How would you spend the time? structure, possible, discuss

Jupiter

So I went with the Stalla Enhanced System with a big reason being for the weekly classes. I like the structure of having a set amount of reading to complete each week and homework assignments with passmaster. I'll spend the week reading the study guides (supplement with CFAI materials for clarification of course), churn out as much passmaster as possible and then go to class to discuss the study session(s). Progress tests every three weeks.

The classes start on July 28th for 16 weeks, so the intense studying will start around July 20th. Question I have is how would you suggest spending the next month till the classes? Take it easy and enjoy summer, select CFA material readings, or just dive into the study guides? I kinda want to save the guides for when I'm on the weekly schedule. To this point I've read Ethics and half of Quant in the CFA texts.... I'm thinking I'll read a few select sections of the texts over the next month then hit it hard when the classes start.

Thoughts?

Cheers!

jim8z3

TILT... your study schedule seems very similar to mine...sat for the exam on June 6th 2009... I also went with the Stalla Enhanced system and kept the following structure....

1) Watched the Stalla Video Lecture for each readying... helps to watch before reading, especially when a topic is unfamiliar... Peter Olinto has an uncanny ability to breakdown even the most difficult topics into easy to understand language
2) Read the same reading in Stalla Study Guides
3) Complete All Pass Master problems for the reading
4) Repeat until entire Study Session is complete
5) Attend weekly class for Study Session (purely as a review and to keep a structure around your studies)

....Repeat until entire curriculum is complete.

You should finish the entire ciriculum about a month before the exam... spend the entire final month doing practice exams -- Stalla, Schweser if you're willing to shell out the extra $$, CFAi samples & Mocks (making note of weak sections and drilling those) and reviewing personal notes (or Schweser Secret Sauce).

Also, if I could do it all over again, I would have kept a log of "trivial pursuit" topics that are purely definitional in nature and reviewed those the day before the exam... topics like scaling data, monte carlo & hist simulation, industry concentration matrix, schools of economic thought, ins and outs of IFRS vs. GAAP etc.... you can pick up or lose a decent amount of points on the exam if you know/don't know these trivial pursuit type topics.

In total, I logged a little over 430 hours and feel as if I gave it my best effort on exam day. If you do the same, I think you will be adequately prepared on exam day.

mnieman

TILT - I also went with the Stalla Enhanced System for the June 2009 Exam.

I would recommend you spend the next month reading as much of the study guides as possible. This does not mean an in-depth review but more of a light read. I would also recommend making notes/comments in the margins on questions you have or acronyms for making something easier to remember.

When you actually start class and really get into the concepts the fact that you have read the material once already will definitely help, it did for me.

draz

I also used the Enhanced Stalla System for the June 2009 exam. I opted for the self-study approach. I would recommend starting early. I found that some of the study sessions needed less than a week to cover and some needed more. All in I planned to have the month left at the end for review, but that turned into 2 weeks instead.

This is the formula that worked for me:
1. Enhanced Stalla - self study
2. Read Schweser Secret Sauce - Don't read this until you've finished Stalla - It tends to shortcut things where Stalla drags them out, but for good reason. When you're first reviewing you want the longhand version to fully understand the underlying concepts, but in the end I would highly recommend the secret sauce. It simplified a couple of concepts and formulas for me.
3. Drill CFAi, BSAS, & Stalla Mock exams - at least 2 weeks out (CFAi & BSAS mocks were spot on close to the real test - the questions are worded a little different than you will be used to from Stalla so you should definitely do these mock exams even at the expense of the Stalla mock if you're short on time.

If you do stick with it and complete all of these the test will actually seem fairly easy to you. I thought the mock exams were harder than the real thing. I was finished with each session with about an hour to spare. I think this is what you want though because I hear that L2 is much harder so I would overprepare where possible with L1!

Good Luck - start reading!

nitoha

Thanks guys, these are really helpful responses. I think I'll finish off the CFAI Quant textbook then take another read through ethics. After that move on to light reading on the study guides. When classes begin it'll be time to really put in a focused weekly schedule.

Is there a lot of value in reading the Standards of Practices Handbook, or is it fine sticking to the Ethics textbook readings/study guides/passmaster?