Was reading the material a waste of time?

May be a stupid question. But I wonder what everybody’s thoughts are. I spent months reading the material and now, after taking practise exams, I have discovered I have forgot the majority of the material I read months ago.

I wonder if working problems would have been more benefecials. When you get problems wrong, you go back and read/learn what you got wrong to make sure if you dont get it wrong again. I feel I have learned more in the last two weeks of practise/mocks than I did reading. Just hoping its enough for me to pass one Saturday.

In the same boat, but then … if you hadn’t read the material you miss all the additional insights and synergies between the readings and since this is the most integrated exam of the 3 levels, in depth reading can come in handy.

Would have liked more time to get comfortable with answering questions under pressure but … if I spent more time doing that, my grasp of the curriculum wouldn’t be as great.

So it’s a tradeoff … but there’s still 2 days, not alot, but better than nothing.

Edit: Sorry, I thought I was posting on the level 3 forums.

I made a post in the level III forums asking for all those guys input on advice.

Everyone that responded used schwesers notes then just did lots and lots of problems. So it’s important to read to get the foundation but then it’s just doing problems to get use to everything and applying what you know. BUT everyone learns differently so depends on what works best for you. I knew a kid who read cfa schweser notes like 10 times and only did the cfa mock and he passed.

It’s not useful if you don’t have enough time between finishing reading and reviewing several times. Seeing the material, letting time pass, seeing the material again, letting time pass, etc is a very good way to improve recall. If I only had 1 month to study, I’d skimp on reading. Sounds like you started too late.

unfortunately I feel I studied for 2 in a similar way to 1, which is the wrong way about going at it…I read the schweser notes, watched all arif videos a few times, did eoc questions…read secret sauce and chapter cfai summaries…I feel like I know a bunch and know nothing at the same time…If I was to be asked questions about relevant info I would be fine…but when I tried to do the mocks I realized by far I hadnt done as much "in depth’’ study as I needed…but we will see…but worst case if I am not able to pass this, then i’ll be doing questions for the next year lol

It was a waste of time. I really didn’t retain much. I wish I dove right into Schweser and practice questions, and used the CFAI textbooks as a reference.

In my case, starting earlier wouldn’t have helped. I’m totally burnt out. Poor studying strategy.

I’m at peace with it though. Either we pass, or we fail and write it again next year. If we write it again next year, we’re already familar with the material, so it’ll be mostly a lot of review and drills.

… I do hope I pass though. No one likes 6 hour exams

I’m a Schweser note user and this is still an issue. I’ve probably read the schweser notes 3 times. If I was to do it again(I pray to God not) I would take more time on my first readthrough to really hammer everything home instead of trying to get through it all as quickly as possible.

Yes it was a waste of time. Not 100% waste of time, but about 85%. Working problems and going to the text for problems that you don’t understand is a much better strategy. Some people might call it studying backwards, but for this much material its THE ONLY WAY TO STUDY.