How To Pass The Fsa Reading

What's broken with popular FSA study strategies?

The single biggest mistake I made studying for my first FSA examination was doing multiple read-throughs of the cloth.

I read through the full source material, and then my study transmission, so a condensed summary. Many students utilise this strategy, and many notice success. This arroyo is fifty-fifty recommended past at least one written report transmission company.

All the same, I wasn't just looking for a method that worked. I wanted a method that would get me the same results in one-half the fourth dimension. Reading the material multiple times is helpful, but then is memorizing every word in the one thousand+ pages of source fabric. The real question is "which method is the most effective use of your time?"

For my second FSA test (five hour exam), I set a goal to study no more than my company-allowed report fourth dimension.

This constraint made it very clear: multiple read-throughs were as well time-consuming, and I could non afford them if I wanted to meet my study hour constraint. There must exist a meliorate approach.

If you've read Actuarial Exam Tactics: Acquire More, Report Less, you know where I'm going with this: self-testing is significantly more effective than re-reading. We all knew this when we took the prelim exams – what was the most effective review tool? Practice issues.

When we go to the FSA exams, we are thrown off by the lack of quality practice problems supplied with our exam manuals (I emphasize quality because some FSA manuals provide a high quantity of fairly useless problems).

In absence of a good self-testing machinery, nosotros've fallen back to a more passive review method of re-reading. (For full discussion of this self-testing vs. re-reading, download our costless sample chapter).

How can we get back to basics and utilize self-testing for our FSA exam prep?

A New Mode of Studying for FSA Exams

To fix the problem of passively re-reading source material and study manuals, I made one simple change: I merely did one read-through of the source material, but I used a new note-taking method to make sure I retained the information.

The notation-taking method is based on self-testing, and it transformed both the way I read the fabric and the way I reviewed.

My notes template was very uncomplicated, just I volition start past describing the 5 main components, and then talk over the implementation.

FSA exam note-taking template

Clarification

1. Questions

I write down at least ane question for each key concept in the reading.

Don't limit these questions to unproblematic recall (e.g. List the 4 types of… or What is the definition of…). Y'all can kickoff with these basic questions, just then ask a deeper "How" or "Why" question (eastward.g. List the 4 types of… Why are these important for a visitor looking to…).

Creating your own questions may seem difficult or fourth dimension-consuming, merely there are several ways that it will pay off downwards the road:

You acquire to think like an exam-writer
Asking questions is critical to learning any bailiwick, and it will specially pay off at work
You learn to challenge assumptions and figure out what information is important
You build a ready of practice problems to utilize for cocky-testing, which is much more issue than just re-reading notes or the source material

I mentioned that I was very disappointed in the quality of questions provided in my manual, so I decided the best road was to create my own.

2. Notes

Write downwardly the solutions to the questions you adult. This will serve as your answer fundamental subsequently on.

3. Successful Recall

This column can exist used to rail how well you answer each question.

I volition discuss practice intervals beneath, but these columns are used to aid y'all place which topics are giving you the near problem over the course of your review.

4. Summary

After working through the details of each reading, it is important to step back and encounter how those details fit together.

In the Summary, yous should condense the key points from the reading in your own words. You tin can practice the Feynman Technique when writing your summary (details of the Feynman Technique tin can exist plant in our sample chapter).

5. Tie to Syllabus

In a few sentences, write downward which Learning Objective pertains to the reading, describing what value the reading offers for that topic.

You can also relate the reading to previous ones, making connections across the material.

We all know the importance of referring dorsum to the syllabus, just this elementary prompt is a way to implement that practice into your daily study routine.

Process

Now that you lot understand the template, let's discuss how to fill it out to maximize benefits from the spacing outcome and cocky-testing (explained in our sample affiliate).

At first glance, the template may seem overwhelming with so many unlike pieces, simply you lot can break it upwardly into iii different days:

24-hour interval i: Read

Goal: Read the text and make full out the Questions portion.

Fourth dimension: About 1 Hour, depending on the length of the reading.

