zephyranalyst

i believe the most difficult vary depend on individual background & interest

some people said derivative is tough, but i found it quite ok to me

i spend lesser time in ethics, probably i found that no matter how much effort i put in, my score in this subject is still maintain at an optimal level, hardly improve from this, and you can never be very sure & confidence you are getting the right answer in the exam, relatively compare to others subject

AI has the lowest examable value to me, the material that you need to study is wide, not easy to digest, various topics likes commodity, property, private equity, hedge fund... need to cover, and yet it has only one vignette

i like economy, so i dont have pressure to study it even though is only 1 vig

QM is scorable, as long as they dont ask so many question on time series

& to pass, we must make sure we cover FRA and Equity well, coz these 2 add up can be 10 vignettes, 50% of the exam marks, i doubt someone can pass if he did poorly in these 2 subjects

Darien

Swaps are miserable, quant can be a moving target but it's hit or miss.

former

I had all the swaps down cold but still couldn't manage to answer a single question correctly when doing interest rate swaps in different currencies, there just seemed to be too many moving parts

justin88

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.

bpdulog

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

badonkus

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

Kapie

my opinions:

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

in fact, actually really many difficulities~

Zesty

convertible bonds can be a pain

Rasec

Study Sessions 1-18

anothercfainnyc

currency swaps are nasty cousins.