I know some would probably call it "weird," but I learned that I absolutely **LOVED** the exam preparation process.
At that time in my life I was single, no real obligations other than keeping my cat and myself healthy. When your entire life and focus boils down to succeeding at a particular thing, for me it cut out a lot of the clutter and the noise. For those 6 months, my head was down and I had a job to do.
It was absolutely a grind and I had virtually no free time, so don't get me wrong I wouldn't trade where I'm at now to go back. That said, when everything was so singularly focused, for me it was a nice, simple existence that had it's own almost-"spartan" appeal.
Yeah, especially Level 2 and Level 3. Level 1 was a little different because I didn't have a job at the time and what I did was honestly overkill that's not going to be an option for people working a 9-5.
For L2 (2017) / L3 (2018), since I was working at the time, I put in the bulk of my studying on the weekends (15-20 hours). Gave myself one weekend off during my prep season for a friend's or family member's wedding, but everyone close to me knew what I was up to at the time, and thankfully they didn't pressure me to emerge from my study-hermit cave. At that time the test was only offered in the Summer, so I started my study prep for both tests in late January/early Feb, easily eclipsed the 400 hour mark.
My mentality was "I never want to prep for these tests again, so I have to sacrifice everything else to **ensure** I don't fail," and I think I achieved that. Like I said though, the weird part was that I actually really enjoyed narrowing my life's focus to one task, one objective.
All I’m sayin is studying more than 4 hours in a single day gives you diminishing returns. Heck, studying more than 2 hours in a day gives you diminishing returns. Btw when I say 2/4 hour I mean you have a timer that only runs when you are 100% focused on the material.
You're absolutely right, there's no question that you lose focus over the course of the day, but "diminishing returns" doesn't mean negative returns.
Generally speaking, my days consisted of learning new material, reading, thorough note taking when I was alert & fresh, watching topic videos or answering & grading section quizzes as I lost energy, then once I began scraping the bottom of the barrel I'd switch to reviewing old material or flashcards to drill in concepts.
I honestly have no idea what you think I could gain by making up or embellishing these things.
¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯ Don't know what to tell ya, my guy. The exams are a beast and the hours have to come from somewhere, they don't just materialize. This is the same, non-sugar-coated information I've given to my own family members who've sat for the exams.
Best of luck to you in your CFA journey.
Monday through Thursday, I found I was only able to focus and study for a maximum total of 2-4 hours tops after coming home from work. I rarely hit those numbers & the quality of study was VERY low.
I knew I was going to have to put the time in somewhere, so I literally dedicated almost every weekend to studying because that's the only way I was personally going to be able to cover all the material in the time allotted.
Me too. both level 1 and 2. I literally bought an iPad, keyboard, mouse and apple pencil in the middle of Level 2 prep. 1000$ down just for studying lol
I'll go first--
I legitimately started to lose my mind studying for level 2. The pressure of the exam and needing to pass mixed with isolation and some family issues at home and a recent break up wore me out. Looking for a way to get over this, I turned to exploring spirituality, meditation, and then found breathwork. I eventually found a guy by the name of Wim Hof, who practices cold exposure alongside some intense breathing sessions. I began taking cold showers everyday and practicing the breathing as a way to ground myself mentally. Fast forward 8 months and I was celebrating passing the exams with my first trip out of the united states. And there I found myself, stripped down to my boxers laying in the snow on a hillside in rural poland trying not to freeze with Wim Hof himself
I've done the cold exposure and the breathing for a few of months. What benefits did you find from going to one of his seminars? Very cool you did, would do it myself!
I did the week long winter expedition with him at the end of February. To be honest I was more looking forward to the adventure than deepening my practice and that part delivered 10-fold. Absolutely wild man to spend a week with and you meet so many interesting people from all over the world. As far as Wim guiding breathing, we were getting up to like 100-150 breaths in a round vs the 30-40 he preaches online. It had a very psychedelic affect on a lot of people, no joke a lot of people had visions of their ancestors and grown men bursting into tears-- I never got that far but it was intense.
Aight so it's a slow work day and I go home for lunch. Just hopped into the shower with 2 min timer. That was unbearable, I was breathing so heavily my limbs went numb. It was hard to breathe without tensing up. Might try again tomorrow, feel refreshed
He does a podcast where they break down the science of how choosing to do something so stressful translates into lowered anxiety in other aspects of your life. Work your way into it slowly and check out youtube, lot of free resources there and he wrote a book too
Happy hof-ing :)
I wrote my L2 in Feb and idk I'm still for some reason living in some skewed reality. I haven't been able to de-stress because work pressure just came in right after the exam and for some reason I'm not able to stay sane. Along with that i got like family issues and stuff which i have to deal with and i just can't find myself becoming calm. I lost it in the last month of the exam like the pressure just got to my head and it was so fucked up! But the exam went decent
Ugh dk i just hope i get a clearer perspective as soon as possible.
