Strategy on the exam

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Gebura

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I plan to start topics not in order most favorite-> least favorite but instead doing first the less time-consuming vignettes still considering the fact where I made less stupid mistakes. So I’m going to start:
Quant -> PM -> Econ -> FI -> Equity -> AI -> CF -> Deriv -> FRA -> Ethics
I’ll watch out not to spend too much time on one question. Also plan to underline the important information. And that’s all of my strategy, I think. What’s yours?
 
Ethics first cause you are getting extra minutes and staying calm and not worrying about time issue :)
 
thats a good question..after ethics.. which ones are least time consuming to focus on?
 
I’ve written off Ethics. It’s too unpredictable. Once I have 100% true, the next time only 50%. I prefer more reliable topics to start with.
 
Am I the only one without a strategy? I’ll open the booklet, and start spraying. 15min a problem set max. I don’t even pay attention to the weights.
 
Gebura wrote:
I’ve written off Ethics. It’s too unpredictable. Once I have 100% true, the next time only 50%. I prefer more reliable topics to start with.
Click to expand...
lol
 
This is a good question. Last year I said I was going to jump around but I ended up just going straight through the exam instead. In the morning last year I finished with 5 minutes left, in the afternoon I finished with 15 minutes left. This year I am going to do the ethics question first then go to the topics I know best and leave the harder one’s for last. To me this makes sense because if you can do the topics you know best first you will probably shave off some time on those ones and then you can alot more time to the harder subjects at the end. If you go straight through and get to a hard question that you may want 5 minutes more on then you will feel pressure to rush other sections.
In my opinion bringing a watch is a must. Last year I saw so many people run out of time and madly scramble to enter answers at the end mainly because you couldn’t see the clock in the test centre.
 
Gurifissu wrote:
Am I the only one without a strategy? I’ll open the booklet, and start spraying. 15min a problem set max. I don’t even pay attention to the weights.
Click to expand...
No I’m right there with you. I’ve yet to implement any type of this order of topic strategy at Level 1 or in any Level 2 mocks. Just open it and take the test as is. If the early questions throw me for a loop just mark what I’m unsure on and make a point to circle back to it at the end.
I don’t know if it’s my defeatist attitude but I can’t exactly pinpoint any topics where I’m “strong” in. And say you’re really good in Quant, flip to Quant the second the exam starts and it’s extremely difficult… welp. Now how ya feeling? Lol.
 
I think we should start with Ethics first as it will be the item set without any Calculations .So we can cover it quickly…..
Best of Luck to all of you………………..
 
depends how well you now the material.. the people that are lost are the ones flipping back and forth towards the end
 
Gurifissu, that’s a strategy too.
My reason for not starting with my strongest topics is that mine are FRA and Derivatives. Both are too time-consuming, especially FRA needs to look very carefully for all tricks they can come with.
 
I’m just going to flip open and begin. I assume from the mock that they vignettes are in no particular order. I don’t want to waste time trying to figure out which one is alternative investments and which is related to forward rate agreements.
 
danv0330 wrote:
depends how well you now the material.. the people that are lost are the ones flipping back and forth towards the end
Click to expand...
Define: lost. I spent the last 30 minutes of the morning session in Level 1 flipping back and forth between a few questions I was unsure on. I ran through the rest of the exam relatively quickly allowing me the opportunity to go work through harder problems I had answered but wanted a second look at. I wouldn’t call that “lost” at all.
 
I started with Ethics in L1/2. Helped me get ahead of the clock and relax.
 
ltj wrote:
danv0330 wrote:
depends how well you now the material.. the people that are lost are the ones flipping back and forth towards the end
Click to expand...
Define: lost. I spent the last 30 minutes of the morning session in Level 1 flipping back and forth between a few questions I was unsure on. I ran through the rest of the exam relatively quickly allowing me the opportunity to go work through harder problems I had answered but wanted a second look at. I wouldn’t call that “lost” at all.
Click to expand...
sorry if you were offended, there are always exceptions
 
I’m just gonna open up the test and flip through it one page at a time. If I start jumping back and forth trying to hit specific sections I’m bound to miss out on a page or enter answers out of order in my bubble sheet. I have pretty bad OCD so in the back of my mind I would be contantly panicking that I’ve entered something in the wrong bubble and everything is out of line.
A little insight into my crippled mind….
 
Gurifissu wrote:
Am I the only one without a strategy? I’ll open the booklet, and start spraying. 15min a problem set max. I don’t even pay attention to the weights.
Click to expand...
I am of the same mindset. I don’t plan to skip unless I really can’t figure something out with >80% certainty. At that point, I mark it for later and put my best answer for the time I spent. Then I catch up with the clock if needed. I find just monitoring the time is helpful enough.
 
danv0330 wrote:
depends how well you now the material.. the people that are lost are the ones flipping back and forth towards the end
Click to expand...
no basis here, really. i did this for level 1 and scored over 70 in every section. for the PM, i also came right down to the wire with my last answer.
some ppl (myself) are just more confident in certain areas and are more efficient in them. for me, i’ll hammer FRA/derivatives/FI/Equity before the rest, b/c they will give me the best chance at feeling good, while allowing max time to finish the rest.
 
Gebura wrote:
I’ve written off Ethics. It’s too unpredictable. Once I have 100% true, the next time only 50%. I prefer more reliable topics to start with.
Click to expand...
this *100
ethics i will always do last for that reason. too much ambiguity for me. the other subjects you can finish knowing you got certain right answers (ie. calculations). the variation in ethics makes it a poor choice (imo) to allocate your freshest time to (ie. anything near the beginning).
 
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