Question about my studying habits... exception, flash, studying, schedule, started

hinsafdar

I have a BS in Finance, and I started studying on July 24th for December L1, and have now accumulated about 30 hours. From here on out, it’s a strict study of schedule of at least 2 hours a night (M, Tu, Th, Fri) and at least 6 hours a day on Saturday and Sunday. For the most part, I’ve been good about this, with exception of missing last Thursday. During slow times at work, I even find myself doing the Schweser Qbank, and reviewing flash cards. I’m not counting that time when I log my hours on my excel spreadsheet study log.
I guess my question is in relation to the speed at which I’m supposed to be completing each section. I’ve been studying since the 24th, and am just starting Probability in the Quantitative Methods section. When I look at the curriculum for Schweser’s online class, I’m curious as to whether or not I’ll be able to keep up with it in regards to pace.
My studying consists of reading each LOS, essentially writing the important notes about it on a note pad, doing all example problems in the Study Notes, reading the note card that coincides with the LOS, and writing out the completed note card on my Schweser DoItYourself note card (came as a free gift). I then later do the review sessions at the end of each section.
Perhaps I’ve just never studied to this magnitude before, but I feel like I’m not getting very far. Granted I feel like the studying I’m doing is of quality, I’m just unsure if I’ll be able to get it all in.
I’ve spent my last two study sessions (2 hours each) filling out the DoItYourself note cards. I found that I was only able to fill out 14 note cards in 2 hours. At this pace, the 600 note cards would take me 86 hours, which I feel might be better spent in other areas.
Am I just worrying, or am I going too slow? All your opinions and comments will be helpful. Thanks!

dece2011

My study plan at level one was very similar to yours. I was very slow and thorough going through the material (no finance background) and I took notes of the schweser material and did all of the end of chapter problems. Although note taking takes forever it served 2 great purposes: helped tremendously in retention and prevented me from falling asleep Putting it down on paper in your own words reinforces the concepts in my head other techniques (ie highlighting text) does not work as well for me. I also would print practice chapter exams from the QBank upon completion of a chapter and another after a SS. Obviously, by the end I would not do all of this but since it was closer to test date it was not as crucial since I had less time to forget the material I was going over. I only had a week to review, but it was amazing how just skimming the material I’d covered 2 months prior made it “all come back to me”.
I think study habits are personal and you have to find what will work best for you. The confidence you have on test day knowing that you put in the time and effort are priceless.
–edit: also, I think this method really paid off for level 2 bc I *understood* the concepts that are the building blocks that level 2 builds on. Level 1 is more “gameable” where you might get away w/ memorizing a lot of concepts and doing tons of practice problems and get away with it. This will backfire at level 2 though.

Maddin

Thanks for your input akanska!