Coming up…..

Well today has been a productive day.  Five hours of writing posts and I am finally caught up.  I guess we can use relative terms for that.  By sacrificing the day for writing up these posts I now have to put in a good 6 hours of hard work to catch up to my CSC schedule.  No worries there though, I like long days.

I had originally planned to do write-ups on chapters 13 – 16, since I had completed them.  Looking back on the posts for 1 – 12, I don’t think they provided very useful information to others.  As part of my review process I am going to sum up the key points from each chapter on this site.  Two birds with one stone kind of idea.

So in the mean time I will be updating my status and some small details, and then on the 19 – 21 (somewhere in there) I will upload 12 chapters worth of summaries. My idea is that I am reinforcing the concepts yet again by having to regurgitate and already condensed form into a post.  Well, it’s been a blast but now I have to get going on mutual funds.

– Steve

Study Plan

As you can see I am still behind on my postings.  This one is a bit old, but never-the-less, still important. As it stands at this very moment I have completed chapters 13 – 16.  After I complete a couple more postings on this site I plan to hit the books for a solid 6 hours tonight to polish off chapter 17.  It’s on mutual funds so I am not sure what kind of resistance I will be up against.  We will see.

February 8th 2009 -Chapter 13

February 9th 2009 – Chapter 14

February 10th 2009 – Chapter 15

February 11th 2009 – Chapter 16

February 12th 2009 – Chapter 17

February 13th 2009 – Chapter 18

February 14th 2009 – Chapter19

February 15th 2009 – Chapter20

February 16th 2009 – Chapter 21

February 17th 2009 – Chapter 22

February 18th 2009 – Chapter 23

February 19th 2009 -Activities & Exercises for Chapters 13 – 23, Chapter Forums (13 – 23)

February 20th 2009 – CSC Post-Tests (13 – 23), Develop Formula Sheet

February 21th 2009 -Review Notebook and fill in any remaining Flash-Cards

February 22th 2009 -Review Flash Cards, Formula Sheet and Any Identified Weaknesses

February 23th 2009 -Focus on Identified Weaknesses ***CSC EXAM DAY***

CSC-L2 Preperation

After a short break I have moved on to CSC-L2 studying.  I have heard from message boards that the second half of the CSC is easier.  Of course, anything I hear off the message board I never take very seriously, unless its somewhere like analyst-forums. I will let you know my personal opinion on the material closer to the end of February when I’ll be writing the next and final exam.

As far as preparation goes, I don’t plan on changing much from my original strategy.  There are a few things that I haven’t mentioned in previous posts that I wont be continuing on.  The big disadvantage to not keeping up with these posts on a regular basis is that the mistakes I have made aren’t really being posted.  Some of the time wasting mistakes that I made studying for CSC-L1 included:

• Taking to many notes on the early chapters
• Making self-quizzes built out of FAQ & LOS statements (I read these documents and made notes instead, way more useful)
• Not spending enough time reviewing calculations DURING my review of the material (not after)
• Not doing enough problems and practice questions (affected my performance on the test slightly

Due to the fact that I am completing this exam in a very small window, I am ok with the mark I got on CSC-L1.  I know I could have done better but this course for me serves a different purpose then it may for someone else.  For me the CSC is:

• A requirement
• A entry level course
• A refresher
• A prep course for CFA

The CSC is a great course, but for me and the different levels of designations I plan to pursue, it’s just a stepping stone.  I pivotal stepping stone none the less, and one that even I underestimated.  I went in thinking it was going to be hard but secretly expecting it to be easy.  Well it was difficult, but with adequate preparation, you should have no trouble.

