What did you do last year and what are you doing differently this year? Do you feel doing CFAI end of chapters questions is important? What about the mock exams?
End of chapter problems & text book examples are must.
CFAI end of chapter or Schweser end of chapter are best?
CFAI’s except when readings don’t have any end-of-chapter questions. I don’t have time for both.
Abacus… You said textbook examples? Can you expand on that?
basically, do any question you can get your hands on. You never really know if you know it until you test yourself. Do all of the end of chapter questions and then do sample tests.
What I did this year that I didn’t do last year (or year before) is : Read all source materials instead of Schweser notes Did end of chapter problems multiple times Use Qbank- only did “most difficult” problems mock exam 1 free sample exam 1 paid sample exam I will be doing another paid sample exam this weekend. I believe my strategy will pay off as I am scoring well above 70 on all practice exams.
PtrainerNY Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Abacus… You said textbook examples? Can you > expand on that? THe inside text books example. Last year they pull out one of the those on the real thing. I am reviewing them as well. For instance, Example 9, page 651, volume 5 does not have a EOC associated with it. However, i could see that CFAI pull a question like that on us. But I believe, mock exam has a similar question.
What page number?
Are you serious they pulled one directly out of the curriculum sample questions? If you don’t mind; could you share which question it is?
Do you know which ques they pulled from last year?
sailawaycfa Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > What page number? sorry page 351
Simply stated: Refuse to lose to Individual and Institutional Challenges (they account for so much of exam) - pretty much owned the rest of the exam but screwed the pooch on these (and these were the two questions I felt best about when I left the exam!). Also - count the number of damned questions in the am exam so I dont miss the last one entirely! Also, not beating the crap out of myself in the weeks leading up to the exam doing new exams and problems but instead working on knowing this stuff (and interelationships cold) - easy to get burned out constantly drilling and paying insufficient attention to the answers and the key concepts you must know. Have faith in yourself that you can address the questions so long as you have the knowledge
Yeah I’m on the same boat, i failed bad last year. I was 8 and made a couple really stupid mistakes. Same thing won’t happen again Q=What did you do last year and what are you doing differently this year? Digging much deeper, solving more questions and took BSAS mock. Seeing the big picture. Reading the LOSs carefully and trying to understand what I really need to know, not the excessive crap in CFAI or the extremely summarized crap in Schweser. I think this is the key for passing. Planning to sweep derivatives, GIPS and behavioral finance. These questions are like free throws. You can control it. I have my own set of notes off CFAI textbooks and also using schweser (2008 ver). I have notes+calculation questions sheet+formula sheet+ compare & contrast blah and blah sheet. Solving derivatives questions everyday about 30-45 min just to keep it warm. Right now I’m looking at my GIPS notes on the wall. GIPS is all about memorization. Do you feel doing CFAI end of chapters questions is important? Absolutely, I’m solving the questions as if they were asked in the real exam. Assigning minutes and try to come up with the best answer, really pushing myself. I see that I hadn’t touched 20% of them last year, shame on me… if I can’t get an answer right, I go back and study again. Not having any idea about a question is unacceptable this year. There’s no room for error. If the stuff doesn’t register I simply memorize it. What about the mock exams? Like I said I took BSAS, and it was a great experience. Worth every dime. Wish we had more of these mocks. Solving mocks at home is way different. you are relaxed no matter how much you try. I’ll take CFAI mock this weekend. and sample tests during next week. good luck to my friends who worked hard, suffered and sacrificed for this #$%@
lxwqh Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Are you serious they pulled one directly out of > the curriculum sample questions? If you don’t > mind; could you share which question it is? No not the sample questions But one the example they inside reading.
tibwa Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > lxwqh Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > Are you serious they pulled one directly out of > > the curriculum sample questions? If you don’t > > mind; could you share which question it is? > > > No not the sample questions But one the example > they inside reading. Which page on which volume?
What the heck? you want me do all that work. It was about a bank loan
JohnyMac Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Also, not beating the crap out of myself in the > weeks leading up to the exam doing new exams and > problems but instead working on knowing this stuff > (and interelationships cold) - easy to get burned > out constantly drilling and paying insufficient > attention to the answers and the key concepts you > must know. Have faith in yourself that you can > address the questions so long as you have the > knowledge jmac: That’s great advice, probably what I need to hear the most right now because I am in exactly that situation at the moment!!
I passed last year on my third try. I thought I crushed it the first time but I got my face ripped off. The second time, I wasn’t so sure and I failed miserably. Last year, I didn’t get my hopes up and did extremely well. Here is my advice: Go through all of the CFA text problems. I think this is the most important thing to do in studying. Obviously, it is crunch time and you can only do so much at this point. I would focus on IPS for both individuals and institutions, behavioral finance (lots of subtleties here and CFAI WILL test you on them), GIPS (easy points and it’s guaranteed to be on the exam), fixed income, derivatives, risk management (especially VAR) and performance attributions (DO NOT use Schweser for these as they solve them totally different than CFAI). I know, that’s half the material, but CFAI loves to test on these topics. For the rest of the topics, know the formulas and general concepts at the least. If you have time, hit up the CFA text problems for the other areas. Make sure to practice as many exams as you can in a timed setting. Last year, the exam was really about 20 minutes too long. I know several people who didn’t finish. Check to make sure you answered all the questions (or at least look for them). For whatever reason, CFAI likes to put the last part of a multi-part question on a separate page that a lot of people miss. Verify how many questions there are and how many points each is worth by looking at the front of the exam booklet. Invariably, you will see a thread about this after the exam. Do not leave the IPS questions until the end of the exam unless you have at least 75 minutes. The individual IPS question(s) have lots of parts and you cannot finish them in 30 minutes. Same goes for the institutional IPS. There is a disproportionate amount of points for these two topics (could be almost half the morning). Make a list of the GIPS disclosures and commit them to memory. Do all the mock exams on the CFAI website. Yeah, I know, they aren’t cheap, but you never know what might pop up on the exam. You’ve come too far to worry about an extra couple of hundred dollars. Take the week off if you can. Don’t let work stress you out if you can’t. Don’t get flustered on the exam. If you are struggling on a question, move on to something you are comfortable with and come back to it later. You will not know everything on the exam. This is a fact. You may think you know, but you don’t. The sooner you realize this, the better off you’ll be. Even the people that get >70% on each section don’t know everything. No one has ever received a perfect score. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try, but don’t spend 15 minutes on a 3-point question unless you have everything else done.
Thanks. You know what is funny. I find myself going through periods when I feel pretty good about the exam. I know I am much better prepared than last year, and then I see this type of problem (which i just worked) and the only thing I got right was the number of futures! I missed the return if the swiss market was hedged and the NP of the forward and return. I get that if you hedge the local market and currency, the return should be the domestic risk free rate. I dont get why if you hedge the local market return, the return isn’t just the forward premium/discount (i.e. domestic rate - foreign rate) of the currecny. Can anyone help me understand what I’m missing?