Update and some study tips on the LOS

21 days to go time.

I'm now in the process of going back over all of the material topic by topic, and drilling by doing practice problems.  I ordered Schweser's Quicksheet, which is a great 3 panel 2 sided summary of key formulas and concepts, and the SchweserPro online question bank which should also help firm things up a bit.

Ethics continues to be difficult - apparently the key to nailing ethics is just repetition.  Lots and lots and lots of practice questions and analysing every answer and reasons for it.  CFAI tends to try and find the one exception to the rule so that something that seems like it is clearly wrong or even unjust will actually be allowable under the rules.

With such a large body of knowledge to absorb, the task can seem a bit daunting but I've found comfort recently in the following key statement:

CFAI are actually very specific and realistic when it comes to what you need to know in detail, and what you just need to know in general.

The Learning Objective Statements, which I at first mostly ignored, are actually a key way to figure out how test examiners approach the topics.  While the CFAI materials themselves will go into detailed math about oscillation methods of technical analysis, for example, the LOS only says "describe common technical analysis indicators: price based, momentum oscillators, sentiment, flow of funds."  This means that a test write SHOULD only be able to ask you to DESCRIBE each of these, and not ask you to calculate or interpret.  CFAI even go so far as to define what each of the words like describe, analyze, calcuate, etc. mean in terms of the LOS and what is expected of candidates.

This is why the SchweserNotes are built around the LOS.

So at this point, my strategy is to go back through all the LOS - CFAI has a handy PDF that puts them all in a 51 page document - and simply mark off the ones I feel comfortable with, and note the ones I need more work on or that require formula memorization.  Historically - Schweser says - the CFA level I is not so much about making you remember formulas as it is about understanding the concepts.  This seems to agree with the LOS.

Back to studying.