Taking time off work?

I take the week before the exam off.

@CaptainKinnard The short answer is that I highly recommend that anyone writing a CFA exam at any level take the week before off work. Stay tuned for the longer answer in a forthcoming post.

If you can afford to take some time off, do it.  Not only might it save you another year’s study to re-sit the exam, but it will likely reduce your stress going into it.  

Going into last year’s exam it was a particularly busy period for my company, so my final preparation for exams was crammed into the late hours of night and early mornings.  Come exam day I was exhausted.  My brain felt like it was operating at maybe 60%-70% capacity.  As a result there were questions on the exam where although I knew the material, my brain was slow to retrieve the required information.  

Consequentially I completed the exams with the expectation that I was probably a borderline pass/fail, but very disappointed that I had “dropped the ball” so close to the finish line.  

Result was that I passed, but I am still not happy with my performance on the day.

I’m taking time off but this time I am doing it differently. Instead of taking the last two weeks off like I did for FRM exams. I am taking two days off each each for all of May and the last week of April. 
So far I am finding it is working for me. When I am exhausted of studying 8 – 10 hours a day I can look forward to going back to work. 

Last week off and half days for the two weeks before that. The problem then for me becomes balance.  I can’t seem to study 8 hours straight with any retention.  The exact formula for max retention is one I still don’t know…

Studies show the majority of people cannot study for more than 4 hours a day productively.