Viceroy

Why on earth will anyone skip sections? This amazes me, knowing that the MPS may just be anything; unlike the regular exams where the MPS has been pre-announced.
You run a risk of being outperformed by other candidates by gaming the sections. Wrong strategy anytime! Moreso, for all the curriculum is worth, I will focus more on the topic areas that do not come readily to my mind. That way, I think I will get the most out of the CFA. You do not want the charter without knowing your stuff!

mp3bu

In theory, it works, but on a small scale.  say you skipped Derivatives.  5-15% is a big range, but if you really can nail down the others, that’ll still get you a pass.  worst case, say derivatives ended up being 15%,  statistically, you should grab 5% with random guessing.  you max out at 90%.  That’s still a lot higher than the 70% safe range.
As soon as you start gambling skipping 2 or 3 sections, then your chances of failure increase dramatically.

jacksparrow

^The problem with Nana and Itera’s theory is–they are assuming you get 100% of the questions that you studied for.  If we KNOW for a fact that this is the case, then I wouldn’t bother studying for PM/Econ/Quant at all, because you’re still guaranteed a pass.
But in real life, even if you study FRA/Equity (which will be around 50 questions) like a beast, odds are slim that you’ll get all 50 correct.

mkytz15

Hi Nana. Plain and simple, your friend is lazy. Saying there’s no way that a person can retain all the information in level 2 is a copout. So after level 2 her brain is completely full? How will she pass level 3?
If you want to be a good friend, tell your friend this. Tell her to face the fact the she is lazy and overcome it. Level 2 is an exam you don’t want to leave to chance. If you’re serious, plan to succeed and give yourself a wide margin of error.

BC_MBA_student

i would rather spend 2x time memorizing everything once and pass and get it out of the way, than half-arse it for several years with nothing to show for it.  Just makes sense.

wake2000

The whole point of CFA isn’t just to get a piece of paper that says “hey you’re a charterholder”.  It’s about the journey, not about the outcome.  If you ran a marathon next weekend without any training, would it be fair to say that you are in awesome shape?  No!  If you took CFA without delving into the curriculum and really trying to understand and grasp ALL the material - are you really deserving of this designation?  Probably not.  People that try to cheat the system usually fail.  That’s why the test is designed as it is.  If you skip a section with the intent and hope that you get 6/6 on another section - pretty risky strategy.  Especially since there are thousands of pages of reading.