Otter's Journal: It's the last week of 2003

Last fall, when my job situation was ... unclear, I scheduled a heavy alternative workload for early 2004 in order to use any downtime efficiently. Things turned out OK, but with almost no downtime (I could have used some!) and a lot to do while facing the learning curve of my first months in a new and unfamiliar job.

It's been exhausting (although less exhausting than the futility of my old job) but I'm through almost all of the residue from my overscheduling. The last bit -- the Level I Certified Financial Analyst exam that I'd signed up for is this upcoming weekend. It turned out to be an extremely demanding test, especially without directly related job experience, and with a few days to go I'm scoring around 80% on practice tests. Enough, but with precious little margin for error.

OK, I need to go beat on this some more. At least it'll be over one way or another in a week...

Good luck, bro

[smittyoneeach]

I had a disappointing Spring, and set aside my PhD pursuits. OTOH, I discovered emacs, so I got that goin' for me.

Re:Good luck, bro

[Otter]

I had a disappointing Spring, and set aside my PhD pursuits.

Good luck with that. Depending on what stage you bailed out, it could easily be one of the best decisions of your life.

CFA

[DoNotTauntHappyFunBa]

I also took Level I at BOS. The event organizers could have used a few analytical minds for logistics planning regarding traffic! So how did you think the tests were? I found the morning session a bit harder than the practice exams, but the afternoon went a bit better. I expect that I, too, am near the borderline.

Re:CFA

[Otter]

I took the Sunday test. Were you at Foxboro? Was that as insane as it sounded? I can't imagine having to sit on a bus with a hundred stressed-out junior finance people and then taking that test. I heard you guys had desks lined up on the practice field?

As for the test itself: much harder than the practice exams. For me anyway, especially since there was less quant material and number crunching and a lot more arcane accounting. (And those awful two-question questions!) I'm probably around the margin (althoug

Re:CFA

[DoNotTauntHappyFunBa]

I was at Foxboro. It was indeed in the Field House/Bubble, but that was okay. Two sparrows got trapped inside during the morning session and spent most of the three hours trying to find the way out.

The two-parters got me, too. They seemed to be arranged so that I always knew one part cold, but had to reason out or guess at the other one.

The worst part was the drive in and out. It only took about 15 minutes to park from Route 1, but they had 4 or 5 attendants watching cars go by on the access roa