For the CSC-L2 studies I have decided to follow this format:

1. Build cue cards from definitions (CH 13 – 23)
2. Read chapters 13 – 23
3. Take notes while reading
4. Review the activities and overviews (13-23)
5. Complete the forums (13 – 23)
6. Complete the post tests (13 – 23)
7. Create a formula sheet
8. Review notes and build up cue cards
9. Review Cue cards
10. Review formula sheet
11. Practice problems
12. Focus on identified weaknesses

Though I am using the same resources I am going about it a completely different way then I did the last time.  I think studying is like an art and it can be ever improved through self-reflection and hard work.  The change for this exam will likely be temporary as I will employ a much different strategy for the CPH and CFA exams.  For this exam, based on my last experience, I will focus on a particular component of the resource at a time and then move to the next section.  Before I was doing 3 – 4 things per session and thus, it took a lot longer.  Near the end I was short on time and it took a lot of energy drinks and 12 hour days to get through a reduced review.  This time I have prioritized everything so that I have flexibility to remove things that may not have as much priority as other resources at that time.

I justify this because I let the material soak in from the first read, then review it with the exercises a second time, then I review my notes and finally my cue cards.  My thinking is that I can slash off two of those important resources and still be fine.  I don’t see why I can’t get everything on this list done to some degree.  We will see how that works out.

CSC vs CFA Curiousity

As some of you may know I am completing my CSC-L2 shortly so I can move on to studying for the CFA exam.  I am not going to go into the backgrounds of the CSC and CFA and how they differ, I will likely perform a better conclusion of that when I have begun work on the CFA program.  Until then I just wanted to write up a quick posts on the striking similarities in some content covered by both exams.

Before I have angry people knocking down my door, I am not by any means comparing the two courses on terms of difficulty, rather on some of the content that both exams cover.  I have no concrete examples as all the work I have done on the CFA has simply been prepping for my studying starting March/10th 2009.  However, a lot of the topics that seem to be discussed int he CFA book are also covered in the CSC book.

So keep in mind that the CSC might be a great preparatory course for enrollment in the CFA program.  I’ll have more on this as I know.

Exam Techniques for CSC-L1

I don’t consider myself an expert by any mean on any exam.  However, having just taken the first of two exams I believe I have a few things to say about what worked and what didn’t work for me.  Hopefully you gain some insight into the processes involved in studying for a high mark in the CSC. There are a couple things I think really helped me in this exam, surprises and all.

Have a Plan

With any self-study course, having a plan is a given.  Unless you plan on taking the full year or longer to write your CSC exams, most people have some sort of deadline in their minds.  To make an effective study plan, set a realistic deadline based on your knowledge of the topic, as well as the possible constraints faced by work, family, going out….etc.

My plan was quite simple.  I schedule 15 – 16 days in advance my CSC exam, and did a chapter a day, with some small review time afterwords.  This requires a very disciplined approach as well as a great deal of time, and will likely not be ideal for those candidates who are working. A solid study plan is the foundation to any successful self-study program.

Read Everything

There are 23 chapters and two exams, which equates to 12 chapters per exam.  The first 12 chapters seem to be slightly more difficult then the last 12, though I will speak to that after the completion of my second exam. I have heard of students that simply skim the definitions, read the chapter summary and Learning Outcome Statements (LOS), write some practice questions and call it a day.  That may or may not work for you, but I see that more as rolling a 4 instead of a 6.  It’s probability, unless your highly fluent in this material.

Your best bet is to read every word front to back for the first twelve chapters.  This may sound daunting at 350 pages, but its really not that bad. If you are in this industry out of interest (rather than money), you may even find it entertaining.  I will admit some parts are dragged on a little to long.  The book is written in a sequential manner, meaning every chapter builds on the concepts established before it.  With that in mind, makes sure you have the primary concepts solidified before moving onto the next chapter, or you are going to get lost fairly quickly.

Don’t be intimidated by the amount of reading here, a lot of it is examples, tables, charts and white space.  Your level of reading comprehension will dictate how fast you move through this material.  If someone asked me if they could only do one thing for the CSC what should it be, my answer would be to read as much of every chapter as you could.

