Is it worth it to take notes while going through the readings?

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cal.alum

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I’m studying for the the CFA for the first time and I’m wondering how to go about it. I read in another post that it wasn’t worth taking notes while going through the readings as it is super time consuming and there is too much material to go through. Should I just read through all the material once and then study from the Schweser books? Or is it worth it to take the time to take notes? Maybe just take notes for certain topics? Any advice would help!
 
I’m a proponent of taking notes only when you revisit difficult topics. However, everyone learns differently. You should try taking notes for one reading or study session just to gauge how long the process would take and if it would be worthwhile.
 
For me personally, it was about reading the material and taking notes on some of the key concepts or those which you’ll know you’ll have trouble remembering.
Ideally you will want to have a chart which shows the differences between IFRS and GAAP, the key points of Quant, Eco, Deriv etc. As you go through the material you may have a 4pages of notes (if you type v.small) which can be condensed into a 2 page summary of the formulae and bits you have trouble remembering.
Once you start going through the Mock Exams you’ll realise which questions come up again and again at which point you should amend your summary.
For the L1 exam, I had a 1 page (double sided) overview of all the material and questions that could come up. It included all the key differences in IFRS and GAAP and some of the formula. It was invaluable during my revision stage.
 
if you do not take notes, how do you filter the important things relative to the crap? highlighting in text?
 
I write (wrote) notecards - so a form of notetaking, and I review (reviewed) them every morning on my drive to work.
I don’t think there’s a lot of crap to filter out, even minute details are fair game on test day.
 
Hey Cal.
This is entirely related to individual learning style but I wouldn’t take notes the first time through. I think this time would be better spent doing questions. When you go back through the curriculum again and are doing tests you will start to see subject gaps. I suggest doing a detailed reading of these sections and making note cards. These you can just hard review until those areas move from weaknesses to guarunteed marks.
The problem with taking notes from the start for me is doing a lot of work that will prove to be un-needed later on.
I think sometimes note taking, video watching and analyst forums etc are all just examples of “productive procrastination” and while related to the curriculum are less valuable than reading and doing questions but are more fun.
 
really depends on your own studying style. Did you take notes at school while studying? Whatever my habit was then is my habit even now.
 
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