Sample Exam 2

I took a second sample exam this morning and I was aiming for 70%. I managed to get 73% and with a week of study to go, I am happy with the result (and improvement from 56%). After I have finished my revision next week, I will take a CFAI mock exam and aim for around 80%. Here is the breakdown of the areas. The marks in brackets were my marks from the last sample exam.

Ethics 88.89% (77.78%)

Quantitative Methods 85.71% (28.57%)

Economics 83.33% (100%)

FSA 66.67% (53.85%)

Corporate Finance 100% (25%)

Equity 33.33% (57.14%)

Derivatives 100% (66.67%)

Alternative Investments 66.67% (100%)

Fixed Income 83.33% (33.33%)

Portfolio Management 0% (33.33%)

I passed 6/10 areas compared to 3 last time which is great. I improved in all areas that I revised except for portfolio management. I am going to have to go over that section again this week. I also hope I can improve my FSA score to above 70%. This is the largest covered section in the exam so getting a high mark in this will definitely bolster my chances of a pass. I also completed the exam with 38 minutes to spare, almost 20 more than last time. I don't think time management will be a problem but the mock exam will give me a better indication of that.

The worst point from the exam (apart from portfolio management) was that I lost 2 very easy marks because I didn't read the question properly. This should not be an issue since I had so much time to spare. I think I am going to have to take the time to read the questions twice.

Today I will revise the first study session for equity.

8 days until the level 1 exam.

First Analystnotes Mock Exam

This morning I did this and I was surprised at how much harder it was compared to the CFAI sample exam. I scored 59/120. Here is the breakdown:

Ethics 13/18 (72%)

Quantitative Methods 9/14 (64%)

Economics 6/12 (50%)

Asset Valuation 15/36 (42%)

Financial Statement Analysis 15/34 (44%)

Portfolio Management 1/6 (17%)

As you can see it is not a great result. It was generally worse than the sample exam and I am nowhere near close to passing. Here is what I noticed:

• Ethics was my only passing subject. I have scored between 70% and 80% for both exams. I have not done any revision for ethics yet but I can't see that mark improving too much since it is difficult to narrow some answers down to one. Some of the time you can only narrow it down to 2 correct sounding answers.
• I improved in Quantitative Methods since I have revised it. This is probably the most positive thing I took from this exam. It is still below 70% but I have time to get it up past that.
• Economics was a poor result. I scored 100% in the sample exam so I was not expecting such a large drop.
• I was guessing a lot of the answers, particularly in the FSA section. For this reason, I will not take another mock exam until after I have revised FSA.

I also did 20 questions on corporate finance before the mock exam. I only got 12/20 correct which is not good enough. After I revise portfolio management today, I will read the secret sauce and do another 20 questions tomorrow morning. Hopefully I will see an improvement to a passing mark.

16 days until the level 1 exam.

Corporate Finance Review

Today I reviewed Study Session 11 and it went fairly smoothly. Although there were 5 Readings, they were quite straight forward. I'm surprised it was my lowest scoring section in the sample exam (25%). My marks were mixed. There's definitely room for improvement:

Reading 44: 43/52 (83%)

Reading 45: 14/22 (64%)

Reading 46: 22/33 (67%)

Reading 47: 2/3 (67%)

Reading 48: 10/20 (50%)

Tonight I read Schweser's secret sauce for Quantitative Analysis. It covered the material I already reviewed. I will review my notes again just before I go to sleep. Believe it or not I had a dream last night about doing a question involving valuing a coupon paying bond. I think reading the notes before I sleep stimulate this and I'm sure it's beneficial. The concept covered in my dream is still fresh in my head even now..

I'm planning on doing a mock exam from Analystnotes tomorrow. Although I can't compare it to the CFAI sample exam, I'm hoping for an improvement from it.

17 days until the level 1 exam.

Morning Questions

This morning I started the day by doing a 20 question test on Study Session 3. I scored 15/20 (75%) which either means I picked up the easy questions or the information from yesterday has sunk in. It is definitely an improvement from 29% so I should be able to get a higher score in the mock exam I plan to do tomorrow morning.

I also did a quick 5 questions for Study Session 2. I got 3/5 (60%). One of the errors was a silly one because I didn't spend time on the question. It goes to show that not taking the time to read the question can mean the difference between passing and failing.

Today I am planning on studying SS11 which was my weakest area according to the sample exam. There are 5 readings to cover so I think this will be the only one I revise today.

17 days until the level 1 exam.

Not a good day.

Today I focused on Study Session 3. I did not do well with the questions I did after studying each reading:

Reading 9: 58/84 (69%)

Reading 10: 44/68 (67%)

Reading 11: 41/74 (55%)

Reading 12: 11/25 (44%)

The good thing I can take out of this is that I have improved dramatically from my average of Quantitative Methods a couple of days ago (29%). I am still below 70% for this section though so I will read the Schweser Secret Sauce for this section and hopefully it will help improve my marks. I will still read my notes tomorrow and do 20 questions for the Study Session.

