economicz

The best thing you can do to prepare is to see as many practice exams from CFAI, Schweser, etc. as possible. The essay section is not luck. The morning is difficult b/c it requires to you put all the information together and none of the answers are "cookie-cutter." Understanding the information from the books is a great start, but you have to be able to think on your feet. There is a big difference between memorizing material and identifying answer on a multiple choice exam and being able to regurgitate data from memory and put it on paper. It is a different level of thinking.

I used Schweser books and took 14 notepads worth of notes. I also did all the IPS examples from CFAI books. I didn't get through all the Schweser practice exams, but did all the CFAI prior exams.

Good luck.