I know this may be an early topic for many but as a 2x Band 10 I am looking for some input. Both years the AM sessions have cost me the test. I have rocked out the Individual IPS but for some reason struggled on the remaining AM questions. By struggle I mean in terms of obtaining a good score...honestly, walked out thinking I did just fine. Any recommendations on how to study or prepare for the AM sessions next year? So many of the practice problems are multiple choice and I am looking for ways to walk into the test more prepared next year.作者: PieMan 时间: 2011-8-25 03:20
This is hard to do but I recommend three things that if you do will very likely guarantee a pass next year.
1) Comprehend the material and make or buy a 200-400 page summarize the material.
I recommend buying this (Schwerser's "Mind Maps" and/or "Secret Sauce"). The reason why I recommend buying is because you do not have to spend too much time just making the summary which is NOT a good use of time. That time can be spent to review and re-review.
The timing for this is more like maximum end of March.
2) Take a 3-day or 5-day good review course. You do not have to travel for this as webinar reviews are available at least with Schweser. They also had a excellent summary of all topics in about 300 pages called "Mind Maps" and a question booklet with hundreds of problems.
3) Practice practice and practice. The June CFAI exam will be very likely different from any of the practice exams or mock exams. Nevertheless take as many exams as possible before JUne. Schweser, Stalla, CFAI Mock and especially past CFAI AM exams, whatever you think tries to replicate the real exam experience. Work on your timing and other issues and make all the mistakes you would make before June.
The real June exam will no doubt be different from what you would have seen even after all this but with the above preparation you will be in a good position to tackle anything. You may not get a great score but you will very likely be in the top half of the group which will pass.
ALL THE BEST and GOOD LUCK!作者: KungFuPanda 时间: 2011-8-25 03:26
Especially the Portfolio Management for "Individual" questions in morning section. Anyone got a >70% in #1 and #2 and would like to share how to prepare those questions?作者: tarunajwani 时间: 2011-8-25 03:31
I did average in the AM section (did well on the PM section), however did score > 70% on the two individual questions. I think the best preperation for those specific types of questions were the practice exams, I completed the 6 Schweser exams and for the CFAI prior year exams, Schweser has video lectures breaking down how to answer each question from the prior three years of exams which I felt were helpful. Those really helped figure out how to get maximum points with those specific questions. I came out of the AM feeling really good, so I was suprised to see some of the breakdown of scores in the other AM questions, but the individual questions are the easiest to predict in the morning session (give or take a curve ball, but if you have a general understanding of how to approach it you should be fine).
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at Thursday, August 18, 2011 at 09:11AM by texcfa.作者: former 时间: 2011-8-25 03:37
sunilmails Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> This is hard to do but I recommend three things
> that if you do will very likely guarantee a pass
> next year.
> 1) Comprehend the material and make or buy a
> 200-400 page summarize the material.
> I recommend buying this (Schwerser's "Mind Maps"
> and/or "Secret Sauce"). The reason why I recommend
> buying is because you do not have to spend too
> much time just making the summary which is NOT a
> good use of time. That time can be spent to review
> and re-review.
> The timing for this is more like maximum end of
> March.
>
> 2) Take a 3-day or 5-day good review course. You
> do not have to travel for this as webinar reviews
> are available at least with Schweser. They also
> had a excellent summary of all topics in about 300
> pages called "Mind Maps" and a question booklet
> with hundreds of problems.
>
> 3) Practice practice and practice. The June CFAI
> exam will be very likely different from any of the
> practice exams or mock exams. Nevertheless take as
> many exams as possible before JUne. Schweser,
> Stalla, CFAI Mock and especially past CFAI AM
> exams, whatever you think tries to replicate the
> real exam experience. Work on your timing and
> other issues and make all the mistakes you would
> make before June.
>
> The real June exam will no doubt be different from
> what you would have seen even after all this but
> with the above preparation you will be in a good
> position to tackle anything. You may not get a
> great score but you will very likely be in the top
> half of the group which will pass.
>
> ALL THE BEST and GOOD LUCK!
Totally agree with what sunilmils said, especially point 2 & 3. Last year, I used Schweser, Past exams and EOC questions. Failed band 2 in 2010. I regret so much that I didn't time my exam as I was practicing it. At the real exam, I left 2/3 of the AM paper blank. I was stuck in one of the questions for 30 mins.
In preparing for 2011 exam, I spent about the same amount of time as last year. But this time, I also registered for review course. The course helped me tremendously. It pointed me to the right direction of studies. They also provided condensed notes, test examples and the way to tackle questions. I felt so prepared this time in terms of the material itself. All I had to do next was to tackle the time constraint problem in the AM session, so I practiced by using past exams from 2005-2010. I made sure I timed it everytime when I did it. I'm glad I passed this year.作者: stalkey 时间: 2011-8-25 03:43
vanb0057 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I know this may be an early topic for many but as
> a 2x Band 10 I am looking for some input. Both
> years the AM sessions have cost me the test. I
> have rocked out the Individual IPS but for some
> reason struggled on the remaining AM questions.
> By struggle I mean in terms of obtaining a good
> score...honestly, walked out thinking I did just
> fine. Any recommendations on how to study or
> prepare for the AM sessions next year? So many of
> the practice problems are multiple choice and I am
> looking for ways to walk into the test more
> prepared next year.