Create Notes

This is more of a subjective task.  It works for some, and not others.  For me I used notes to force myself to reiterate what I had just learned by writing it down. For me, I find notes are sometimes overvalued and almost always bloated with excess content.  The trick is to take a paragraph and turn it into a small sentence.

I did this for all the chapters and I am glad I did, because when review time came, I had a condensed set of notes on the material I was focusing on.  Don’t underestimate the power of notes, to whatever extent you use them.  I also used notes to help me create cue cards, which I will talk about next.

Repeat, Repeat, Repeat: Use Flash-Cards

Flash-cards are what helped me drill down on minute details, formulas and complex relationships after I had read and reviewed the chapter.  I always put a wide variety of cue cards in which I quickly narrowed down to problem spots, which I could then focus on.  I found the process of repetition in taking notes, creating cue cards on those notes and then quizzing yourself on those cue cards really drove home the items that I was having trouble grasping.

I think a solid point can be made that the process of cue cards can be substitute or at least minimized by the use of the CSC Check.  If you did purchase the CSC check I would be spending more time with practice problems.  I would explain this below.

Practice, Pratice, Pratice:

This is usually the part most people hate.  Doing practice problems can sometimes be daunting, but hands down it is the single greatest resource you have at your disposal.  It uses the same technique as my cue cards, only more efficiently.  My cue card system required me to manually create individual sets for later quizzing.

The use of quizzes and other preparation material like prep courses are valuable beyond any other resource you could use.  If you feel like you really want to grasp the material and progress through it faster and better, make sure you incorporate this into your study plan.

Use the Resources Given to you:

The Canadian Securities Institute (CSI) provides students of the Canadian Securities Course (CSC) a wide variety of online tools.  Each of these tools has particular significance in your overall study routine and can provide you with an enormous amount of information.  For me the use of forums and post-tests were pivotal to identifying my weaknesses and addressing them quickly.  Some of the resources CSI offers for the CSC include:

• Individual topic forums with great moderators for assistance
• Individual chapter reviews and assignments
• Individual chapter post tests
• Individual chapter FAQ documents with a ton of useful information not found in the text

As you can see I didn’t employ just one strategy, I used many of them.  My techniques are not revolutionary, rather I employed a number of existing resources at my disposal to best help me retain information.  The best way to pass the CSC is to work hard at retaining that information.  For some of you that may mean just reading the chapters and for others that could mean a thorough use of the tools I have just layed out here.

Whatever it is, I wish you luck on your future studies.

– Steve

Updated Texts: Does it Matter?

I hear this question A LOT: “Do we really have to purchase the new material? My friend has an old book I can borrow”.  In previous posts I have covered the reasoning behind the need to yearly updates to course materials, and I will also cover it briefly here. Firstly, the finance industry is always changing.  Not monthly, not even weekly, but daily.  New things are changing causing new regulatory bodies to merge, new ethics laws to be put in place and so on.  If makers of regulatory exams like the CSI did not update their materials, they would be teaching outdated and irrelevant information.

It makes little to no sense to teach students outdated material just on the basis that it could save some short term money down the road.  Someone, somewhere is going to have to pick up the cost to retrain you on the outdated materials.  It could be you or maybe even your employer.  So updating materials is not just a way to make money (though I am sure they do pull in a pretty penny from doing so).  Keep in mind that this is the same across the board when it comes to certifications and designations.  These things are expensive, and only get worse.

For example, the CSC course cost in mid $900 when all way said and done.  This was a drop in the hat to the CFA.  The registration was $1,100 and then the Scheswer and Stalla materials added around $1500 to that mark.  This isn’t the time or place to talk about the CFA, but the example is still a good one.

