Exams

I wonder how long ago I took my first exam. It may well be measurable in decades rather than years now, but I'm still ploughing through them, the latest courtesy of the CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) pofessional qualification that I am pursuing.

Tomorrow morning I need to be in East London at 8.00 for 6 hours of CFA level I exam, including such subjects as financial statement analysis, portfolio management, asset valuation, economics, and, um, well there are others which I have temporarily forgotten. Ooops. Revising again has been an interesting experience - the last time I did it in earnest being for my finals 4+ years ago. I've remembered why I dislike it so much, and have also realised the importance of practical use of the things in the syllabus and familiarity with the concepts. It may be an obvious statement, but the areas that I've struggled with are such as economics which I have never had cause to use in real life, rather than the quantitative analysis section (never really going to trouble me) or the bits on futures and options contracts and the debt investments, which I have experienced in the course of my work.

All in, I'm feeling confident (there's no point in approaching it any other way) but am aware that a lot of the material is on the edge of my consciousness if in my head at all, and I'd ideally be going in with stronger understanding of quite a large proportion of it. At least I feel pretty secure in the knowledge that having faced my third year cambridge maths exams and my PhD viva, exam experiences can't be any more daunting.

Well, I'd best go and limber up my brain. Wish me good memory for tomorrow.