that is incredible. i don’t know how you do it. i should be feeling more confident about stuff by now and i’m just not.

cfasf1: I am the wrong person to advice you. I didn’t cover the syllabus as much as you did. Basically don’t shoot for 100% coverage. Marginal analysis - where do you get the maximum return. Look at SS weightings and invest time there. Memorize stuff from S. Sauce. Once you get the big picture (memorized), your confidence level goes up. Remember you need 60%-62% to pass, not 90% on the exam. Its ok to not know some stuff or not know some stuff at adequate detail. Do an exam or 2, that slowly builds up your confidence. I am sure you know all this. Cheers :slight_smile:

You have a ton of time. I think many people on this board get too anxious too early and do themselves a dis-service by trying to focus only on the more likely-to-be-tested topics waaayy too early. The exam is two whole months away! Think about where you were in your studies two months ago! You have that much knowledge and studying to once again accomplish. Take it easy. The end of chapter questions are not only an excellent exercise to re-inforce the curriculum – THEY ARE A LITERAL PART OF THE CURRICULUM, and the CFAI makes this quite clear. In other words, you may be tested on the end-of-chapter questions as much as the text itself, essentially (and within the confines of the LOS’s, of course). Given where you are at, I would say that you will be best rewarded by continuing to push through these questions – learn them and understand well how the CFAI expects you to solve them. You have the time. I don’t think that skipping around in some frenetic search for an “easier” or more productive way to learn this material is going to raise your score at all. Doing these questions patiently, as laborious a task as it is, will almost certainly improve your performance in June. Isn’t that the point?

cfasf1 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > so i’m getting bogged down on these cfai end of > chap questions… i just got done with reading 41 - > currency risk mgmt. i still have a whole book left > after i finish book 5. i’m wondering if i’m > approaching this the right way with 2 months left > or going too slowly… what are you guys doing now? > mcleod, i think you finished all these problems in > like a week? that is incredible. i don’t know how > you do it. i should be feeling more confident > about stuff by now and i’m just not. Take your time man, it’s better to learn the stuff and understand it than rush through things. It took me about two weeks (including 2 full weekends of studying) to finish the CFAI ?'s. I worked through all of the problems but I didn’t let myself get bogged down on questions that I didn’t really understand at first. If I didn’t know how to solve a problem I’d look through my formula sheet to see I have anything of use, maybe take a quick glance back at the text and then just take a stab at it. If I was off on my answer I’d re-work the question and make sure that I understood the solution. Since then I’ve worked through the Schweser book 6 AM practice exams and was pleased to see that the answers required (at least according to Schweser) are much more straight forward and to the point than CFAI’s multi-page answers to the end-of-chapter questions. This weekend I think I’m going to take the 2004 or 2005 CFAI exam to get a feel for the real thing.

thanks for the advice, fellas. i just hit a rough patch… i’m going to finish these things even if it kills me. hoping to be done with these by mid-next week. taking tues, wed and thursday off to do nothing but study…

I am not doing so well with these either. I am doing them while I read schweser for the first time. Trying to review two SS per week and do the questions.

they are so involved. can’t just blow through them like the schweser questions. but like these guys are saying, getting through them is good training for the real thing. i’m finding it’s kind of like hitting yourself in the face until your numb and it doesn’t hurt anymore.

Oh good. That sounds great.

lol.

In an ideal world, I want to do CFAI chapter end questions also. let me see if i can find time. Late start always forces one to scrimp some where or the other.

gsg, i get the feeling you’re going to be fine no matter what you decide to do. in fact, i’ve got that feeling about everyone on this thread.

cfasf1: I think you will come through with flying colors. All the stuff you learnt is in your head. You just need to give it finishing touches. Some one like McLeod will be near the top of the test takers. I need to survive. My strategy is 62% + 3-5% buffer. Hope i am lucky one more time.