Un(not under)prepared and seeking advice... something, practical, philosophy, background

RealEstate_CFA

Two days ago I remembered that I'm signed up to take the exam on the 6th. How did this happen? Well, I'm a philosophy major with essentially 0 background in anything business, and I thought it might be wise to expose myself to something a little more practical in case I didn't want to go straight to graduate school. I figured I'd spend the semester studying for it, and I started to but immediately found it impossible to simultaneously take seriously Kantean metaphysics and balance sheets. So I shelved the books and then forgot about them altogether.

Fast-forward to two days ago, I saw the books and had an "oh @#$%&" moment. I did a little research and saw that the Schweser books were shorter, so I picked those up. I figured I'd do best to study based on the topic weights, so I started with FR&A and I should be done reading it by midnight. The material wasn't too rough but I figure it's probably considered the easiest section of the lot. Regardless, I'm not going to be able to read the other 9 weights in their entirety before the exam. Do you suggest I:

A. Read all weights >= 10 cover to cover and burn CF, PMWP, Derivatives and AI
B. Focus on reading LOS's and doing the concept check questions, and then drilling on mock exams
C. Skip some particular (?) 10+ weight section due to difficulty
D. Something else (?)

I'm also curious what studying the ethics section is like. Do people recommend doing that last because it's pure memorization?

I'd appreciate any advice you guys care to throw my way. I hope no one is insulted that I'd still like to pass even though I haven't put in the work. I wish I had! At the very least I'll be lowering the curve for you guys.

Yours,

F***ed

bluejazzy

Fed not everyoone has all day to sit around and cram CFA material, before you start bashing Haas and other undergraduate finance programs.

BizBanker, how exactly as a first year PhD student did you have time to study the CFA material? The 3 hours a night you got? or the no sleep on the weekends? That is the point look even the CFAI says you need about 350 hours, if you have a undergrad in economics, you prolly need around 300, if you study 12-14 hours a day.....its doable.

Mechanic

Also worth considering: maybe this material is easiest to learn fast when you're starting more or less from 0? No bad habits to unlearn, no areas of prior knowledge that I need to make the CFA material "play nice" with or to trip me up.

Whatever, won't be back to this thread until after the exam. Good luck to everybody.

shootingstar

Hey, I go to Cal .

Again, I haven't passed and I'm making plenty of mistakes on the questions I've been working on today. Seems like some areas I really understood and other areas I feel like I never even saw at all. Trying to patch some of those up now but I'm feeling pretty much toasted. Definitely not feeling like I'm going to pass but it's certainly within the realm of possibility.

From my perspective I've got no idea how you could be in over your head if you're getting your PhD in economics. YOU can't be for real. Ok so the material is extremely broad, but this economics is nothing compared to what my roommate was doing for 103B last semester, and I saw lots of the Quant back in high school Statistics. And that's at a California public high school, which is about as low as you can go.

Haas couldn't have done you any favors, that place is a bad joke and everyone on campus knows it. According to the Daily Cal they're redoing the curriculum in part because they finally figured out that 90% of the students cheat on every exam.

Go Bears!

Edit: Apologize if that came out a bit harsh, I'm pretty frazzled at this point, ~2 hours of legitimate sleep in 48 hours has taken its toll. Not implying that you cheated @ Haas if that's where you went, but if you went there you already know its rep.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at Friday, June 5, 2009 at 07:30PM by Fed.

chetan86

Not sure if your real. But either way if so your awesome. People need to relax, and understand that getting the charter has to do with mastering the material and work experience. No need to freak out cause some dude can pass "LEVEL 1" in less time studying than you.

Most of my classmates with math/finance backgrounds have studied around 3-5 weeks. One of my friends passed with flying colors in December after studying for 2-3 weeks again a math/finance background around a 'A' gpa.

Realistically;
-Each schweser book requires 5-7 hours to read straight. Thats about 40 hours for all the books. That is roughly 3 days without sleep. If you have the academic aptitude for it, it is possible.

Personally for ethics, I have gone with schweser mostly. I would read all the Schweser material then right away do all the 50 questions. Learn the main tricks and continue. Then when your doing the mocks, for ethics usually pinpoint the one majorly wrong answer, then break it down to the final two. Based on the pattern of answers you are seeing. Then go back to schweser and do all the 50 questions 1 by 1 again, checking the answer. There is a general pattern to ethics after a while, and you can score about 70%. Without going through the CFAI stuff, I doubt you can get 80+ consistently.

Focus on PM and Derivatives, this stuff has very common questions, and if you can master it, you will get most of the questions right.

burnsy562000

He said he had NO business background. Maybe that was an exaggeration.

I have an MBA from a top school, and I've still had to work my a-- off. Although I have friends who majored in accounting or econ in undergrad and passed the exam saying Level 1 is so easy anyone can do it. My guess is that if he's legit, he's a philosophy grad student with a business-related undergrad. Either way, he came here to ruffle feathers / brag.

spartanag07

A ph.d proffesor once told me she did that. (pass after 2 weeks, but who knows)

Kiakaha

oh don't worry, I think its hilarious. Did you hear the one about the guy who studied for CFA in 7 days and passed....

pogo

Getting a little frustrated :/.

1. Post was serious, questions were serious, thanks to those who gave suggestions.
2. I knew this post was somewhat "out there" but I didn't realize it would be so controversial. If you don't believe me, and find the post funny, I guess I'm glad to have relieved your stress for a minute or two. If you just want to attack me that's a bummer and it's also a total waste of your time. Go study.
3. I didn't post fishing for compliments. Thanks to the guys who gave them, but I'm far from a genius and this material will probably all be out the other ear by Sunday.
4. Just had an facebook conversation with a school acquaintance of mine passed after studying for (he claims!) under 2 weeks. It happens.

farrukhsadiq

It's not so much that you can't pass. The CFA is made to build on each other. If you don't remember it by the time you take L2 and L3 you are just wasting time now.