What is your weakest area?

CFA Level III
#21

The GIPS sleeping.

#22

Here are the results from most common to least:

  1. GIPS (I don’t think anyone is surprised) There were 9 responses for this!

  2. IPS with 5 responses

  3. Behavioral finance and Derivatives are tied with 4 each

  4. Ethics / Asset Mgmt and Currency problems each had three responses

  5. The rest of these each had one: Performance evaluation, CME, Alternative assets, Commodities, Swaps, and Fixed Income

Anyone have any good practice problems for these so we can all improve?

#23

Guys, I may be totally off base here, but I wouldn’t worry about GIPS all that much. Last year it wasn’t on exam at all, so I’m sure we’ll see it, but its one set of questions, even if its a whole MC set. it is sufficiently filled with minutae that you could spend forever on it and still miss Q’s. Id say go over it, maybe do a bunch of gips in Qbank (that is about the only thing I suggest qbank for). Go over the EOCS, and be done with it…there is only so much you are going to gain from spending a ton of time on a section with relatively low points. I doubt GIPS is going to be what kills you if you fail, and its not going to be what makes you pass, probably.

I for one am going to focus on other areas that will be heavily tested and aren’t packed with ridiculous rules that noone can keep straight like what is ok from 2001 but not prior and what is ok after 2005, and then what changed in 2010…

For Ethics, read every single Application part of the text and DO EVERY EOC. You’ll be fine if you do that. I’d do it relatively close to the test so its nice and fresh.

For everything else, good luck, you really gotta get that stuff down.

Try to keep in perspective the big stuff. You need IPS, individual and Institutional, Asset Allocation and Performance Eval down pat, hit Fixed income really hard.

Those are where you’re going to make your points.

To the guy asking if we have any good practice problems, just make sure to do your blue boxes and hit those prior year am’s

Just .02 from a guy who has been there. Take it or leave it.

#24

At present my weakest area is analystforum. Only one out of every ten topics I might correctly answer.

#25

^^ I agree rolo. That is my game plan.

#26

+1 for rolo. Expected outcome per hour spend on GIPS < Expected outome per hour spend on rest of the material, IMO.

#27

CFA Level III as evident by the fact that Schweser excluded my scores from mock <36%

#28

GIPS and behavioral finance