NakedPuts

It really depends on what your background is going into the exam. Personally, I struggled the most with derivatives, pension accounting, and accounting for foreign subsidiaries (current method, temporal method, and adjusting for hyperinflation). It seems like anything where there is a clear distinction between IFRS and US GAAP accounting was a pain to keep everything straight.

ba736

In addition to the above, derivatives take time to master.

anish

i think many topics might seem easy at first, and you might even cruise through the readings, but one you start solving problems, either in EOCs or in the mocks, you'll realize there's a lot more depth to it than just looking at some definition and mugging up a formula

RoastBeef

my opinions:

-time series in Quants
-intercompany investment in FSA
-earnings quality
-derivatives, eg: swap, swaption
-CMO

in fact, actually really many difficulities~

chunty

convertible bonds can be a pain

hassan

Study Sessions 1-18

Iginla2011

currency swaps are nasty cousins.

parott

derivatives, imo. time series is easy once you have a good set of notes to work off.

dvilayphet

I found the following difficult:
-Time series analysis in quant (only b/c I didn't feel it was worth memorizing the vast amount of info for at most 6 questions on the exam!)
-Exchange rate topics in economics (esp. triangular arbitrage)

Everything else wasn't that difficult after you put in enough time. The two topics I spent the most time on though were pensions and intercorp investments in FRA just b/c FRA was so heavily weighted in the exam and you were sure to see these topics on the exam.

luda002

Quant is rough, IMO. Aside from memorization of pension accting and intercorporate investmentments I didn't find any particular topic that difficult. Howeever, the challenge lies in the vastness of information and time it takes to get a firm grasp of all the concepts, in addition to questions posed in vignette format which adds another layer of difficulty. Given 5-6 months of consistent study you'll have reasonable shot at passing. I put in about three solid months and feel 50-50 on chances of passing, had I started earlier I'd feel quite confident. Put in the time, don't get bogged down, and do all CFAI EOC questions, several time for key areas.