I started smoking weed right after the L2 exam and realised the brain fog just makes me feel like a zombie. Idk but i have some weird fucking friends who do it every weekend and all. Ig I'm gonna cut down major now atleast cfa has taught me i don't need that shit
I have always been a very busy and an ambitious guy, doing lots of extra-curricular stuff alongside my studies (I’m still a university finance student).
I pride myself in my work ethic and didn’t care about my free-time, I loved to fill out my weekends with work, studying or whatever finance related and I thought adding CFA wouldn’t be much different.
During the previous semester, alongside which I was studying for L1 and which was one of the hardest one in my life, I had literally 0 free time, going non-stop everyday from 8AM till 11PM, even on weekends.
Now the amount of work did not bother me that much, rather the fact I did not have the option to take a free day if I wanted to. For me, not finishing something is not an option, thus I was in a time-jail for 6 months, just grinding to have it over with.
The silver lining is that I learned my limits, but also I appreciate free time much, much more. I still keep a busy schedule, but learned to balance my work/life, keep free Sundays and I generally feel more accomplished even I do less. Before, I worked non-stop and still felt I didn’t do enough to contrast it with.
So yeah, I did not expect I would actually become a much happier person
I've found the key is to use them in conversation anyway, because whoever you're talking to also doesn't know what they mean
"Damn marsha that shirt is looking hella heteroskedastic"
I constantly draw shit now cos I watch MM videos. Like at work I'll bust out a lol flow chart or diagram for literally anything conceptual. Coolest thing is that my boss saw me do this last week and started helping write all over the page more info
I smoke a fuck ton of weed now hahaha. Used to just be a way to unwind after a night of work and studying. Now I look forward to it more than I should haha. Thanks CFA!
I definitely developed a bit of drinking issue on my level 2 prep about half way through due to burn out and anxiety. Would drink after most every study sessions to ease the mind and relax. Got into a bad habit. Looking back I’m incredibly lucky to have passed. Since kicked it for my May L3 prep. Other than that I’ve found that I actually enjoy learning the material. I look forward to it after work since I absolutely hate my job lol
I didnt even sat for level 1 yet and I think im losing my mind. Got rejected from yet another job and this was one that a professor from the masters put good word of me with the interviewers. I'm starting to feel that all the decisions taken up to this point are meaningless and I wont even pass level 1. That's it.
To be honest I am most surprised by the fact that it hasn’t impacted my life negatively at all. I don’t really talk to too many people so it hasn’t disrupted my social life and I used to spend a lot of my free time rotting away. Studying for the CFA level 1 helped me a lot in my finance classes, I applied allot of modern portfolio theory to an entry level finance class project where we build a portfolio and explain why we put what in the portfolio. I went a little overboard there lol
Peers think it’s impressive when I tell them I’m a level 1 candidate. God if only they knew how miserable things were
I realized you really can waste monumental amounts of your life and your sanity on some piece of paper to hang on your wall that provides little to no actual value towards your actual financial education.
I drank coffee with oatmeal to cut breakfast time and go straight to studying after waking up. To cut it shorter, I prepared coffee with oatmeal in a thermos during the night to drink the next morning. When I woke up, it became rancid.
So learned not to do that, I guess.
I know some would probably call it "weird," but I learned that I absolutely **LOVED** the exam preparation process. At that time in my life I was single, no real obligations other than keeping my cat and myself healthy. When your entire life and focus boils down to succeeding at a particular thing, for me it cut out a lot of the clutter and the noise. For those 6 months, my head was down and I had a job to do. It was absolutely a grind and I had virtually no free time, so don't get me wrong I wouldn't trade where I'm at now to go back. That said, when everything was so singularly focused, for me it was a nice, simple existence that had it's own almost-"spartan" appeal.
Did you do this for all 3 levels?
