Flash cards for Level II

Question

Wanted to get some opinions from the "Passed Level 2" community on flash cards, so that's why I'm posting this in the Level 3 area. I just sit for Level 1 in December, and assuming I passed it (which I'm pretty confident about), I'll use the momentum to tackle Level 2 in June. One of the things I could have done better for Level 1 was in the "memorization" area.

While reading through the Level 1 materials (I used CFAI books), I produced my own notes, and re-read them a couple of times in the final weeks leading to the exam. However, my notes were not in a format where I could really practice my memorization (that is, they were not in a flash card format, but rather in a "mind map" format).

This is an area I would like to improve for Level 2, especially because here I know I won't have the time to read directly from the CFAI books (I'll be using Schweser), and since the exam is supposedly much harder, there will be less margin for error. Ideally I would produce my own Flash Cards as I do the readings, but then again, I'll likely not have enough time.

So my question is...

Have you used Flash Cards for Level 2? From which source (your own, from Schweser, other provider)? Were they complete enough? What's your opinion on this tactic?

Thanks in advance for any input!

Zee Tan · Answer

@edulima I didn't use flashcards for any CFA level - but I did write my own set of notes. I think I hand-wrote them for Levels 1 and 2 and typed them out for Level 3.

It's not so much the material that's being produced that helped me, but rather the process of properly noting them down made me think about the concepts better and helped with my studies!

I would advise to try a similar thing - if you're pressed for time I'd say try for more concise notes, but keep the structure and organisation, as I felt that helped me get a sense of how everything connected.