As I preview the reading (discussed in Chapter three of Actuarial Exam Tactics: Acquire More, Report Less), I make full in the construction of the annotation template (Reading championship, section titles) and develop at least one question for each section.

These questions start with simple recall (Listing or define….), but they will be expanded after.

After the preview, I perform a full read-through. The goal is to write a question for every primal concept in the reading, and mark which page contains the answer. This is when I expand the questions into deeper "How" and "Why" questions.

Solar day ii: Answer

Goal: Fill out answers to your questions, write the Summary, and write how the reading ties back to the syllabus.

Time: About 45 minutes, depending on the length of the reading.

Read through your questions from the previous day and attempt to write the answer for each one.

Refer back to the appropriate folio numbers to check your answers, and use the Successful Think column to put an "X" if you got the questions right.

For difficult readings, I may non get whatever questions correct on my first endeavor. In that case, I re-read the relevant page of the text searching for the answer. Yes, I simply discussed the ineffectiveness of re-reading, only when you use information technology in a targeted manner with a specific question in mind, you lot can plough it into an active and engaging activity.

I write my summaries in bullet-point format, so I tin easily transfer them into my own Condensed Summary by re-create-pasting, at a later time.

Ane calendar week later: Review

Goal: Review your questions, re-create your Summary into a dissever Condensed Summary document.

Time: 15 minutes.

To utilize the spacing effect and self-testing, I try to answer my questions a second time, over again marking an "X" if I answered correctly.

After this second round, you can beginning to come across which concepts y'all struggle with.

I've also used this second review to pare down my Summary into an even shorter version, containing just the main ideas.

I copy-paste this bullet-betoken list into a separate document for my own Condensed Summary.

There is a lot of value in creating your ain condensed summary; you push button yourself to decide which material is most of import to the syllabus and conduct an lxxx/20 assay. You lot develop a better big-picture agreement of the syllabus topic.

Last review

In the weeks before the exam, I revisit my notes from the earlier objectives and focus on questions that I struggled with (based on the Successful Think column).

By using this template and focusing heavily on self-testing and "teaching" through my own written summaries, I was able to pass with just one read-through of the material.

This process may seem fourth dimension-consuming, but information technology does not take nearly as long every bit a second read-through of the material, and it is much more effective for learning.

Logistics

If you want to use this fashion of note-taking, I have a few suggestions for implementation:

Create this template on a computer (eastward.g. with Microsoft Discussion). It is much easier to copy-paste the template than to draw information technology each time with manus-written notes. Also, it is much easier to insert rows equally you lot read and retrieve of new questions. Most of united states can blazon much faster than we tin can write, and so you can minimize written report time by doing electronic notes.

Employ the "Heading 1" format in Microsoft Discussion for the Reading titles, so you tin can use the navigation pane to easily jump to the right reading instead of scrolling.
Use a cloud storage program like Dropbox so you can admission your saved notes from whatever device. I think several instances of reviewing questions on my telephone while waiting for an oil modify or doc's appointment. (Run across Chapter 5 of Actuarial Exam Tactics: Acquire More, Study Less for more details on short report sessions).

You can download my template for an easy way to get started: FSA note-taking template

Summary

Regardless of your specific annotation-taking style, you can greatly improve your effectiveness on the FSA exams if you lot motion abroad from re-reading cloth in favor of self-testing review sessions.

The template I utilize is designed to simultaneously:

Make you more agile while reading
Build your own database of practice issues for self-testing
Maximize learning from the spacing effect
Connect detailed readings to higher level syllabus objectives
Build a condensed summary
Save you time by simply requiring i read-through of the source material

Because you only need one read-through of the cloth, you tin can space out the readings in manageable chunks. I attempt to leave 3 weeks betwixt my exam and the time when I stop the last reading for doing practice exams and final review.

Please reach out or comment beneath to let the states know your thoughts! We'd love to hear how you prepare for FSA exams, and we're always looking for best-practices to share.

Study Smart, Laissez passer Fast, Live Life

Mike & Roy

Source: http://www.rethinkstudying.com/fsa-exam-strategies-note-taking/