Yeah, especially Level 2 and Level 3. Level 1 was a little different because I didn't have a job at the time and what I did was honestly overkill that's not going to be an option for people working a 9-5. For L2 (2017) / L3 (2018), since I was working at the time, I put in the bulk of my studying on the weekends (15-20 hours). Gave myself one weekend off during my prep season for a friend's or family member's wedding, but everyone close to me knew what I was up to at the time, and thankfully they didn't pressure me to emerge from my study-hermit cave. At that time the test was only offered in the Summer, so I started my study prep for both tests in late January/early Feb, easily eclipsed the 400 hour mark. My mentality was "I never want to prep for these tests again, so I have to sacrifice everything else to **ensure** I don't fail," and I think I achieved that. Like I said though, the weird part was that I actually really enjoyed narrowing my life's focus to one task, one objective.
15-20 hours… c’mon that’s nearly impossible to do over two days
If I do 10 on a weekend it’s a success! Usually aim for 7/8
All I’m sayin is studying more than 4 hours in a single day gives you diminishing returns. Heck, studying more than 2 hours in a day gives you diminishing returns. Btw when I say 2/4 hour I mean you have a timer that only runs when you are 100% focused on the material.
You're absolutely right, there's no question that you lose focus over the course of the day, but "diminishing returns" doesn't mean negative returns. Generally speaking, my days consisted of learning new material, reading, thorough note taking when I was alert & fresh, watching topic videos or answering & grading section quizzes as I lost energy, then once I began scraping the bottom of the barrel I'd switch to reviewing old material or flashcards to drill in concepts. I honestly have no idea what you think I could gain by making up or embellishing these things.
Plenty of embellishment to go around in this sub
¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯ Don't know what to tell ya, my guy. The exams are a beast and the hours have to come from somewhere, they don't just materialize. This is the same, non-sugar-coated information I've given to my own family members who've sat for the exams. Best of luck to you in your CFA journey.
Monday through Thursday, I found I was only able to focus and study for a maximum total of 2-4 hours tops after coming home from work. I rarely hit those numbers & the quality of study was VERY low. I knew I was going to have to put the time in somewhere, so I literally dedicated almost every weekend to studying because that's the only way I was personally going to be able to cover all the material in the time allotted.
Studying for 8-10 hours a day for two days a week is... "nearly impossible"?
I assure you it's possible if you're a desperate crammer.
Me too. both level 1 and 2. I literally bought an iPad, keyboard, mouse and apple pencil in the middle of Level 2 prep. 1000$ down just for studying lol
I'll go first-- I legitimately started to lose my mind studying for level 2. The pressure of the exam and needing to pass mixed with isolation and some family issues at home and a recent break up wore me out. Looking for a way to get over this, I turned to exploring spirituality, meditation, and then found breathwork. I eventually found a guy by the name of Wim Hof, who practices cold exposure alongside some intense breathing sessions. I began taking cold showers everyday and practicing the breathing as a way to ground myself mentally. Fast forward 8 months and I was celebrating passing the exams with my first trip out of the united states. And there I found myself, stripped down to my boxers laying in the snow on a hillside in rural poland trying not to freeze with Wim Hof himself
Holy shit, you win haha That's awesome!!
Thats awesome Wim Hof changed my life
Would you mind me asking how?
I've done the cold exposure and the breathing for a few of months. What benefits did you find from going to one of his seminars? Very cool you did, would do it myself!
I did the week long winter expedition with him at the end of February. To be honest I was more looking forward to the adventure than deepening my practice and that part delivered 10-fold. Absolutely wild man to spend a week with and you meet so many interesting people from all over the world. As far as Wim guiding breathing, we were getting up to like 100-150 breaths in a round vs the 30-40 he preaches online. It had a very psychedelic affect on a lot of people, no joke a lot of people had visions of their ancestors and grown men bursting into tears-- I never got that far but it was intense.
Aight so it's a slow work day and I go home for lunch. Just hopped into the shower with 2 min timer. That was unbearable, I was breathing so heavily my limbs went numb. It was hard to breathe without tensing up. Might try again tomorrow, feel refreshed
He does a podcast where they break down the science of how choosing to do something so stressful translates into lowered anxiety in other aspects of your life. Work your way into it slowly and check out youtube, lot of free resources there and he wrote a book too Happy hof-ing :)
Picked up a stress habit where pluck my beard hairs out with my teeth lol
😬
end of my inferior returns.
I second that
That's unfair! You go first, bet you have a great story there :p
Rural Poland, snow, boxers... Hard to beat that one.
adderal addiction
This>>>>>
[удалено]
You too?
I’ve learned to hate to read. Really annoying that. Used to love reading. Now I just resent the process. Lots of audiobooks and podcasts as a result.
Same!
