Help! Need a plan!

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b.knoll

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Hi all,
I wrote and failed Level 1 in June 2015 getting a band 9. A summary of my results is below:
Corp Finance/Derivatives/Fixed Income = < 50%
Portfolio Management = > 70%
The rest of the sections were between 51 and 70%. No excuses, I was just a little lazy and did not REALLY study until about 2 and a half weeks to go. I didn’t study at all two days before the exam. I read all the books once and then did mocks/qbank questions.
Not sure how to attack this seeing as how there is only approxiamtely 3 months until exam day. I have evenings free, and I work from 8-430pm in a minimal stress job. Someone please give me some advice on how to attack this. My plan was to read the entire books of my weakest sections - derivatives, corp finance, fixed income. Probably read the entire book of FRA again and a little econ, and then do a million questions from any mock I can find, qbank, etc. But what say the smart lads from analystforum?
 
EOC questions are good help, also the CFAI web page self-assesments; do 3 mocks and in the last days read solved questions (read a question, solve it mentally, then watch the solution inmediatelly). You already have experience on the exam so thats a favor for a success this December.
GL
 
Here’s your plan:
1) Read CFAI texts and do all Blue Boxes and EOC’s. You won’t be going out much for the next three months. But you can get through the entire accounting book in one full weekend, so no big deal.
2) Concentrate on heavily tested areas and lightly skim over the less heavily tested areas. For example, if Quant is 5% of the exam, screw it. Your expected return from guessing is 33%. Concentrate on accounting, equity, derivatives, corporate finance, and ethics. Then pick one or more areas to be strong in. Trying to be equally prepared in all areas is not wise with less than 90 days left.
3) Make a massive stack of DIY flashcards while you’re studying. The act of writing it down increases retention. Then look up something called the “Leitner Method” of studying flash cards.
4) Make a formula sheet and rewrite and revise it constantly.
5) Use a Q-Bank to do massive amounts of problems. I’d recommend adjusting the Q-Bank settings to print, and show the answers after each question. Hopefully your employer won’t mind you using 5000 sheets of paper… Hit those at every chance throughout the day. Then plug it into the computer and see where your weaknesses are. You should see some patterns evolve in a month or so. Hit those weak areas.
6) Do 5-10 mock exams, but repeat some of them two or three times. Repeating them is a great way to boost retention and confidence.
If you do all this, you can’t fail. Good luck!
 
solid plan from mfreema2
The only quibble I’d have is to not re-read the CFA-I material on sections you dominated last time around. That’s a less than optimal use of time. Instead read summary notes there or revisit your notes. Do do the EOC questions for those sections however. No sense turning a strength into a weakness.
 
I would suggest that you take TumePrep iPhone/iPad app for study structuring and time management. The app takes your study preferences and available time (in an usual) week and gives you instant feedback on how much more/less you need to study. You can build a study schedulue in the app and easily reschedule the process in case you miss one or more study sessions. This gives you study plan, vast majority of study options to choose and feedback if you study enough to complete the required plan.
 
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