If You Fail a CFA Exam... (Response to Mark Meldrum)
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ก.พ. 2021
- Mark Meldrum is WRONG in his advice to CFA candidates who have failed any of the exams. Mark said in a recent video that many candidates who have failed an exam don’t need to think about putting in more effort, but rather they need to put in a different effort. I have spoken in a few different videos about how the primary reason candidates fail the CFA exams is because they didn’t sacrifice enough time studying. There are only so many ways to study for these exams, and they all basically work the same way. The big difference is the hours that a candidate puts in. Mark does mention this fact in his video, but he sort of skims over it. So let's talk about what you really should be doing on your second time around.
To Mark’s point, you certainly need to be studying the right thigs. So if someone was simply reading over the material from the CFA texts and never practicing what they are learning, then yes they need to put in a different effort. And I also believe that the secret to passing the CFA exams especially the level 1 exam is your approach to memorizing formulas. You could argue this is more of a how you study vs how much you study issue. But this isn’t the point Mark makes in his video.
In the video he mentions how he had some difficulties in his approach to learning during his PhD and relates that to CFA candidates. Marks says your focus of studying should not be a certain amount of hours, but rather the process of learning. This sounds like a bit of corporate fluff to me, because the reality of studying for a CFA exam is when you spend more hours covering the material by either starting earlier in the year or doing more each day, you will be left with more time before the exam to do practice qs and mock exams. Sine the material isn’t really rocket science, grinding out practice qs and mock exams where the real learning is done rather than getting a deep understanding of the material while reading it. So here is what you need to do:
The number of hours you study should be a primary focus. You need to start counting hours , because then you will be almost guaranteed to force yourself to study more than you did the last time around when you didn’t pass an exam. Counting hours forces you to be realistic about how much time you actually spend studying, and you will end up coving the material faster. So weather you keep an excel document that you spend 15 seconds after the end of each day to log your study hours, or you keep a note sheet on your phone, you should be counting.
Again, most of the learning is done with practice questions and mock exams. So the ultimate goal of counting hours is to get yourself to study the material more, so that you will get to the final review process sooner. Because of the sheer volume of content in the CFA program, having 5 weeks for a final review is almost exponentially better than have 3 weeks for example.
If you have an idea of something you want me to cover in depth, please let me know because I take your requests seriously. Will be back with more CFA Exam tips in a couple of weeks so please submit more questions you would like to hear answered. Love you all!
Please SUBSCRIBE for new videos every week! ▶ / @straighttalks-ajsrmek323
Contact Email: StraightTalksBusiness@gmail.com
Twitter: / asrmek
LinkedIn: / aj-srmek-cfa%c2%ae-cfp...
Patreon: / straighttalks
TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@straighttalks...
Webull: act.webull.com/kol-us/share.h...
** The information in this video is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional financial advice. All content, including text, graphics, images, and information, contained in this video is for general information purposes only and does not replace a consultation with your financial or tax professional**
Amount of hours so true. I can learn the material easily but if I don't do a bunch of questions then I will never remember it.
Been watching you for a while now and I really like the content. Bit of construction criticism - ditch the goofy faces on the thumbnail. I really doubt the target audience of CFA will be incensed to click because they saw you make a “wow” face
Thanks for the support and the feedback! I've thought about that and was sort of testing different styles.
Thanks AJ, I appreciate your “no-bull” approach to this. Waiting on exam results is the worst part.
I'll be giving the level 2 exam for the first time. This video really motivated me to work harder. Thank You :)
Knowing the formulas is clearly a key to success. That said, my level one exam had very few calculations. CFAI can literally ask you anything from the body of knowledge so understanding all the relationships between variables is as important as formulas.
Thankyou... Your video is really reletable... Really appreciate your efforts 🤞🤞
Happy to do it!
Have had the level 3 exam delayed twice now. I never thought I'd have the will power to resit but this is effectively the same thing and as expected, it sucks. On the plus side my scores are pretty sweet but man so keen for this to be complete!
Dang, that would have been such a setback for me personally. Best of luck when you do get to take it.
Mark is a legend in this CFA thing and only a matter of time before he dethrones Kaplan
What if I did ALLL of that and still failed?
Hii I have just purchased MM video lessons and studying every day for 5 h and to be honest I enjoy studying:) your video help me a lot ! did you spend more hours studying over the weekend?
Hey Asel,
Keep up the hard work! No I just did 3 hours every day, no matter what day of the week it was.
AJ
Saying MM is Wrong Is even wrong.
Hi, A.J. You had mentioned about prepare time in this video, actually, I prepared about 426 hours for L2 Dec. exam last year, but I didn't make it. I think it's ridiculous and made me feel exhausted, the institude recommend you to prepare for each level 350+ hours, it's about 76 hours over its recommenddation. So I think maybe there is something more important than study hours I guess. BTW, I like your video and I think both of us need to keep hard work.
