1. Judge yourself – get a mentor. Analyze and see how strong are you on your concepts. If you have weaker concepts, you are likely to get stuck in one part or the next. Its always good to have a mentor who is a CFA charter holder to guide you through your journey at any point and when required.
  2. Analyze your test results, but don’t neglect the topics where you excelled. Make sure you find the gaps in your previous exam preparation by looking at your test scores. However, don’t focus on those areas too narrowly. Know your way around the entire syllabus, instead of being really good at some of the topics and neglecting others. It’s better to at least know the most important points about each topic on the surface than not knowing anything about some of the topics.
  3. Focus only on the original CFA books and make summaries. That’s right, as we have been saying from the very first day itself avoid third-party prep material and read the original books again and practice a lot. If you have made summaries already of these books, then update them with the information that you find lacking. Add a statement in your flash cards every time you make a mistake. These summaries are essential for both the review stage of your preparation as well as brushing up on previous levels once you advance to level 2 and 3. Remember: There are no shortcuts to earn your CFA charter
  4. Solve all the practice questions in the original books. This can’t be stressed enough, the lure of QBank is just too big. Each and every question in the CFA exam is in some form or another a derivation of the questions in the CFA books, and not something out of the QBank. So if you really, thoroughly understand these questions, then you are very likely to pass the exam. Attempt them again and again, and once you solved them a few times you will notice that there are certain question types that you have to master, which is the point where you really begin to understand the underlying concepts.
  5. Relate and apply the concepts to practice. If you have been in the same markets, then its better to bring the concepts you study to practical use. An act done is remembered forever while a read remains in the unconscious part of the brain.

If you really focus on these point we are sure you will increase your chances of passing the exam the next time around dramatically. Let us know how it goes in your CFA exam preparation! We wish you all the best.