Q-banksters? YOu lurketh yet? sauce, reading

bleach

Ok, anyone else rely solely on QBank for their prep? No CFAI reading, no Schweser reading, just Qbank? Secret sauce is ok...

chandsingh

pfft, real men don't need Q bank either. Amateur.

ayaz_mahmud369

i think the Qbank doesn't do you any good past the 1000 question mark...
75% of its questions on it don't add any value, unless you are someone who doesn't have a clue about the knowledge objective required and your first exposure to it is through just doing questions , then doing 50 questions on multiplying equity risk premium by beta and adding the risk free rate may eventually force you to learn what CAPM is or at least how to calculate it

stalkey

I seriously raised eyebrows at this post, but I suppose they must exist.

I think doing questions certainly helps you "apply" the LOSs and retain info, but I would strongly advise against *only* using Qbank to prepare. However, I'm sure you're right and there are some folks who have done just that on these boards.

Any of you brave souls want to speak up? If you did this, tell us what you thought of the exam. Also curious to hear if you did a mock or two how you scored, and if this was your Level I strategy.

kickthatcfa

supersadface Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I seriously raised eyebrows at this post, but I
> suppose they must exist.
>
> I think doing questions certainly helps you
> "apply" the LOSs and retain info, but I would
> strongly advise against *only* using Qbank to
> prepare. However, I'm sure you're right and there
> are some folks who have done just that on these
> boards.
>
> Any of you brave souls want to speak up? If you
> did this, tell us what you thought of the exam.
> Also curious to hear if you did a mock or two how
> you scored, and if this was your Level I strategy.


I only used Qbank. For level one I only used Qbank. I passed L1 with two sections below 70 last December.

To answer your question, I thought the exam was difficult but I finished each section at about the 2 hr point. I took three mock exams at different points in my preparation and scored 70, 78, and 92. Every single time I used Qbank it was in a timed, exam-like environment. I would create a 60 question test, sometimes from all sections (besides ethics) and toward the end a lot were just from FSA or Equity.

I found a lot of value in continuing to do the questions after the first 1000. At that point my Qbank scores were about 70 percent or so, and I would still encounter new material every so often. By the time I finished 2500 questions (this was about as many as I did) I was still only scoring in the 80s. But once I had a section above 70-80 percent pretty solid I wouldn't go back.

My favorite part was that I would print out the 100 or so problems that I thought would be most helpful to master. So I had a collection of difficult problems and this was helpful in final review.

I have taken a lot of tests and my philosophy is that optimal preparation consists of engaging in the activity that is tested. In this case, that activity is answering 60 questions in a timed session. So why waste time doing anything else? I was short on time since I began at the beginning of May and had work/family commitments. That's my approach, come late Aug we'll see if it has merit for me.

In the past this approach has been effective for a variety of other difficult tests, so I'm curious to know how many others share this approach, and their impression of the value of Qbank this time around. I thought it was pretty useful, but it could have been better. For example, in 2500 questions, how come I never came across one that required computation of accrual ratios or determining the difference in NOA, or how come I never came across one with Ibbotson=chen? That's unacceptable to me, but it could be that those questions are in there and I didn't encounter them...

cheers

YAhmed

Great insight SSF, hope August brings glad tidings.

I'm the only one who only used Qbank? Everyone else did readings from CFAI or Schweser, etc? kinda surprised.

-cheers

KungFuPanda

I just kept doing the CFAI end of questions. It's amazing how many times u can keep getting the same questions wrong lol.

scarecrow

hawgdriver Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> I have taken a lot of tests and my philosophy is
> that optimal preparation consists of engaging in
> the activity that is tested. In this case, that
> activity is answering 60 questions in a timed
> session. So why waste time doing anything else?
> I was short on time since I began at the beginning
> of May and had work/family commitments. That's my
> approach, come late Aug we'll see if it has merit
> for me.
>
> In the past this approach has been effective for a
> variety of other difficult tests, so I'm curious
> to know how many others share this approach, and
> their impression of the value of Qbank this time
> around. I thought it was pretty useful, but it
> could have been better. For example, in 2500
> questions, how come I never came across one that
> required computation of accrual ratios or
> determining the difference in NOA, or how come I
> never came across one with Ibbotson=chen? That's
> unacceptable to me, but it could be that those
> questions are in there and I didn't encounter
> them...
>
> cheers

Hawg, I cut some of your post, but I liked your response. For all my Series exams, I followed your strategy of only doing questions, but since I've started the CFA curriculum, I do actually read the material [or at least, I read Schweser]. I think it's because I simply don't have the cajones to ignore the books and follow my old (albeit successful) method, which is basically what you've listed.

I particularly identify with this idea:
"I have taken a lot of tests and my philosophy is that optimal preparation consists of engaging in the activity that is tested. In this case, that activity is answering 60 questions in a timed session. So why waste time doing anything else?"

As a praxis-oriented learner, this makes a lot of sense to me. But my fears are:
-The Qbank can only contain so many questions. I know that for me, me memory is surprisingly good. If I've seen a question before, I'll start to go for the answer and not even be sure why, just because my brain seems to remember "Oh yeah, this one is 'temporal method'.
-The Qbank could possibly miss or under-test some sections
-The Qbank will contain questions that Schweser has written - doing 4,000 of them will get me VERY accustomed to their style of questions. Come exam day, I don't want to get system shock when I see some of the weird stuff CFAI comes up with.

All in all, I think your method is probably more efficient than mine. But as I've remarked before, I'm not looking for necessarily the "most efficient" method of passing - merely the surest. For me, that was spending countless hours with the curriculum until I thought I knew it.