What to do for my WEAK AREAS after the first couple of mock exams?

@surangasa‌ 

Analyse your mock thoroughly, down to the reading/concept within each subject which is a weak spot for you. Also, classify your mistakes into the following categories: 

1. Silly Mistakes
2. Lack of understanding/conceptual clarity
3. Lack of retention

For category 1 – There’s hardly anything that I can say here which you don’t already know. Pay attention while reading the question and don’t mark off an answer in a hurry. Take a second or two to consider your answer before marking it off.

For category 2 and 3-

Read through the summaries (your own if you’ve made or the eoc summaries in schweser/cfai). Then revise the formulae. Then work through a QBank. 

Now depending on the Qbank results,  assess whether you’ve improved or some further work needs to be done. For areas where further work needs to be done, consider reading that part again from your base study material. If you have any doubts, you can always post them here!  I’m sure you’ll get answers. 

After you’ve done this, just quickly revise your strong areas and then give a mock again. After correcting that mock, repeat the above process.

For improving retention – Repeated revision and practising questions are the two most effective ways. 

Hope this helps,  

Jessica. 

@‌surangasa

Your scores are awesome!  Way to go!  

Jessica

@‌surangasa

Your scores are awesome!  Way to go!  

Jessica

Hey @surangasa‌
The question here is, did you take condensed subject notes when you studied these subjects? If so, I’d imagine that you can simply re-look though these and particularly focus on the areas where you are haemorrhaging marks. For example, if you are fighting a losing battle in the specific subject of FRA in Inventory Management, then read and re-read this subject until your mark improves.
In all honesty, you probably still have enough time to read the vast majority of Econ and FRA from the entire curriculum again if you want, but if you’re already hitting 57% then this may not be the best use of your time. Do you know specifically what elements of Econ and FRA are letting you down? If so, then read, read, read them and test, test, test yourself.
Try using different material as well if this helps you (CFAI / Schweser / Elan / ETC), as a different way of saying the same thing may make it stick better in your particular mindset or way of learning.

I hope this is an answer to the question you were asking, however obvious the answer may have seemed. If not and I’ve misunderstood the question, then please drop some more info in and, as a community I’m sure we’ll try again 🙂 

@surangasa‌ my first mocks had similar results to what you have, fra around 50% and econ around 60%…by the time i took the last mock, both the sections were barely above 60%…i found that improving those two subjects just by reading the course material takes time, more than 2months since you have to practice the other topics too…so i took down super condensed notes for the two books and studied from that, which helps, given enough time…hence, that’s what i would suggest…
i dont know how much time you have during the weekdays/weekends, but i would say you should target completion of notes for both the topics in 10days at most…then upto the end of this month just revise the notes for the two subjects and the other topics…since you are already aware that fra and econ are weak, might as well take some practice tests during the month for them…also attempt a mock exam before month end…evaluate the result and reinforce your weak subjects…continue this cycle and see if your scores improve in fra and econ…
just one thing – dont make fra notes in the same sequence that kaplan provided them…consider this – chapter 1 of your notes will be on balance sheet, which explains all the items in the balance sheet, including details explained in later chapters in kaplan…if you are able to consolidate the notes in this fashion, then it will help immensely…otherwise it will be a marginal improvement, like i had(about 10% improvement)…

@surangasa‌ 
You’ve identified where you’re needing improvement, which really is half the battle. You’ll do great.

I would agree with Maverick in maybe trying it from another angle. You could try video lessons. If you’re only reading study notes, maybe try the institutes’s material again and working the practice problems. Personally I struggle re-reading the same thing again if I didn’t “grasp” it the first time.

In our Adapt Exam engine we recommend taking quizzes on the subtopics as you read, which helps you identify with more granularity your weaker areas. That’s a good way to build confidence in those areas. A lot of times if you don’t feel confident in the material you’re more likely to fall for the distractor answers (the incorrect answers).