10 Days to Go

Continuing to chug through my final review, I've plotted out the next ten days so I can get a thorough re-read through the LOS for each chapter, do practice questions for each section (either a set of 50 or 100 depending of if it is a large or small topic), and then will do 3 mock exams and see where I sit.  I've got the 2010, 2011 and 2012 CFAI mocks which should be a good gauge.

Overall I am feeling pretty good though this is also a stressful time for us dealing with moving, immigration/work visa issues, and with lots of travel coming up in the near future.

My final review approach has generally basically been this:

• Pick a topic (fixed income, econ, etc)
• Use the online SchweserPro (aka Qbank) and click to the LOS
• Check through each LOS one by one - Schweser gives you a very broad brushstrokes for each LOS right on the screen
• Click by the LOS you know well (some are very short/easy), write the ones you don't know well, and study the ones you need to know formulas for
• Finish going through all LOS and write any further questions you have
• Do a set of 50 or 100 problems on that topic, and then review all mistakes and uncertainties

Sometimes a topic takes a day, sometimes two or three days.  So far I have worked through Economics, FSA, fixed income, and alternative investments, and am averaging in the 80+ percent range when drilling the topics alone, after having reviewed them.  I'm curious to see how this will translate over when I need to do each topic later on, and in combination with the other topics.  Over the next few days I'll finish doing the same for equity, quant, corp fin, derivatives and portfolio management.

I plan to take my first mock exam this Saturday at 10 am - precisely one week before the real thing - and this should show me any weak areas.  Then I will work on the weaknesses, and take another mock.  

After that, I plan to review ethics - exhaust the ~500 questions in the Qbank (have already done 100, scoring 75% exactly) - to make sure I have those down (the best way to do ethics is just drill all the questions - there are only so many good, testable scenarios/situations and many of them repeat).  Assuming sufficient time I think I will also look over the blue box examples in the CFAI Ethics materials.

Can't wait until this is all over.