Crunch Time

Frequently in the past, I have had trouble focusing during certain stretches of preparation. There have been weeks where I had scheduled myself to go learn a certain subject, but I just haven't been able to concentrate enough to learn the material. This time has been different. Maybe it has to do with having a new baby. Maybe it has to do with some recent changes at work. Whatever it is, I am getting a lot of studying done this time around. I'll describe last week for example. My normal studying is at home during lunch (up to 45 minutes), and an hour or so at home after work except for Thursdays (home alone with the baby). Charitably, that's 2 hours a day. However, I am taking an online course to help prepare, and that course is 3 hours per week. Also, at work I have been working a lot of practice questions lately. I conservatively estimate I did at least 3 hours of practice questions while at work last week. Also, 2 days last week I did some extra practice questions after dinner. All told I did about 17 hours plus between Monday and Friday of last week. In the past that would leave me feeling burned out. This time it was a warm up for the weekend.

Saturday morning I did an online practice exam offered by the CFAI (the people who administer the real exam). I got 60%. I wanted at least 70%. I wasn't pleased with the score, but I was satisfied overall with my performance. The thing is, that the test was 5 item sets. 1 each for ethics, statistics, and economics. I got 50% on each of those. I was pleased with that because these are areas I haven't even looked at since February. I was able to remember half the stuff from nearly 2 months ago before even reviewing any formulas. There was also an item set from statement analysis where I did 3 of 6 and an item set on equity valuation where I got 5 of 6. I spent another 90 minutes reviewing what I missed in statement analysis. Then, after dinner I did the next reading so that I would stay on schedule. Long story short, I got in some 7 hours of prep over the weekend. I don't get that much in most weeks, but I have been somewhat enjoying this over the last few weeks and I don't want to lose a good thing.