I don’t blame you if you are feeling completely drained from this week’s encounter with Quants, particularly if you have managed to stick to the suggested study approach writing flash cards and practicing them along with the end of chapter questions. If you manage to stick with it however, you are boosting your retention level and building invaluable revision tools for yourself. In short you are making every hour that you put into this process count. Have you recorded your process so far? If not please fill in the FEA Elite progress reports for weeks 1, 2 and 3 so I can keep you accountable for your progress towards conquering this test.
How did you get on marking your own answers to the end of chapter questions? As we discussed last week it is only a small minority of the questions in the Quants readings that are arranged as standard multiple choice questions, you will therefore just have to try and mark your own answers as fairly as you can, the main point is that you feel confident that you can answer all of the end of chapter questions in the Quants readings.
The week to come:
In the upcoming week we are going to cover the last couple of readings in Quants and begin Economics.
We are going to employ the same approach we have used the previous weeks, so at this stage it should begin to become familiar and perhaps a bit more natural to you:
- Write down the LOS on individual flashcards so that you have them handy, and actively seek out and write down the answers as you progress through the individual readings (include the relevant book-, reading-, page- and LOS number). Also stay on the lookout for key concepts and formulas and create individual flashcards worded as questions, with the answer and the relevant page reference on the flip side. Practice the flashcards and make a note of the ones that you struggle to answer on your first attempt in your question log
- Answer the end of chapter questions in the underlying curriculum, even if you are using an abbreviated study guide. Make a list of the questions that you find particularly puzzling (especially whenever you resort to guessing). When reviewing your answers, add the questions that you got wrong to the question log.
- Attempt the flashcards and end of chapter questions from your question log again once you are through each reading, revise you answers and add any flashcards/questions that still challenge you to the question log. Repeat this process as many times as you need, until you can confidently answer all questions correctly. Don’t just rehearse the answers, make sure you go back and revise to ensure you understand the reason for each answer.
We are moving into Economics. This is the area of the curriculum with the worst trade-off between its size and significance on the test. As a result we are going to move through the material a lot quicker compared to Ethics or even Quants. This is the topic area of the curriculum that lends itself best to be covered by an abbreviated study guide. We recommend the Wiley CFA Exam Review Products (previously known as Elan Guides).
Please record this week’s progress here. You do not want to fall behind schedule. Let’s touch base next week.
As they say, no pain, no gain…
In week 5 we are continuing Economics.