Hi folks - glad to have the opportunity to tap your infinite wisdom in regards to June Level 1 prep. I have finished reading all schweser materials, and since this process has started at the beginning of the year, I am confronted w/retention issues should I now 1. start taking practice exams and go over each wrong question to get re-familliar 2. go through all end of chapter review and questions again in schweser materials before taking exams? 3. go through CFA materials chapter review readings and questions 4. Other? Time is the issue here - and, like all of you want to use it the most efficient and rewarding way possible as we head towards the finish line. Thanks Team - constructive help is very much appreciated m
Take a mock. Even though you think you may have forgotten everything in all subjects, you will get an idea of which ones you have truly forgotten, so you can allocate your time more efficiently. Also if you score poorly, that should help motivate you to review as much as possible between now and the exam. After reviewing your strengths and weaknesses from the mock, I would start the going through the CFAI end of reading questions and the notes/highlights/etc for the subjects you identified need work. Then take another mock. Then review. Etc. Best.
Thank you busterbluth - makes sense… just hard to get a 6-7 hour block of time untill the weekend. Is the CFA Sample exam (60 question a good enough proxy) or shall i plan on taking the mock in 2 nights? Thank you again
There is no point in doing all the mock at once, especially if it’s your first trial. I would recommend to do 120 or 60 questions from the mock, then review (the same or the next day), find your weak spots, go to the books and read those topics once again. Then take another part of the mock and repeat the same procedure. I personally, after taking 120 questions of Schwesser mock, review all the explanations, even though I’m sure about the answer. When you read explanations, you solidify information and this is very helpful. And I allocate more time for analysis of questions which seems harder. And I don’t pressure myself to do as many questions in single trial as possible. Because I tried it a couple of times, and results were very similar if I did the mock with the breaks. So I don’t see the point to torture and stress myself when there is no neccessity. P.S. this is more my experience than advice, but I think it still will be helpful.
I think that is much more doable - and prob just as effective if not more. Thanks for the advice optiix
So I’ve done this in two different ways. My first attempt June 2010 I reviewed the material and took a handful of practice exams. Then I spent a lot of time reviewing those practice exams and making sure I was 100% on every question. Then I failed miserably. The second attempt Dec 2010 I had my girlfriend print out stacks of practice exams and I studied everyday and took either a 60 or 120 question test every weekday and a full 240 every Saturday. I had essentially memorized every schweser question available. On test day I failed. I’m really kind of amazed that I failed and I had my score re tabulated without any improvement in the score although they would not send me my test so I can’t review it. The only thing I can think of is that I made some silly mistake because I flat out know this material way better than my 2 friends who took it with me and both passed. My advice would be to study 20 hours per week and take a lot of practice tests. But I failed twice so my advice should be discounted accordingly
Joetheboss, what was the average score you used to get on the mocks before the both exams? It seems quite strange experience, maybe you had a lot of stress on the exam? Under extensive stress people often make silly mistakes in simplest questions and forget everything they knew very well a day ago.
Maybe you skipped an answer in your scantron and so (nearly) all the following answers were incorrect. When I said mock I didn’t mean get up, start the test at 9am and then start section two at 1pm finishing 3 hours later. My advice was/is to dig through problems from all sections to give yourself an idea of where your weaknesses are-- a morning or afternoon section would be perfect for this. There is plenty of time, but you need to use it efficiently.