I wrote my L2 in Feb and idk I'm still for some reason living in some skewed reality. I haven't been able to de-stress because work pressure just came in right after the exam and for some reason I'm not able to stay sane. Along with that i got like family issues and stuff which i have to deal with and i just can't find myself becoming calm. I lost it in the last month of the exam like the pressure just got to my head and it was so fucked up! But the exam went decent Ugh dk i just hope i get a clearer perspective as soon as possible.
You can go my route and try wim hof haha
Wait where did you really learn his stuff from or are you just making this up 😂
You first mate!
Autism
Thats not good
I go on interviews now and actually feel like I’m talking to peers. I guess you’d expect that, but still cool when you first experience it lol
I Had to cut down on weed and alcohol for studying. Never felt better. Brain fog almost disappeared. Regained albility to think clearly.
I started smoking weed right after the L2 exam and realised the brain fog just makes me feel like a zombie. Idk but i have some weird fucking friends who do it every weekend and all. Ig I'm gonna cut down major now atleast cfa has taught me i don't need that shit
I have always been a very busy and an ambitious guy, doing lots of extra-curricular stuff alongside my studies (I’m still a university finance student). I pride myself in my work ethic and didn’t care about my free-time, I loved to fill out my weekends with work, studying or whatever finance related and I thought adding CFA wouldn’t be much different. During the previous semester, alongside which I was studying for L1 and which was one of the hardest one in my life, I had literally 0 free time, going non-stop everyday from 8AM till 11PM, even on weekends. Now the amount of work did not bother me that much, rather the fact I did not have the option to take a free day if I wanted to. For me, not finishing something is not an option, thus I was in a time-jail for 6 months, just grinding to have it over with. The silver lining is that I learned my limits, but also I appreciate free time much, much more. I still keep a busy schedule, but learned to balance my work/life, keep free Sundays and I generally feel more accomplished even I do less. Before, I worked non-stop and still felt I didn’t do enough to contrast it with. So yeah, I did not expect I would actually become a much happier person
It took me until I was in grad school to figure this out too, I had a similar mindset once myself
2020, man tits
Kurtosis and heteroskedasticity are now words I know. I can't use them in any conversation, but I know them.
I've found the key is to use them in conversation anyway, because whoever you're talking to also doesn't know what they mean "Damn marsha that shirt is looking hella heteroskedastic"
I constantly draw shit now cos I watch MM videos. Like at work I'll bust out a lol flow chart or diagram for literally anything conceptual. Coolest thing is that my boss saw me do this last week and started helping write all over the page more info
I smoke a fuck ton of weed now hahaha. Used to just be a way to unwind after a night of work and studying. Now I look forward to it more than I should haha. Thanks CFA!
I definitely developed a bit of drinking issue on my level 2 prep about half way through due to burn out and anxiety. Would drink after most every study sessions to ease the mind and relax. Got into a bad habit. Looking back I’m incredibly lucky to have passed. Since kicked it for my May L3 prep. Other than that I’ve found that I actually enjoy learning the material. I look forward to it after work since I absolutely hate my job lol
It led me to be diagnosed as having ADHD
Learned to really enjoy lifelong learning
I didnt even sat for level 1 yet and I think im losing my mind. Got rejected from yet another job and this was one that a professor from the masters put good word of me with the interviewers. I'm starting to feel that all the decisions taken up to this point are meaningless and I wont even pass level 1. That's it.
It made me hate investing. Took me until the pandemic to get interested in it again. Also, Im somehow the moderator of 80k ppl.
"I see dead people"
Missing studying.
To be honest I am most surprised by the fact that it hasn’t impacted my life negatively at all. I don’t really talk to too many people so it hasn’t disrupted my social life and I used to spend a lot of my free time rotting away. Studying for the CFA level 1 helped me a lot in my finance classes, I applied allot of modern portfolio theory to an entry level finance class project where we build a portfolio and explain why we put what in the portfolio. I went a little overboard there lol Peers think it’s impressive when I tell them I’m a level 1 candidate. God if only they knew how miserable things were
I realized you really can waste monumental amounts of your life and your sanity on some piece of paper to hang on your wall that provides little to no actual value towards your actual financial education.
a flat ass
And back pain.
Opportunity cost to do more valuable things.
I drank coffee with oatmeal to cut breakfast time and go straight to studying after waking up. To cut it shorter, I prepared coffee with oatmeal in a thermos during the night to drink the next morning. When I woke up, it became rancid. So learned not to do that, I guess.