AuthorTopic: dilemma
erichu
@2009-10-01 22:17:58
ive read quickly through everything before just highlighting and practicing calculations. now i'm making notes based on each LOS. scheduled today to do SS7 based on the study guide i prepared.

but i still feel so unprepared. will i ever feel that i have adequately learned the topics? i've been going at this for months, sometimes i get bored and i feel that my eyes are just moving thru the words and numbers but my mind is not registering anything.

other times, i feel that the topics are very interesting (especially when there are practice computations that i have to do) and easily grasp concepts.

but at the end of the day, i still feel that i'm not ready and that i still don't know that much.

i haven't really started memorizing formulas or anything but i can basically go through computations and concepts (background is a degree in business mgt and economics and a masters degree in business and work experience is in banking doing fs analysis and stuff)

is it me or is this something everyone else goes through...

and by the way, to-date how many hours have you actually put in studying?

because i've read that you're supposed to clock in at least 270 hours but so far, based on my excel sheet (since i log in each time i study and log out each time i do something else) i only have 55 hours (excluding time used for answering questions and just reading the books before i go to sleep or in a coffee shop or whatever) and i only have less than 2 months to cover the other 80% of 270 hours so that i can devote 1 month on just reviewing my notes and answering sample exams.

what should i do?
baks
@2009-10-03 22:19:06
I am in the same boat as you. I totally understand what you are talking about. But the only thing to do is hang in there and be confident in the fact that hard work pays off. Like you, I too have been studying for some time now, however yesterday, when I tried to revise Quant, some of the things looked like I was going through them for the first time. That totally freaked me out. Everyone always tells me that I am getting way too stressed out with this. It is good that you are keeping track of the number of hours you have studied, but my suggestion is that you don't get too caught up with numbers. Also make a schedule but if there is a slight deviation it is okay. Like if you planned to do a certain subject by the end of the week, and you did not and took a couple of days extra, don't worry. It is okay. You will make up in some other subject, or maybe you just needed that much time to study the topic. This is one thing that used to freak me out, well...it still does and I really have to teach myself to not lose it... It is tough, but the bottomline is that we are going to get through this exam with flying colors...hang in there.....

With best wishes,
Payal
corarale
@2010-04-02 10:02:16
Some advice from a L3 candidate who took L1 last December:

I also bought the books and took notes from the items I highlighted focusing only on the LOS. Writing the stuff down helped put the material in the long-term section of my brain, whether I realized it or not at the time.

You have a ton of time left.

What I really think allowed me to pass the test was analystnotes. It's bad that they don't have materials for level 3.

I took off of work a week before the exam and went through every single question in analystnotes's review exams. This really engrained the material in my head. Sometime they ask the same topic in a few different ways with a few different questions. By answering all of them, the material will stick--maybe not in the long-term brain, but at least in the short-term section that will last you till the exam.

Also, spending a week working 10+ hours answering mock questions here, which will be available one month before the exam, will put you in a rhythm. You get used to seeing how the questions will be asked on the exam. It will also train yourself to focus for long periods of time...something necessary to pass the test.

You dont have a lot of time on the exam....on test day focus first on the areas your strong in...then spend your time working areas your weak in.

The test is do-able. Keep putting in the effort.

CFA Discussion Topic: dilemma

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Craig Baugh

Craig Baugh