So to answer your question, yes the updated texts do matter.  Here are the reasons it matters to YOU, and not the corporations, regulatory bodies and industry in general:

• It increases your knowledge base giving you more bankable assets
• It provides you with a basic understanding for which to further your career in finance
• the updated material is more likely to be tested in the year it is introduced. Having new material gives you an advantage over those using old material.
• You could end up studying topics that no longer exist in the finance world, thus confusing you at exam time (IDA vs IIROC)
• You could end up studying topics that are no longer required by the Canadian Securities Institute (I found this a couple times in chapter 7 alone)

So now you asking the inevitable question: “How much do texts change from year to year anyways?”.  Well I can’t speak for every year but from 2008 – 2009, the material and layout changes substantially.  The change from 2005 onwards was even more substantial as the entire framework was reorganized.  I can’t tell you exactly what material was changed but some old books I had from 2008 and the new books from 2009 vary in page numbers, table placements and definitions included in chapters.

The question you have to ask yourself is this; are you willing to take a chance on the older material over the cost to retake the exam?  That’s up to you.

– Steve

The CSC Check

I was able to play with the CSC check for a bit and I found it to be quite worthwhile.  The format of the questions are similar to that of the post-test questions provided for students with their enrollment package.  Of course the difference here is the volume of questions and the variety of topics that can be covered with those questions.

Being that I spent nearly $3000 on my CFA exam coming in June and another $1500 on the CSC and CPH exams, I was reluctant to spend another boatload of cash on a course that I was rushing through in one month to complete.  Don’t confuse my intention though.  The CSC is a great source of information and a platform to build on.  I just wanted to complete it quickly along with a number of other courses, before June 2009. Back on topic, the CSC check is great for people who don’t have a lot or any finance experience and would feel more comfortable drilling down into the material using endless study questions.  If you have the time and money, this is a no brain-er.  Pick it up and get a great mark on the exam as a result of it.

Highlighters Suck…..

On a completely unrelated note, this really peeves me.  I bought these highlighters new and in under four days, they are rendered useless.  I mean I know I used them quite a bit, but I went back to my desk and pulled out some highlighters I have had for years and I used them for the remainder of my work.

I guess that saying “they don’t make things like they used to” really does apply.  Case in point, I guess I should spend more money and see if the premium ones will last any longer.  I have to say, the retractable highlighter deal……its kinda distracting.  Then again, after 11 hours of derivatives, playing master of puppets on a set of highlighters doesn’t seem all that crazy.

Recap of Chapter 1 – 12 Quizzes

I meant to post this (like everything else) weeks ago, but I just never got around to it.  After every chapter is complete I take the post-test provided by the CSI online component (included in registration fees).  I don’t review the material or make any adjustments until after I have completed this test.  For me, I use this test to measure how much of the material I have retained.  I considered anything about a 60% to be excellent, as there is only 10 questions per tests and some questions drilled down to the mundane.  Either way, these tests allowed me to focus my reviews on my weakest areas.  Here are my scores.

Module 1 Post-Test:	9.00  (out of 10.00)
Module 2 Post-Test:	9.00  (out of 9.00)
Module 3 Post-Test:	5.00  (out of 10.00)
Module 4 Post-Test:	8.00  (out of 10.00)
Module 5 Post-Test:	9.00  (out of 10.00)
Module 6 Post-Test:	7.00  (out of 10.00)
Module 7 Post-Test:	6.00  (out of 10.00)
Module 8 Post-Test:	8.00  (out of 10.00)
Module 9 Post-Test:	6.00  (out of 10.00)
Module 10 Post-Test:	6.00  (out of 10.00)
Module 11 Post-Test:	8.00  (out of 10.00)
Module 12 Post-Test:	7.00  (out of 10.00)

On my final exam, I scored 80%.

My Personal CSC-L1 Exam Notes

I know a lot of you will be going to this post in hopes i have uploaded an electronic copy of my notes for you, but unfortunately, that’s not going to happen.  I wrote everything down with the ole’ pen and paper, so I can’t really offer that to the masses.  I did want to show you the amount of notes I took though!  I just snapped a picture of my notebooks. Keep in mind the second book is half CSC-L1 and half CSC-L2. I wouldn’t necessarily use this as a benchmark, rather, an indication of how much work you COULD put in to this course.