cv4cfa

I like to make flash cards of things that absolutely have to be stone cold memorized.

I find writing notes in the margin, circling things, and numbering points really helps with memory retention. It's more to do with active reading rather than note taking - I agree that notes aren't useful, we already have notes from Schweser - but the writing is useful. I'll give an example. This is from CAIA text not CFA but should illustrate what I mean.

"Managed futures accounts are actively managed portfolios of future contracts that include long and short positions in financial commodty future contracts. Manged futures contracts are highly leveraged because of low initial margin on most futures contracts. They stand in sharp contrast to commodity indices, which are passive investments, unleveraged, and invest only in long commodity futures."

So in this paragraph there is actually a lot of info although nothing very complicated. Easy to forget in fact as it is so unmemorable. But they will ask some sort of small fact from this and you need to be actively reading to remember. So...

Step 1: Number the points - I'll number the key points as I go along as so and underline

"Managed futures accounts are (1) actively managed portfolios of future contracts that include (2) long and short positions in financial commodty future contracts. Manged futures contracts are (3) highly leveraged because of low initial margin on most futures contracts. They stand in (4)sharp contrast to commodity indices, which are passive investments, unleveraged, and invest only in long commodity futures."

So by numbering this I know exactly what this paragraph is telling me and what is testable. I think write short notes in the margins to reinforce this thinking as so:

Managed Futures:
1 actively managed
2 long and short
3 leveraged
4 Big Contrast "commod indicess" - see points 1-3

By doing this I am ensuring that I every time I hear "managed futures I think of 1-4 characteristics which is generally enough to pass. This ensures that:

1) am not passively reading and forgetting instantly. I have problems with that.
2) am thinking about what each paragraph is trying to tell me
3) reinforcing memorization by stopping, pausing, thinking about how each thing relates to what I've read so far. In this example its very important to understand how Managed/Futures are different than Commodity Indices.

You can do this on note cards, in a note book, with a crayon on a coloring book. The point is it works! If I don't do this I'll read ten pages and realize I haven't really been paying attention and haven't understood anything.

So while notes aren't by themselves useful, the practice of writing them will help immensely in comprehension and retention. This is also why I don't believe in Q banks until the very end.