AuthorTopic: learning strategy
sergei
@2010-04-07 15:41:20
Hi friends:
Sorry my English, I'm not a native speaker... So: what's the best strategy to go throug the 18 St. Sessions: there are servicies who advise to leave Ethics to the end, there are others says the best strategy is to start from the Accounting...

Any GOOD Ideas?
TheProfet
@2010-04-07 22:54:23
The best strategy I could suggest for you is as follows:

1) Read Ethics first
2) Focus your time on Financial Statement Analysis and Corporate Finance, Asset Valuation (Equity, Fixed Income, Derivatives and Alternatives), Quantitative Analysis and Economics, IN THIS ORDER. Obviously, if you are uncomfortable with Time Value of Money Concepts and Statistics, do this before Asset Valuation, but these areas are the most important in terms of AIMR focus, so you need to be very comfortable and fluent with these concepts before taking the exam.

Also, leave yourself enough time to focus on test-taking techniques. As this test is timed, being comfortable with answering questions at a fast pace is critical. I believe that you have about 90 seconds to answer each question, so there is not a lot of time.

Hopefully, others will chime in with their own strategies, but I hope this helps.

Good Luck!
DineshD
@2010-04-10 09:20:57
I would suggest to leave Ethics last because it involves lot of theory. Generally we remember math subjects but theory are things that we tend to forget soon. Start off with quantitative methods and then Fin. statements and Econ. The rest are actually build on these subjects.
0is4eva
@2010-04-11 11:02:53
Sydand, these entries should answer your questions on which material to read first, and what to leave towards the end.
samco
@2010-04-12 18:20:59
I will go for
1)fixed income first
2)alternative investments: too many nuances here. Start early.
3)derivatives.
4)Equity and portfolio management

1+2+3+4 You have a block of fixed income, equity and hedge fund techniques. Can go and pass any technical interview.

Then corporate finance
Then Financial Accounting-1 month

Quant methods and econ at the end.

Read Ethics while being in the train, bus or at the gym.

Again it depends on your background. I am a recent PhD in econimcs so I think I'll be able to manage the quant and econ parts at the last minute.
tiwari
@2010-04-13 07:11:21
hi,i need some help. can someone please suggest me authors for financial statement analysis. text from cfa institute is hard to understand.
sbajaj
@2010-04-16 14:03:04
tiwari

Financial Accounting by Needles & Powers (2004) is very good. Very simply and clearly explained.
kiwikai99
@2010-04-17 20:42:09
There is no one way to go through the course, as you can see from all the differing comments above.

I went through the books from start to finish. I believe the course has been structured in a way to build on the previous learinings.

Ethics is often touted as the most important section. For level one I read this section first, then again at the end. I have followed this method again for level two.

Best of luck.

Regards,

CFA Discussion Topic: learning strategy

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