Tomorrow will be busy because I am planning on revising 2 Study Sessions. Then on Saturday morning, I will do a mock exam from Analystnotes to see how I am doing. I will go to sleep soon after reading the notes one more time.

17 days until the level 1 exam.

SS2 review

Yesterday I reviewed Study Session 2. I looked at my notes for each reading and wrote down the main points I will revise each day (mainly formulas). I did the reading questions after studying each reading. My scores were:

Reading 5: 36/41 (88%)

Reading 6: 9/13 (69%)

Reading 7: 63/87 (72%)

Reading 8: 53/77 (69%)

These scores are ok, but I need to work on my time value of money applications and in particular, probability concepts. There are lots of formulas to remember for that and it can get confusing over which one to use.

This morning I read over the notes I made yesterday and did a 20 question Study Session exam. I got 17/20 (85%). The Analyst notes questions can't really be compared to the CFA exam questions, but this is a dramatic improvement from 28% I scored yesterday during the sample exam. I will do 5 questions each morning from now on to make sure I remember the concepts, and improve a bit more until my exam. I wont know if my revision has helped raise my exam score until I do the next mock exam.

Today I'm planning on doing the same study routine for Study Session 3, and if I have time, Portfolio Management. Good luck with your studies today.

18 days until the level 1 exam.

My First Sample Exam

I took the free sample exam provided by the CFA Institute this morning. I scored 56%:

Ethics 78%

Quantitative methods 29%

Economics 100%

FSA 54%

Corporate Finance 25%

Equity 57%

Derivatives 67%

Alternative Investments 100%

Fixed Income 33%

Portfolio Management 33%

The exam was very helpful. It helped me identify my strong points (Economics, Alternative Investments and Ethics) and my weak points (Corporate Finance, Quantitative methods, Fixed Income and Portfolio Management). I've decided to study each study session in order from weakest to strongest subject. I will take mock exams after every few study sessions to see if I'm improving at a decent rate. I want to be getting around 80% by Friday the 5th.

Another area of slight concern was the time taken. I finished with 22 minutes to spare, but the exam gives you 30 minutes more than what you have in the proper exam. Since I was looking at the explanations between questions when I got a question wrong, this could be why. I wont know until I do a properly timed mock exam.

I also need to read the questions more carefully. I got a few questions wrong simply because I did not spend time reading the question. These kind of marks cannot be thrown away.

Today I'm planning on revising SS2.

18 days until the level 1 exam.

The Final Countdown

44 days after I initially planned to, and 18 days after my last blog post, I have finally finished going through the CFA curriculum. The diversion was due to a few factors, the main one being university work. Whenever I had a test or an assignment due at university I would put study for the CFA exam on the backburner. I didn't study for a whole week when I was writing my essay for economics. I thought I could make up the time later on and still finish in time, but it is hard to make it up because of the amount of information you need to comprehend.

Another thing I wasn't prepared for were the hard readings. I spent almost a week on one reading in Study Session 9. SS9 on the whole took me a few weeks to get through (this is a situation where Schweser or Stalla lecture videos would be really beneficial). I am glad I started as early as I did because if I started any later, I probably would not have finished the curriculum. I don't regret not finishing when I originally planned because I think it is important to fully understand all areas. It would be no good to lightly brush over some topics in order to have a couple more weeks of revision. This means the next few weeks will be intense since I have 44 days less revision than I had originally intended.

Here are some pictures of the notes I have made:

 

There are 19 days until the exam and I have the following tools to help me prepare:

• My notes
• The Question Bank from Analystnotes
• The free sample exam from the CFAI website
• The ethics exam from the CFAI website
• 6 mock exams from Analystnotes
• 2 mock exams from the CFAI website (I plan to buy them)

I'm planning on doing the sample exam tomorrow first thing to see where I'm currently at. To have a good chance of passing, I want to be achieving scores of around 80% the days before the exam. To be assured of passing you need at least 70%, and I want a 10% buffer to make up for the exam day stresses. I will take the mock exams every few days to check my performance. I want to keep the Friday before the exam free to do a couple of mock exams, and Saturday completely free (the exam is on Sunday in NZ).

I will dedicate the majority of my day to revising study sessions one at a time. I will read through my notes and write down the equations and very important bits of information to revise every night before I go to sleep. I will use the question bank a lot. If I don't score highly, I will read over the notes provided by Analystnotes in an effort to understand the subject area better. After I have gone through a study session, I will move onto the next, but I will still do a few questions on the covered study sessions every morning to make sure the material sticks.

By Friday 5th December, I should finish the revision and I will dedicate the day to doing mock exam questions. On Saturday, I think it would be best to rest, get a little bit of exercise, and go over the essential notes I will make.

What do you think of this? What are you planning to do for study these last few weeks? I encourage you all to check out Analystforums daily. If you don't understand a particular area, or get stuck on a question, there are many smart people who are willing to help. People also discuss questions so it is a good place to test your thinking.

Good luck to you all. Make sure your passport or drivers licence are valid. I will start writing daily to let you know my scores and progress.

19 days until the level 1 exam.