How's everyone doing?

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CFAfatso

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Finally have a long weekend in the states that I don’t have to work (well a few hrs from home, but atleast not at the office!) & can dedicate to studying - yippee.
How’s everyone doing? Saw an interesting thread in the L2 forum about their daily study schedule. Some of them are getting in a few hours before, an hr or so during lunch break and then again at night, not to mention weekends! Unfortunately, I’m kinda stuck on weekend studying only, which is much harder than imagined as you don’t really have the structure and require ALOT of discipline.
Where’s everyone else in their study plan? Are you guys also getting in some serious studying during the weekday - assume the older we get, more responsibilities at work and thus less time…not sure how I feel about that as we’re so close I just want to get it DONE.
 
I am also using this weekend to catch up on a lot of studying. After skipping Ethics, which I like to study at a date closer to the exam, I am up to Fixed Income Portfolio Management - Part 2.
It is difficult to find time after work to study. Ideally, I try to get to my office 3 hours early to study then, but the bus I need doesn’t start running that early. When it’s warm enough, I’ll bike to my office three hours early to study. Just another reason to look forward to better weather.
 
I’ve read through Schweser once with exception of Ethics, GIPS, and half of BF. Most of it seemed clear except BF and parts of private wealth mgmt. Didn’t do any questions on first run.
Now on 2nd faster skim reading of Schweser along with doing CFA EOCs.
Trying to dedicate Sundays completely to studying. Failed completely at doing that last weekend when my wife brought home Homeland (a series I’ve never seen which is seriously addictive). Spent all of Sunday on the couch watching that, and last night night as well. Have got through 2/3 readings EOC of FI PM. Hoping to be done with FI and Equity PM EOC by this weekend.
 
Just finished first read of Shwesers, inc. EOC questions.
Now going to do all EOCs again. Then do the CFA EOCs. Then as many practice exams as possible.
I try to hit an hour or two every day. I can’t do all day sessions. Seems cruel and unusual.
The final three months will decide everything.
Looking forward to joining the rest of the population once this is over.
 
cleverCFA wrote:
I’ve read through Schweser once with exception of Ethics, GIPS, and half of BF. Most of it seemed clear except BF and parts of private wealth mgmt. Didn’t do any questions on first run.
Now on 2nd faster skim reading of Schweser along with doing CFA EOCs.
Trying to dedicate Sundays completely to studying. Failed completely at doing that last weekend when my wife brought home Homeland (a series I’ve never seen which is seriously addictive). Spent all of Sunday on the couch watching that, and last night night as well. Have got through 2/3 readings EOC of FI PM. Hoping to be done with FI and Equity PM EOC by this weekend.
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Damn, dude, you started watching True Detective or House of Cards season 2 yet? Game of Thrones is back in a month, too. Dracarys.
 
Aether wrote:
Damn, dude, you started watching True Detective or House of Cards season 2 yet? Game of Thrones is back in a month, too. Dracarys.
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Nah, I’m not exactly what you call “with it” when it comes to TV series (clearly). I’m still waiting to have time so that I can finish Breaking Bad (up to about half way series 3), had to cut that short last year because of CFA.
Been meaning to check out Game of Thrones after hearing about it so much on this forum. Is it something the wife would like as well, sounds a bit Lord of the Rings like to me which neither of us are into.
Just need to pass this bloody exam so I can get my life back and have time for these sorts of things again.
True Detective, House of Cards, never heard of them but will check them out after June. Thanks Aether.
 
Game of thrones has been my “reward” so to speak the last 2 years. I dont subscribe to HBO because the seasons start in like march or april or something? But, HBO saves all the episodes until a week or two after the season is over which usually ends around the exam.
The last 2 years, on my drive home after taking the exams, I call my cable provider and subscribe to comcast and spend all of saturday night and sunday catching up on game of thrones. Ive read the books so its not like I need to rush to watch the episodes when theyre first shown, so its a nice little way to destress after the exam.
On topic, hows the material looking Clever? Harder/easier than level 2 in general in terms of material only, not how we will be tested on it haha. Youre putting in work as always.
 
I’m on PWM…on my first read through (I only do one) scheduled to finish the readings by April 11…then will start practice.
 
I’ve been through all the material once while making notecards and doing the EOC’s and some additional practice questions along the way. I started review this week and am growing nervous - it’s intimidating to think I need to be able to write about all this stuff.
I started doing it Ramos’ way, thinking I can read through it once and then proceed to drill questions from this point on, but I just don’t feel confident enough to do that. Still considering it though…
What do the majority of you plan to do? I can see the value of just jumping into questions and reading as weak points are exposed.
 
