Saturday, August 8, 2009

Level II - The journey begins

Back again with a $620 charge on my credit card for the level II curriculum. Got a shipment confirmation email from UPS. Hopefully the end shall be the same.

Note: I promise to be more regular on this blog from hereon :)

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Passed

I passed ... I passed ... I passed .... more later... just happy for now :)

Monday, January 26, 2009

RnR.....Results & Recap

It's a little under 36 hours for the results and I'm beginnnig to feel anxious and nervous. I can't help thinking of what the results hold in store for me. 

Have I reached that "Minimum Passing Score (MPS)" and shall move on to level II in June 2010 or is it back to reading the books for me for December 2009. Will I look at the words "Congratulations!! we are glad to inform you that..." or will it be "We regret to inform you that..." 

After spending hours trawling through various web forums, reliving the exam papers & conversations post exam in my mind and falling for the "Results are postponed because the IT head of the CFAI had a fishing accident" prank (damn!!); I figured that I should best utilise this time to recap my experiences during the entire journey to the exam. The idea is to put my mind to do something constructive and document some best practices for posterity. So here goes...

1. Focus on the concepts and not the mechanics

This fact is well documented in the CFAI page on the learning outcome statements and like most often stated things in life is the most underrated. Get this into your head people - The exam is about how well you are able to understand the concepts and apply them as opposed to "learning by rote" or lengthy calculations. Just memorising a method of calculating an answer won't help. You have to think..."This is the info that I have...this is the answer I need to find...hence i need to do these interim steps because 1 leads to the other and so on". A classic example of this is being asked to calculate one of the interim outputs of DuPont equation with only enough info to calculate some of the inputs; i.e. you won't get EBIT or ROA but have to work them out.

Any yes... you need to know the concepts and the basics to be able to eliminate redundant data; Eg. Under US GAAP are dividend payments a cash flow from operating activity or from financing (just memorising them won't help as there are too many such intricacies; you need to be able to understand the logic behind them.

2. Don't forget the little ones

The way most of us approach planning a study session is that we try to identify those topics that have a large weightage in the exam (click here for the topic area weights) and go after them. Nothing wrong with this except that Mr. Murphy make's an appearance and you end up neglecting the topics that have 3 to 5 percentage weighting. WRONG thing to do!!!! 

That's because these topics have only the basics covered (the intricacies are for subsequent levels) and by not reading them you are giving away easy wins and you really don't know how they make up the MPS. So don't foret the little ones :)

3. Finish it now

I've had this thought while preparing for the many exams that I've appeared for over the years (engineering, MBA et all) "This is a bit too complicated... Let me park this for now and I'll come back to it later". I'm sure everyone's realised that it doesn't happen. Granted that a particular section or a topic area may seem complicated at first but there's no reason it will be any simpler if you read it 2 weeks prior to the exam. 

The best thing to do is to read the topic once....solve the questions at the back of the book and chalk some time in your study schedule for a 2nd and more comprehensive revision.

4. Ethics Ethics Ethics

The institute website says it...the web forums say it... anyone who's taken the exam say's it and it's true. Ethics is the most important topic and you cannot afford to take it lightly. The tendency is to start with it as it seem's like the easiet thing "It's only reading man" but it's also the topic with the most twists. 

The best way to do this is to read through the institute notes, make your own notes with regards to what a standard cover's and more importantly what it DOES NOT cover and get as many practice questions as possible. There are enough free resources available online as well as a large number of question banks that you can spring for. Spend the money guys it'll be well worth it.

5. Practice 

The best way to know the concepts is to apply them. You can study from the institute notes or any of the preparatory notes avaialable...I'd suggest you keep one source of notes as primary with a secondary source for the more difficult topics. I used the institute notes as my primary source. 

But the same approach does not apply when getting some practice exams/revision questions. Get as much practice as you can. After finishing a topic be sure to solve the questions at the back of all the notes that you have. If I pass this shall be the single most important reason for me passing.

6. Revision & Mock Exams

Ideally you should wrap up the curriculum 30-45 days (preferably 45) prior to the exam date. Assuming you aren't one of those blessed with photographic memory and most of what you would have learnt 4-5 months ago has been banished from your memory. 

So give yourself 15 days for revision and then start on the mock exams. 

The first mock should be split over a period of 3-4 days. Take the 1st mock and identify your weak areas; work on them and then go in for the 2nd mock. It's important that while grading each exam you make a list of topics / concepts / questions where you went wrong. This should serve as a basis for your revision in the final week.

Phew!! That's a long post. I certainly feel better after typing this text out. Methinks that I'll put up another post with some tips for exam day in sometime.