Secret Sauce Arrived!!!!

I decided to order secret sauce from schweser a couple days ago.  It arrived 2 days after I ordered it, which does not surprise me.  Schweser has consistently outperformed Stalla in my personal experience, at every turn.  That’s a debate that has been beaten to death, and i’m not about to start again here.  It’s amazing how Schweser really trims the content down to the relative stuff.  If I was to recommend only one study solution, it would be this one.  Trust me, worth the money and convenience.

I read the first section on ethics, and I was pleasantly surprised.  They managed to cut the entire ethics section down to 6 pages, and it was written very well.  The thing I liked most about the secret sauce was that the writers recommended which parts of the content to focus on.  So for example, they would mention how to study the standards of conduct, instead of just straight memorization.  Everything was in condensed format in lists and a lot easier to read, though I don’t see how you would use just the secret sauce without background knowledge in the content.  I definitely agree that you can purely study off this after you’ve read everything.  The book is small enough to become your essential notes for the final weeks.  Anyways, I am very glad I bought secret sauce, definitely a solid grouping of the essential content of the curriculum.

Studying Starts Tommorow…..

Tomorrow starts my CFA mass studying.  Only about 3.5 months behind the regulars…..which is both motivating and slightly depressing.  However, I chose in January to take the CSC and CPH before the CFA and so far I don’t regret it.  Ask me in a couple days and I will likely have a different answer for you.  None-the-less its time to buckle down, log-in some insane hours, hope there is enough red bull to sustain me the next 2 months.  I have developed a system in excel that tracks my progress within each reading, including the pages read and the time spent.  Its extremely practical and requires very little attention.  I like to see progress, and what i have left to do so I think it will be a valuable addition to my efficiency and effectiveness.

Tomorrow the plan is to start on the first page of the first book.  My calendar says reading 1 and 2, but that is a guideline.  I will likely try to hammer out all of ethics, or at least a large majority of it.  Right now I am not sure what kind of pace I will be proceeding through the material, and that will affect any initial revisions I complete at the end of next week.  I also have a study group on Sundays which is just starting up, which I have chosen to not participate in. I can’t assume the meetings will be more effective then personal study time, as the CFA-L1 is said to be almost entirely conceptual.  Working in teams has to many complexities in setting up and administration that I don’t have the luxury to waste.  Furthermore the travel time is only justified if I can justify the end result, which I can’t in this case.  I can justify the 3 times a week I travel to the gym to train for some upcoming marathons.

My plan for this blog (hopefully) is to complete a post per day on all of the items I have covered.  If I cover three readings, I will make one post with all those reading.  Unlike the CSC and CPH I wont be making an individual post for every reading as that would detract from my studies to much.  I think a post per day in relation to the material I have covered is adequate.  I will try to upload other content as it becomes relevant in the course of my studying.  From here I am going to upload some links to the site, and play with the lay out a bit and then head over to analyst-forums for a quickie.  I have a bunch of odds and ends to wrap up today as well, so hopefully the red bull lasts long enough to keep the blood flowing.

- Steve

What I am Using to Study……

Your choice of study suppliers can be influenced by a lot of factors.  I personally decided to buy the schweser materials after an extensive reading of topics on AnalystForums.  It seems that there is a pretty loyal following between Schweser and Stalla, and it’s really personal choice.  Each has its advantages and disadvantages, and I took this into consideration when purchasing materials from both.  Below is a list of the resources I will be using and discussing frequently over the course of the next two and a half months:

Learn:

• CFA Curriculum Materials
• Schweser Notes
• AnalystNotes free materials
• Stalla Cue Cards
• Schweser Secret Sauce
• Blogs of Former CFA-L1 participants

Apply

• Schweser Qbank
• Notes & question databases built by former students
• Questions at the end of CFAI and Schweser materials
• AnalystForums

Test

• CFA Sample Exams
• CFA Mock Exams
• Schweser Mock Exams Volume 1 & 2
• AnalystNotes free mock exam
• Qbank

YouTube Playlist

I put together an initial YouTube playlist that I will likely be updating as time goes on.  I’ll likely refer to it during my review process starting fairly shortly.  I am surprised how much content is on YouTube in specific reference to the CFA.  Very useful resources indeed.  As I progress through material, I expect to add videos not directly labeled in reference to CFA, but rather in reference to more complex topics that I need clarification on.  For the time being, the reduced playlist can be found at:

CFA YouTube Playlist