kickthatcfa

TexasInstruments Wrote:
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> The issue is not schweser not being enough on its
> own, its more about how you study with schweser or
> any other source.
>
> many have passed level 2 based solely on Schweser
> preparation. Even if we assume Schweser covers 80
> to 90 % of the material properly and you end up
> knowing 90% of what schweser covers then you may
> very well be capable of passing.
>
> The biggest flaw in my view of schweser notes is
> the fact that they handicap you with the 4000
> questions on their question bank. & the notes
> alone arnt enough so you need to use both notes
> and bank... but usiing the q bank more than you
> should may end up haunting you and screwing you
> for the exam
>
> with 4,000 questions and lets say an average of
> doing 100 Qs a day this means thats 40 days out of
> your study time just devoted to doing those
> practice questions. so if we analyze those 40 days
> and 4000 questions i think you would find that you
> only gain a certain amount of knowledge from lets
> say 1000 questions and then its all basically
> variations of the same thing being asked and pure
> repetition. like how many questions of FCFE yr 1,
> 2 ,3 4 etc do you need to do and/or waste time on
> in order to think you know and are fully capable
> of solving an FCFE problem. I dont know about you
> but for me just understanding the theory and maybe
> doing ten of those questions should be all it
> takes for you to be fully capable of solving an
> exam question on FCFE, so think of the enormous
> amount of time you might end up wasting on things
> you are already fully capable of just because the
> Q bank happens to have a ton of questions on each
> of them. Same with ethics, 400 questions??? do you
> really think in order to grasp the core concepts
> of ethics you need to do 400 questions.
>
> what i find weird is that after doing a ton of
> schweser questions on contango & backwardation and
> getting them all right , you can still end up with
> an exam question on this very simple theory where
> you are confused and not sure of your answer.
> Thats why the smartest thing to do whether using
> schweser or any other source is know that quantity
> of practice questions isnt your best indicator of
> your learning... its sort of like the marginal
> benefit of doing extra practice questions
> diminishes after a certain point and maybe you
> have spent a whole month from your study time with
> zero added to your knowledge just becos you were
> too busy doing the same thing over and over again
> with your calculator in hand thinking that if you
> do another 50 questions on capm then this will
> make you remember it better or understand it
> better for the exam.
>
> I used schweser in 2009 and ended up a band ten
> fail, and i am not blaming schweser for this, but
> when i think back to myself as well as the fact
> that i used schweser again this time along with
> CFAI what i have come to realize is that you
> should always keep assessing where you stand on
> each LOS so that you dont spend more time than
> needed on certain LOS's and their associated
> practice Q's and move to topics you need to spend
> more time on... so my recommendation is to not
> think you are bound by the schweser Q bank and
> thinking that going through all their questions
> equates to good preparation, it would do you more
> good to maybe use schweser text with around 1000
> of their practice Qs from Q bank and then move on
> to doing all the questions contained in the CFAI
> text, and whenever you think you fully mastered a
> topic cut down on time wasted impressing yourself
> with the fact that u can do all its questions with
> a high success rate and focus on your weaknesses.
>
>
> another tip relating to formulas would be that it
> only takes half an hour the most to write down
> each and every formula you need to know for the
> level 2 exam, so one good strategy is the month
> before the exam you allocate 15 to 30 minutes of
> your daily study routine re-writing all the
> formulas out and making sure you know them all by
> heart... its amazing how you end up somtimes
> thinking you know all the formulas soo well then
> end up forgetting them on the exam day because of
> thinking you know them better than you actually
> do.
>
> if you get to the point where overall you know
> most of the LOS's and their required explanations,
> definitions & calculations you should be good for
> the exam and then again you just never know
> there is always a little surprise factor on level
> two exams to see how we function and react to
> questions that are "different" from what we are
> used to or expect, and you only see those on the
> actuals not on mocks ;)

great post. I totally agree having used Schweser last year and went to CFAI only this year