This is a good point, what are you doing differently this time around?
Disagree I had plenty of study time and plenty of practice exams. Just didn’t pass this level 2 exam. Disagree for the lack of time.
How do you keep your brain from overloading with all the info, esp if you work full time? How did you manage to sleep at night when your brain is overloaded? Supplements?
I think you get used to it after studying for a while. It's just like having 2 jobs which many people do.
Could you share with us the spreadsheets you have used as a study planner during your CFA journey?
I didn't really use anything like that.
Anybody got a link for the pdf mock papers
Do you think those who will take Level 3 now are in disadvantage in relation with the formula entry? Now the CFA only take the final answer and give full credit or nothing. The alternative that they offer is entry the formulas through the program which would take a lot of time, and we do not have practice with that; the second alternative is to explain the process which one is following, which again it takes a lot of time in comparison to writing the formula with a pen, and again we never prepared to do that in our responses untill now.
Good question. I need to learn more about this formula entry process to have a good answer for you.
@@straighttalks-ajsrmek323 Thanks! Even in the CBT exam software tutorial there is not even a question to practice formula entry, so I have no idea how to do that. I have asked to the CFA insitute but have not received any answers yet
You don't need to use the formula builder, you can just use the regular keyboard keys i.e. (50,000*1.05)/1.05^7.
You'll save so much time typing in answers vs having to handwrite, I think there will be less of a time crunch associated with L3 going forward
Heads up CFAI includes three mocks, not two. At least for L1.
@@pneron2032 it did for me..
Do you think it’s a good idea to ask my employer (I work in financial planning) to drop down to like 35 hrs a week to allow more time to study and have a social life? Im planning on starting for L1 in the fall soon
No, working 40 hours and studying is still very doable.
@@straighttalks-ajsrmek323 lol thx, Its funny that you know that fin planners only work 40 hrs a week haha
just grind man, that's the secret
my do you show mark in thumbnail
yeah, counting hours is important
does IFT still have the year to year differences in mocks?
I believe so, yes.
Why can’t you do both. Did anyone actually analyzed the amount of studying you do per LOS? By itself 300 hours benchmarks means nothing. How did you spend it? Reading, practicing? Just study smart and track your time, what’s the big deal.
If you have studied 300 hours and still fail then you need to change your methods of learning. He didnt say that you can offset minimum learning hours by smart work.
Agree !
I get hung up on problems I cannot solve or understand. What do you do when you cannot solve a problem? There is no one to ask. There is no instructor or teacher. I find the content in the curriculum and the videos do not adequately prepare you to work the EOC questions.
Hi Lloyd,
Great question and this did happen to me several times. Typically I would end up looking at posts from Analyst Forum or r/CFA. Usually someone else had the same question. I was able to learn a lot from there.
I had this problem. If you subscribe to Dr Meldrum's service he will answer questions on problems. It's the most efficient way to get your answer and move on--can spend a long time digging around the internet otherwise.
I agree with Mark (and not you) but appreciate the effort :)
I remember him saying (along those lines): you shouldn’t waste your time trying to achieve it if you fail a few times at L1 or typically a C student. I’ll wait for Feb. window and might take his advice😂
I passed level 1 without doing EOCs,CFAI online parctice and mocks,, just solved Wiley quizzes, also passed level two without doing any mock exam.. Now preparing for level 3.... My key to pass is discipline and putting enough time like 500 hours +
I don’t think you’ll stand a single chance in L3 without any mock experience. You’ll have a bigger chance with Taylor Swift dumping her current bf to be with you
@@jiaxinxu6845 Haha I hope so... Yes definitely ill be doing several mocks at this level especially Am sessions.
Since you have passed the first 2 levels you are clearly doing SOMETHING right. What is your study strategy? Just read and re-read the material?
I agree
Disagree. Quality of your study will always be greater than quantity of hours for learning. You can have hours and hours of solving question banks to the point of memorizing. Thats the lowest form of learning in the blooms taxonomy of learning. Don't confuse "True Learning" with remembering. Answering questions like question banks is a form of REINFORCEMENT and feedback on where you need to work on more. IT IS NOT A SUBSTITUTE FOR LEARNING.
Hmmm. Well Of course we can agree 10 hours of good study is not as good as 500 hours of average studying. So where is the crossover point?
Sorry, but don’t really agree. It is not about the number of hours, it is about how you use them. So if you spend so many hours studying, but you are memorizing, you will fail big time. I’ve never in a CFA exam counted the hours, I just made sure that I learned the materials and practiced and that required me to spend a sufficient number of hours naturally without having to do it on purpose.
But when someone focuses on learning the material then fails, don't you think doing that same learning but for more hours would be beneficial?
@@straighttalks-ajsrmek323 That's the problem. you didn't learn the materials if you fail. Or you may have but just memorized everything. Again, quality vs quantity.
Bull crap
mark is bad at doing explanations......