I’m taking the Schweser online course and am trying to follow that schedule. It ends in early May though so I’m a bit concerned about whether I’ll have enough time to review. My goal is to try and dedicate at least 2-3 hours per week for past EOC qs. Just finished SS5.
 
I was worried about writing for CAIA Level 2. Granted, CFA essays will likely be much harder, but my experience is when you start writing it is intimidating but by the end you get comfortable and start recalling…like with the MC, just with more detail.
 
bahgill wrote:
On topic, hows the material looking Clever? Harder/easier than level 2 in general in terms of material only, not how we will be tested on it haha. Youre putting in work as always.
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IMO the material is easier than at L2. Much more qualitative than quantitative. I’ve done EOCs for Fixed Income (finished last night) and I’ve found them pretty straightforward. Like you said though, I’m expecting the testing of the material to be the difficult part rather than material itself.
 
I finished watching House of Cards tonight so Netflix sub is getting suspended. Gotta buckle down!
 
I am doing fine, motoring on through the material. I am just finishing up SS17. Hopefully I will be finished the curriculum by end-February. I have been writing up my own notes (and doing EOC questions) so will use them to study from now on, combined with another run through the questions from Schweser books and CFAI EOC.
I plan to spend all March reading through my notes and answering above questions. Only after this I plan on tackling the essay questions. I am not yet prepared for these yet, and would only disappoint myself with poor answers due to poor recall.
 
Doing pretty well. I have an excel tracker where I have each Study Session at the top with its exam weight. Then, if I scale it to 300 hours, I see roughly the number of hours I need per each topic. Then I enter my time each week to the appropriate topic. I see how many hours each week I log, then I have a “Average remaining weekly hours” that is just a calculation to get to 300 hours.
Right now, I’m at 150 hours.. completed 50% of Behavioral, 141% of Private wealth mgt (this one is only 5% of the test, but with IPS material, really feel like I need to drill it), 80% inst investors, 90% cap mkt exp, 40% Econ concepts, 62% Asset Allocation, 50% Fixed Income, 30% Equity, 30% Alts (just passed CAIA level I, so I went rather quickly through alts), 43% RM, 105% RM Apps, 61% Execution/rebalancing, 50% Perf Evaluation, and 0% for GIPS and Ethics.
Again, those are based on weight in the test, then the corresponding number of hours needed to arrive at 300 given that weight. Ex… FI is 15%… If 300 hours… need 45 hours. I’ve logged about 22, so I’m 50% done.
This might help if you guys feel like you’re behind. Every week, if I see my average weekly hours remaining go up, i’m pissed. And so I really try to at least match that number. And I obviously realize that I’ll ramp up studying as D Day approaches, so I’m not too worried about hours. Just a good way to stay on track (especially early in the game), and to see what areas you’ve hit the hardest and which you may still need some practice.
Feeling good overall.. probably attempt first practice test in a few weeks. I presume that I will be extremely humbled. but that isn’t a bad thing when it’s february.
 
mpearc4 wrote:
Doing pretty well. I have an excel tracker where I have each Study Session at the top with its exam weight. Then, if I scale it to 300 hours, I see roughly the number of hours I need per each topic. Then I enter my time each week to the appropriate topic. I see how many hours each week I log, then I have a “Average remaining weekly hours” that is just a calculation to get to 300 hours.
Right now, I’m at 150 hours.. completed 50% of Behavioral, 141% of Private wealth mgt (this one is only 5% of the test, but with IPS material, really feel like I need to drill it), 80% inst investors, 90% cap mkt exp, 40% Econ concepts, 62% Asset Allocation, 50% Fixed Income, 30% Equity, 30% Alts (just passed CAIA level I, so I went rather quickly through alts), 43% RM, 105% RM Apps, 61% Execution/rebalancing, 50% Perf Evaluation, and 0% for GIPS and Ethics.
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I don’t know what you call it but you and I have the same illness. :)
I’d be looking at calcing some kind of tracking error on top of this but that’s just me.
 
started at BF and just finished FI. It’s slightly depressing that I’m only around half way through the material.
The next few weeks at work are going to be a nightmare so I’m hoping to get through Equity, Alts and Risk Management and some Derivatives in March. Still a lot to get through after that and I definitely need to review BF and ideally I’d like to do a 2nd read through of Private Wealth and Institutional. I’ve given up on the idea of a full 2nd pass through.
I’m planning on doing a schweser mock once I’ve finished the material in April to get an idea of what I’m up against.
I’m getting the feeling that I’m going to have to work harder than ever in March April and May to get through this.
 
I thought my tracking spreadsheet was advanced but you guys are in a different league.
 
gringo_bob
Im in the same boat as you except that I am still doing Fixed Income.
Feeling very behind and inconfident.
 
Finishing up my first review next Wednesday then starting my revision with Individual IPS!
First mock in the 1st week of April
 
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