Coach

Summary Notes

Good to have or must have?

For candidates with exams scheduled either this May, August, or November, the focus at this point should be on making summary notes (rather than practice questions). Why you ask?

For a curriculum this massive (often compared to 5 tough university coursed rolled into one), you need a strategy that will allow you to retain all this information. And that is precisely what summarizing allows you to do; the muscle memory that is formed when making cryptic notes will allow you to recall the material later on during the exam.

On the other hand, practice questions are of lower priority at the moment (as your exam is still months away). Therefore, you should only glance at the solutions (rather than trying to attempt them independently). This approach will ensure that you get through all the chapters in time and provide you with a sufficient window at the end to review your notes and attempt the practice questions independently.

All candidates will be working hard towards this exam. But only those who couple that work ethic with the right strategy which will have a real shot at passing the CFA Exam.