Using Calculator for Stats ques ?

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canbonbon

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How many of you use your calculator's built in functions for calculating variance, SD, etc. ? BAII Plus lets you do many things like sum of values, correlation coefficient, etc. Was wondering if they ask questions around these topics ? And do most of you use your calculator to do the mean, etc. (faster I suppose) or do you do it by hand.
 
When I took the exam last June, i didn't find the need to use calculator that much. Most of the questions were concept questions, even the quant stuff.

so it probably won't hurt to masterize that, it will be useful for your day to day job. but for cfa test, not that much useful.
 
For variance and deviation, the equations aren't that difficult to remember. As for the tables, t-distribution, z-distribution, Chi, etc.. I don't know of any calculators that will do these.
 
So how do you approach questions that have some sample data and need some sort of interpretation of Sample variance or SD, etc. ? Or even questions that have indirect reference to these concepts like what is the standard deviation from mean for a set of returns, etc. I suppose you would have to calculate it before you can answer that question, right ? Or they never ask such questions. Schweser has many such questions in session2. Are you saying that such questions are not asked ? It is quite easy to remember the related formulas (as bartok is pointing out) but I find myself spending way too much time solving these questions because they require quite a few calculations before I can interpret the results correctly. Or maybe there are short cuts that I don't know of.

Thanks
 
canbonbon, based on my experience at LI last year, it's highly unlikely you'll be given a set of data large enough to require your calculator's DATA and STAT functionality. Time is of the essence and testing your abilities at straight-up-data-entry isn't a material way to differentiate you from other candidates. It doesn't hurt to know these features of your calculator, but it won't make or break you on the exam.
The quant questions will be split between calculations and interpretations. The easy part will be memorizing all the formulas. It's imperative that you make time to understand the material properties and uses of each figure so you'll be prepared for the qualitative questions, which in all likelyhood will be phrased somewhat awkwardly.
Some things to know about your calculator in general (assumes TI BA II Plus, this list isn't exhaustive):

- use CF to calculate NPV and IRR
- use CF to solve P0 for multi-stage dividend discount model (saves a lot of time)
- use TVM to solve for equivalent annual annuity (corporate finance)
- use TVM to determine the book value of a new debt issue (FSA)
- misc features like LN, e^x, nCr, nPr, x!

Good luck on your LI exam! Just my $0.02.
 
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