I feel overwhelmed, are 10 hours per week sufficient?

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Arbtrgr

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I started studying on 11 August 2015, took a vacation in September for 2 weeks, and have read 24 of the 32 CFAI readings thus far. Will complete reading by 31 December.
Reading is passive and I am learning very little, but just want to complete the readings in order to focus on more active study techniques, and have a base to start questions from.
I work for a minimum of 1 hour each day, mostly more, but I treat each day as 1 quality hour.
1. Are 10 hours per week sufficient?
2. Does your knowledge/exam taking ability improve exponentially?
3. Does one develop the financial eloquence and vocabulary over time?
 
You’re way ahead of schedule. You’re confidence will build once you are on your final practice exams and getting above 70%…until then it will feel like a lot of material that is not sinking in or not easily recallable…just like L1 and L2.
 
Thank you, that is encouraging and reassuring.
 
Start second phase of reading in a faster pace and start practicing writing for AM session this will give you enough time since you went through the material 1st time start doing AM exams topic by topic and then final revision and practice (AM & PM) by mid April. Practice and time managment is a key to pass
 
Thank you Rogue Trader, I appreciate your advice and insight.
 
Arbtrgr wrote:
1. Are 10 hours per week sufficient?
2. Does your knowledge/exam taking ability improve exponentially?
3. Does one develop the financial eloquence and vocabulary over time?
Click to expand...
1. Should be fine in your first run through the material, but don’t forget that it’s quality vs. quantity. This will become even MORE important in May.
2. Sure, if you adequately prepared for and re-took this exam over many years. But don’t you want to pass in the first go-around?
3. Naturally? No.
#YoureWelcome
 
Arbtrgr wrote:
I started studying on 11 August 2015, took a vacation in September for 2 weeks, and have read 24 of the 32 CFAI readings thus far. Will complete reading by 31 December.
Reading is passive and I am learning very little, but just want to complete the readings in order to focus on more active study techniques, and have a base to start questions from.
I work for a minimum of 1 hour each day, mostly more, but I treat each day as 1 quality hour.
1. Are 10 hours per week sufficient?
2. Does your knowledge/exam taking ability improve exponentially?
3. Does one develop the financial eloquence and vocabulary over time?
Click to expand...
If you consider doing the CFA reading as a passive activity you are not doing it carefully enough. At level 3 you need to actively reflect upon the information as you read. Memorizing the facts is a must but you must also be a skeptic. Try to take alternate roles to argue for and against every assertion made by the authors.
1. 10 hours per week is quite sufficient if you can keep up the mental intensity.
2. Your knowledge and exam ability ramp up as you do practice problems but will quickly plateau. If you have taken the SAT/ACT exam you would know what I mean. Test-taking ability is something that one is born and raised with. If you are on the lower end of that ability curve you have to make up for it through hard work. But even then, it takes a prodigy to score 1550 on the SAT. Luckily, the CFA exams is a pass/no pass deal. So you can count on reaping rewards from hard work alone.
3. Financial eloquence has to be built upon your rhetorical abilities developed from elementary school through high school to college and beyond. So yes, it is built over time, but you had better not be decades behind the learning curve. If you doubt you have that potential, here are my 2 cents: learn from your regrets and raise your kids accordingly. Motivate them to be smooth-talkers early on. I don’t know if they will aspire to work in Wall Street but the ability to talk like an investment banker will put them at a good spot in any endeavor.
 
I disagree on your approach and am sorry to be bringing non-positive feedback.
I would engage in the active study methods sooner so that the reading is worthwhile. That’s just MY opinion though and what worked for me.
My process was to read a section, do the end of section/chapter questions (referencing the study material, because again, the goal here is learning rather than just score tracking), and then do 25-50% of the question bank questions offered by Schweser. This process reinforced the reading *so much* and without the active questions, I would have been further behind.
The good thing is that you are way ahead of schedule and so even though you’re doing this, but just in a different order, you will be fine. I would just consider this method for the remaining sections if you’re able.
 
Hi Boohaga
I have really enjoyed the generosity of the responses. I welcome disagreement, as your intent to help is positive, and your experience invaluable to me. My takeaway is that the active reinforces the reading.
Thank you for your advice.
 
Thank you for the lengthy and well thought out response. You guys have been awesome, and I have so much respect for those who have conquered this exam.
I like the plateau concept, and will dig a little deeper. I have always been lazy to memorize information, and will get out of my comfort zone in whichever form to move beyond plateaus and to move from passive to active as far as possible.
 
Thank you Hashtag
lol @ “Naturally? No.”
I will have to make a concerted effort then.
 
I read the material 4 times, once from the CFAI text and 3 times from Schweser. The first pass through is the slowest as your brain struggles to understand new material. The second is faster as your brain has already worked out the complex ideas and can now concentrate on connecting them. The third and fourth are faster still as you can begin skimming the sections you already know very well. The short answer to your question is: Yes, relearning material is both easier and faster than originally learning it. Keep going as you’re way ahead of schedule. Read, re-read and answer practice questions as you go.
Don’t be discouraged if you dont remember material from 3 readings ago on the first pass… no one does. Just keep going over everything. My strategy was to do the review questions the day after the reading, that way the material was less freash in my mind and forced me to really concentrate and actually get in a better review when going over my answers.
 
Agreed with kjsgbp that you will forget much of the materials.
Please take your first pass through the curriculum slowly and carefully. This is the time your brain does most of the actual thinking. You may or may not retain the material but the training will stick with your brain. Critical thinking process is what helps you become “eloquent” in finance. The reality is that, you will pass level 3 this year anyway - they pretty much pass all the candidates who perform up to a certain standard, and there is no fixed quota on how many they pass ( just look at how the pass rate fluctuate over the years!). So CFA level 3 isn’t competitive in the sense that there are no elimination rounds to pick best of the pack. Arbtrgr, I believe you are smart enough to look beyond the CFA. You know the job recruitment is not only about being competent but also being competitive. They way you train your critical thinking skill in finance is what is gonna help you nail job interviews. So focus on the learning, not cramming.
 
I’m at a similar point as OP, just started reading the final book last week. So after I’ve gone through the CFA materials once (I haven’t done any of the EOCs), should I start re-reading through Schweser materials? Or should I do CFA materials one more time and do EOCs along the way? I’m leaning towards jumping into Schweser, but any thooushts are much appreciated.
 
Doing the questions will be more active and productive IMO. A second read will be highly entertaining. With so many other competing activities though, perhaps not the best choice right now. Perhaps a staggered second read.
 
  • Read the curriculum
  • Try to answer all EOC/BB in bullet points twice
  • Do 6 past AM papers plus as many mocks as you can find
 
Can some one comment on using Qbank for preparing test? Some one say it is helpful, some one say it is completely wasting time. I am a little bit confused. If using it , it will take a lot of time by considering the big amount of questions in it . I have not figure out it is worth to do it or not . Any suggestion?
 
callie2016 There are many strategies that can work. Some are more efficient than others. It is like Behavioural Finance. You need to consider your learning style. It may not be perfect, but it may be perfect for you.
The CFA exams is different to Qbank. For me Qbank is an effective, active tool that immerses me in the content. It also gives me feedback, and acts as a progress indicator.
Ultimately CFAI EOC and BB will be the style guide and true test, along with the past exams and tests on the CFA website. But for me: Qbank first.
 
Artrgr, Thanks for the feedback , I use Qbank for a short while and think it may be more useful to help digest the content when doing the first round of reading . I will be more fofused to BB and EOC when doing the second round study.
 
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