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- 2011-7-2
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14#
发表于 2011-7-27 14:06
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Long time lurker, dont usually post here. But, I would be happy to share my "passing" recipe.
Result in brief: >70 in 6 sections (includes almost all heavyweights), 50-70 in 2 sections, <50 in 2 sections
Background: Engineering + MBA in finance. (This is the first time I studied finance in my life, 6 courses)
Level 1(Jun'09): Schwesar notes exclusively+ few schwesar practice exams in parts. Studied in last 25 days @15 hours a day
Level 2 (Jun'10): Used the above method. Failed Band 10. Shortcomings - Although, finished with the entire text, I couldn't remember formulaes & hence panicked in exam.
Level 2: (Jun'11): Schwesar notes exclusively+ All schwesar practice exams in parts (i.e. never gave a mock exam in one sitting). Since i was a full time employee this time, I had to study for ~70 days. ( 2 hours on weekdays, 8 hours on weekend in beginning+ 15 hours a day in last 14 days)
Key learnings for level 2
1) Schwesar text in mostly sufficient (except Ethics), but EOC questions are horrible. At most EOC (and Q bank questions as well) help in retaining basic concepts. Only after doing practice exams, you realise your hollow preparations. Pro tip - After finishing one section, spend a day to solve practice exams of that relevant section (no need to time yourself). Revisit your concepts. Keep on making notes of important/ tricky concepts.
2) Look for new chapters which are added every year - It is almost certain those few chapters will be tested quite well in cfa exam. Also, these chapters are not tested in depth as well.
3) Dont leave a single chapter/ paragraph of schwesar text, no matter how small they are. CFA exam setters have a habit of asking a question set based on some ridiculous topic.
4) Try cramming all the formulaes & important derivations/ results. The reason being, on actual exam, you will be overwhelmed with the areas of topics tested. Even though, you will understand how some results are derived, repeating the same thing in actual exam is a different game altogether.
5) Be confident - There will be times when you will be frustated and cant understand a single thing. It is important to move on to another Section (or next reading if they are not related) and start afresh.
6) Keep an eye on the big picture. There are readings (chapter) which are painfully long. So, by the time, you are finished with reading that chapter, you will forget in few days. Here a chapter map will help. Merely listing out TOC for a chapter, will help grasp the concept much better and help you to retain it for a longer time & act as a quick reference during the last days before exam. Something like - Reading talks about point A,B, C. Point A is achived by methods 1,2,3,4 .....
7) Take some harmless medicine pills (aryuvedic). The medicines dont actually have to work, but your mind should be convinced that it working (Read - placebo) and is helping you retain terabytes of concepts.
8) Focus more on heavyweight topics. FRA+ Equity (1.5 books) = 40-50% of exam. If you ace them, your life would be easier.
On the exam day
1) Start with a comfortable section. Move back and forth to new questions as convinient.
2) Before apporaching a question set, make sure you see the section (and then reading) it falls into. Point being, with so many concepts floating in your mind, you can direct your energy on fewer concepts to crack the question set.
3) Pray that you dont get a beautiful proctor.
P.S.1. Drunk man typing 
P.S.2. I can share my study plan & more tips if anyone is interested
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It doesn't matter how many zeroes you add at the end of a bad idea, its still a bad idea. ( Greece rescue plan) |
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