How do you motivate yourself to stay after work to study for the CFA®? I am a huge procrastinator and find it nearly impossible to stay late after work when my normal work is done and I could conceivably go to the gym, go watch TV, go hang out with friends, ANYTHING but study. What are your secrets? When do you study and how do you stay focused?
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More $$$. Is that a good enough reason for you? :-) Btw, what level are you taking in this June? Good luck with studying for the exam.
What's your background?
Going to the gym in the morning or during lunch if possible would solve that problem.
a study group helps A LOT.
meet up with some study buddies at the library or someone's house and do problems together. kills studying and hanging out with one stone.
Unless i was in AM, ER or maybe to a lesser degree HF, I wudnt be able to find the motivation cuz it wud b pointless to. I took L1 before I knew what I wanted to do and it wasn't any of those so it was kinda a waste of time. Definitly learned a shitload though so I dont regret it. knowledge is power
Do a line of coke between every LOS, and you'll be fine
with a month to go, ask a basket of the hottest girls you know out until one says yes to a nice place that requires a reservation right after the exam, no social life until then. you don't want to half-ass something like this and be in the top x% of failures, go big or go home. the humiliation of being in the bottom 60% should be motivation enough.
no sex unless you study for at least 2 hours on that day
Thuperman explains why.
I go through massive peaks and troughs, but the biggest motivator for me is the thought of having to do it all over again next year and the embarrassment of telling people you failed.
Agreed, especially when a lot of your friends have passed, that was the biggest motivator for me.
What did you find to be most successful for consistently retaining the material? I am willing to (and already have) put in a significant amount of time (def. agree with syntheticshit) but have trouble recalling the material later; for instance, I ace Econ, but by the time I am working through Fixed Income its gone. Taking L1 in June and am using Schweser, CFA texts, and videos intermittently. Thanks for any insights.
I'm a HUGE procrastinator. I tried the giving up sex thing, but all it did was make fat chicks look fuckable.
My strategy eventually morphed into having sex... but not letting the girl blow me.
Another thing you can try: create associations of certain actions with studying in your mind. Mine was blaring high tempo music at the highest volume before commencing work. I still use it to this day.
Monkey Motivation thread - CFA Level I, Final Stretch! (Originally Posted: 10/31/2012)
So I've been a little absent from WSO lately as the CFA succubus has slowly been consuming my flesh and blood, probably like many fellow Level I monkeys tackling this formidable beast on December 1 (in Milan for me - Italians, hit me up for a drink after!!!).
We're probably all about at the stage now where we've covered all of the actual material and now have to really jam in all the formulas and esoteric knowledge (see my blog at http://seekingcfa.blogspot.com/ if you have a taste for sadomasochism).
Frankly now that I'm through the information I'm finding it's hard to get motivated. We're not learning new fun things now - just repeating. And repeating. And repeating. It's - what's the word - boring.
Based on my past projections I've averaged 3 hours per day (that includes all the 0 days when I was traveling or partying or just not in the mood) - continuing at the current pace would get me to about 250 hours total by test day by my calcs. This is OK but I'd really like it to be at 300, meaning I need to average more like 5 hours per day until test day.
In short I think all us CFA hopefuls could really use a morale boost. SB's for any of the following:
1) Good spirited pats on the back/words of encouragement/motivation 2) Good jokes about how pointless/painful the CFA is/what the fuck am I on WSO for when I should be studying/etc. 3) Interesting/useful things you've learned from your own CFA experiences - fellow Level I noobs and seasoned CFA ninjas alike, or little tricks/favorite topics/mnemonics etc 4) Any interesting methods you used to really firm up formulas - flash cards, tricks, etc. 5) Advice on how to get the most out of practice exams (please forward me practice exams if you have more that I don't have...instant SB...I just have the CFAI ones from 2012 and 2010) 6) Some good old fashioned boot camp verbal abuse (think R Lee Ermey in Full Metal Jacket) 7) Other (get creative - cool groupons for things dated after December 1, qbank pdfs, what's the worst thing you could possibly do and still be 'ethical', send me your bangbros login, etc.)
Ok, back to the books.
Cheers, frgna
The youtube videos were crap, so I apologize for the random link, but this always cheers me up when studying: http://www.redbalcony.com/?vid=981
I need some motivation to. Done just about 65% of the course material yet. Taking off from work next week to complete my course and then do the mock exams. I second what the OP said about mock exams. They are always welcome.
Listening to hip hop gets me motivated. Rappers come from shitty situations but then ball out, which is what we aspire to, but we come from good backgrounds. I suggest Meek Mill and Rick Ross to get you pumped, and watch their music videos, that's the key. Good luck!! I will be taking CFA 1 next year.
http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/motivating-for-the-cfa
Good luck man! my number one tip for everyone doing any level. Hopefully you haven't gotten through the CFAI mocks yet as I believe you should do them 2-4 weeks before the exam. If you haven't apply the following tip:
I believe this was one of the main reasons of my success. Check out my blog post for more info on my CFA experience.
http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/blog/my-CFA-study-tracking-sheet
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