What Subjects are you Punting?

There are some topics because of low exam weights or concepts I didn’t pickup right away or things I just don’t feel like learning/memorizing right now (my brain is fried). I’ve done very little with Derivatives and Alternative Investments. I understand the very basics and am just hoping to get close to 50% on this section. I have no idea how to do futures, forwards, swaps calculations for example. For fixed income I haven’t bothered to figure out bootstrapping. Also a few things in statistics, anything with a Z or T chart or whatever I’m punting, which I believe includes hypothesis testing.

I didn’t do much for Alt Inv in June, it ended up being the only topic where i scored under 75%. It sounds like you’re skipping some pretty important areas.

I haven’t taken a real exam yet, but would prefer not to punt anything if i get the choice or time… Bootstrapping is an easy one to grasp…read it once and you should have it, pretty logical… less calc than fwd or spot rates…Good luck!

Wow–I think you are punting some pretty key items. Especially hypothesis testing? I took the exam in June and I think that’s pretty risky. I’m punting LOS 3.11f and LOS 3.9k–perhaps more of a scan for a couple additional items but that is about it.

Yeah bootstrapping should become pretty straightforward and formulaic after you work through 3-4 problems.

supersharpshooter Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I didn’t do much for Alt Inv in June, it ended up > being the only topic where i scored under 75%. > > It sounds like you’re skipping some pretty > important areas. SS Safe to assume you passed back in June, based on the above?

Yeah. The key is to do lots of problems and pound everything into your head. I had no finance background.

speaking of bootstrapping, it seems pretty easy. correct me if i’m wrong but just by looking at the sequence you can pretty much determine the theoretical spot rates without having to do any calculations. Is that correct?

supersharpshooter Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Yeah. The key is to do lots of problems and pound > everything into your head. I had no finance > background. Nice work, I think you are right…I have many years finance background and with only CFA books, samples and mocks it is killing me!

perdition Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > supersharpshooter Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > Yeah. The key is to do lots of problems and > pound > > everything into your head. I had no finance > > background. > > Nice work, I think you are right…I have many > years finance background and with only CFA books, > samples and mocks it is killing me! what’s your e-mail address?

flatsix9one1 at fsmail.net Cheers…(whatever it is)

i sent you an e-mail, feel free to edit it out of your post

no reason to punt AI…you can get all of that down in a couple hours (and get yourself a few more points than punting it!)

2 out of 3 people who sit for the exam fail. Which sections do the 1 out of 3 who pass punt? (I’m pretty sure I know the answer)

I’m planning on punting derivatives. AI is too easy to punt. This is a great thread …

Joey pls share you knowledge ha

icetonez Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > There are some topics because of low exam weights > or concepts I didn’t pickup right away or things I > just don’t feel like learning/memorizing right now > (my brain is fried). > > I’ve done very little with Derivatives and > Alternative Investments. I understand the very > basics and am just hoping to get close to 50% on > this section. I have no idea how to do futures, > forwards, swaps calculations for example. > > For fixed income I haven’t bothered to figure out > bootstrapping. > > Also a few things in statistics, anything with a Z > or T chart or whatever I’m punting, which I > believe includes hypothesis testing. That is a lot to punt.

JoeyDVivre Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > 2 out of 3 people who sit for the exam fail. > Which sections do the 1 out of 3 who pass punt? > (I’m pretty sure I know the answer) Either none, or maybe one of either Alt. Inv. or Deriv.

Sorry icetonez, but your a$$ is grass.

I did get 66% on one of samples. And even though I bombed Mock 1 (53%) I didn’t give my self the best testing conditions as I took 30-60 minutes to go to the bathroom and then I took a phone call. Long questions towards the end I didn’t even read, just arbitrarily chose an answer (humans can’t be random can they?) Do I have a great chance of passing? No. But I’d like to think with another week of studying paired with more focus and adrenaline on the exam I can give myself a fighting chance.