Embrace the Challenge
An average four-year commitment to pass all three exams is not your typical career stepping stone. Accomplishing this crazy feat in the minimum two and a half years should warrant an extra letter in the designation for awesomeness, or receive some sort of lifetime VIP pass to…well, EVERYTHING. For most, there will be some version of a study plan, some unique experiences, and some hurdles. Having taken the exams all while getting married, moving across the country, and learning how to raise my firstborn child, I definitely have some fun experiences to share. I hope they help, and good luck!
Develop Your Own Plan
Preparation is different for everyone. A strong sense of self-awareness is key to understanding what works best for you. Be creative in how you study. It may be 100 Post-it notes on your bathroom mirror to help you remember the different ways to derive covariance, or whether an option’s delta oscillates between -1 to 0 (or is it 0 to +1…?). Maybe being a minimalist and using everything electronic is what suits you. Possibly the traditional pen and paper route powering through several Five Star spiral notebooks is what you prefer. We all have different schedules, responsibilities, and preferences to sitting down for hours on end reading until your eyes bleed. It is important to create your own unique plan. Fill in the pockets of your study plan with resources from a third-party vendor, as opposed to making their material the foundation of your plan. Many may disagree with my last suggestion. This was simply my approach.
Jigsaw Puzzle, Anyone?
People who suggest you should pay greater attention to topics you are weak in are absolutely right. The bright side of this is that you may be weak in the topic simply because you have never seen the subject before, in which case reviewing it once is (hopefully) all you need. On the bad side, there is a good chance the test will contain topic, after topic, after topic that is completely brand new to you. To constantly focus on weak areas only to move on to another will undoubtedly make your preparation feel like an uphill battle the entire time. To reduce stress and anxiety, imagine the material as if it were a jigsaw puzzle. Break down the tough topics into smaller manageable pieces. Some may take longer to grasp, and that’s okay. Just as when you're building a jigsaw puzzle, don’t forget to give yourself a high-five and celebrate every time you complete a "piece." This will hopefully reduce your overall stress.
Sit Straight—Don’t Slouch
During practice tests, train yourself to sit properly for three hours at a time. The last thing you want during the exam is back pain due to bad posture. Doing several practice exams will obviously help you understand what works best. Just be mindful of your posture. Stretching before the exam or practice exams may also be helpful. YouTube stretching techniques that focus directly on relaxing tense areas (e.g., shoulders, back, or neck).
Order Doesn’t Matter
During morning practice exams, I never felt fully awake, even after my coffee and a couple of warm-up problems. I found that during these periods of fogginess, quantitative problems were easier to tackle than ethics questions. So for the exam, I started on the financial statement and analysis portion first, and finished the ethics portion at a later time, since there is no rule about the order in which problems are completed. Feel free to tackle topics you are comfortable with first, and be careful when filling out your Scantron. Remember to practice this so you are not attempting it on exam day for the first time.
Test Day
As you’re sitting in the test room waiting for the doors to close, remember to be respectful toward those around you. Some prefer to chitchat, keeping it loose and casual to avoid stress. Others prefer to stay in their own head and patiently wait for the proctor to say, “You have three hours to complete this portion of the exam,” and then (suspenseful pause…), “You may now begin.”
Expect to start and finish your test with potential distractions. During my Level I exam, the lights went out for four to five seconds before backup generators kicked in. During my Level II and III exams, one candidate unfortunately fainted both years because of low blood sugar levels. If you are able to complete the test, expect to finish it regardless of distractions. There is no make-up test the day after because test-taking conditions on Saturday were suboptimal.
And remember, if you’re feeling burnt out, there are many others experiencing the same thing as you.
Embrace the challenge.
About the Author
Albert Chang, CFA, is a fixed-income portfolio manager for the City of Los Angeles in California. Albert assists in the management of a short-term, asset/liability-matched portfolio in addition to a one-to-five-year maturity, high-grade, fixed-income portfolio. Prior to joining the City of Los Angeles, he was a mortgage-backed securities portfolio manager with Tennessee Consolidated Retirement System. Albert earned his MBA at Vanderbilt University.