I attribute my failure to "neglecting CFAI command words" (define, discuss, justify etc.). I answered all the questions in the same way (1 to 2 lines) regardless of the specific command word. Result: - Band 7. Will try to concentrate on this next time, but stick to Scwrs.作者: Kapie 时间: 2011-8-25 03:55
Creighton CFA Level 3 boot camp. You tackle actual CFAI Morning session questions for a good amount of time.作者: RoastBeef 时间: 2011-8-25 04:01
vanb0057 - u sound a lot like me. and i think we'd be in the same boat if this year's pass rate was just a tiny bit lower (i think i just skated by this year)
so what i would tell u is that rather than totally overhauling your approach, just do what you're doing but just get sharper on a few more points, understand a couple more things, get into a couple more corners. that's what did it for me this year. sorry if this sounds simplistic.作者: sabre 时间: 2011-8-25 04:07
I fell into the quantity over quality trap this year. I was so keen on passing and being done with all of this on the first shot I began counting hours; my mindset became, "if I book 26 hours this week, I'm sure to pass." rather than focusing on absorbing concepts and making sure I understood what I was reading. Inevitably I wore myself down to the point of really not absorbing much material at all between Arpil and May, I believe.
I also stopped going to the gym. This, in my opinion, was a HUGE mistake. In my push to 'guarantee' a pass, I stopped my normal weekly training. The atrophy not only occurred physically, but mentally too. I wasn't as sharp after April. I was sluggish mentally. I never took any shortcuts (read CFAI text cover to cover, did all EOCs multiple times, reviewed Schweser in my weak areas, and did all chapter examples), but by test day, I burned out.
These are a couple of the broader issues that led to my lack of success this year, I believe. There are some details I will change (adding more practice exams to the mix), but these are ultimately at the root of the issue.作者: BelalM 时间: 2011-8-25 04:12
I was band 10 in 2009 then band 9 in 2010... I managed to pass this time... the thing that i did differently on the am section this year was starting from last question to first.... while doing this I focused on solving problems that needed calculations first, then moved to problems where I needed to write or explain stuff.... Problems that I had no clue about were left till the very last half an hour....作者: canadiananalyst 时间: 2011-8-25 04:24
cadlag,
Could I know how to be sure of 'very little guessing on the PM question'? I mean how to be prepared in PM section.
I think I have better result than yours in AM section (but not good I think, may be it is around 50~55) But poor than your PM result. I think I have to be higher than 75 or 80 points in PM at least. But I just couldn't find out how, after putting much effort . actually i felt I would need more time 1 or 2 weeks prior to exam because i found i only got 65~70 points in PM mocks.
I actually unexpected that and was surprised. becuase people say you have to focus on AM as AM is essence of lv3 and if i have got around 55 i thought it will be easy to be over 75 points in PM. But it was not.作者: economicz 时间: 2011-8-25 04:30
@soundboy
Thanks for reading my post above. My answer to your question about how to improve the PM section is this. We need to know how to solve these quantitative problems the way that it is solved in CFA texts (or any review course texts that teaches the CFA method of solving the problems), and we need to be able to solve quiet a large repertoire of these. About 90 percent of the problems in the PM section are always written at a level that is comparable to the ones in the Readings. By that I mean the in text examples (and some examples are not always in the blue boxes in the sense that they are written into the paragraphs). The remaining 10 percent are harder than the ones that can be found anywhere in the texts, but if you nail the 90 percent I mentioned, you will have time to knock off some of the 10 percent questions that appear to come from left field. You can usually tell which ones are in 90 percent category.
So how do you get to be good at solving these problems? For some the answer is as creative as watching paint dry: repetition. For others it is using a question bank. Either way, you just got to get enough practice that you feel comfortable doing these problems. I am not a genius, so it takes me several times before I can internalize a concept.
Having said that, I am still mystified at my morning scores. I knew I bombed some sections, but to have bombed that many sections is really strange. I do wish I could have my exam booklet, because I believe that looking at my answers can be a pretty good learning tool (but of course, I do not see CFAI returning that to me). Go figure….I guess I’ll find out the preferred answers when they release the June 2011 AM section in spring 2012.作者: ASSet_MANagemen 时间: 2011-8-25 04:36
cadlag,
Thanks.
I just don't understand the result of PM considering although I was not good at it I continuously took so many PM tests and got over 65.
so many possibility i am thinking my insufficiency, possible mistakes, or some other errors .. I think I need to be sure I could get over 80 or 85 marks earlier enough.
Thanks for your advice. really helped.作者: dvilayphet 时间: 2011-8-25 04:42
I think it would be very useful to have a third party (a friend or someone on this forum who knows their stuff) read some of your sample answers to previous exams. It's possible that you're not the best judge of the quality of your answers.作者: zbird2134 时间: 2011-8-25 04:48
Two keys that got me over the hump: have to know fixed income inside and out and doing the creighton boot camp. I did not have much prep time this year and used the boot camp as a cram session. The 40 hours of prep time right befor the exam is priceless. With kids, full time job and long-ass commute, it was my only hope. Fyi, classroom is my preferred learning mode. I would attend all classes in under grad and grad school. Never took many notes, just being there and listening/seeing the material was enough.
Also, other than the individual ips calculation, i decided that i would not memorize any formulas. Took a high level approach and it worked. Decided to do this after someone else posted passing without a calculator. yMMV.作者: YAhmed 时间: 2011-8-25 04:59
Fail band 10 as well. Seriously considering a career change. I don't know how many more CFA exams I have in me. I've spent 1-3% of my life on the CFA. Is another 1-2% worth it?
