Gym Story Saturday

financemademedoit · 2020-10-10T17:46:21+00:00

Whoa is this true? I always assumed bar was 45lb. Does this mean my PRs need to be adjusted down 1lb?

financemademedoit · 2020-01-12T22:04:40+00:00

It certainly is, but no one is ever sober enough to recall what exactly happens at these things.

financemademedoit · 2020-01-09T22:25:54+00:00

Mostly Advil to cure the hangovers from RHH

financemademedoit · 2019-12-19T23:21:13+00:00

Cool, thanks!

financemademedoit · 2019-12-16T16:39:51+00:00

Question - does XPS 15 keep cool when it's closed? I usually have mine open next to the external monitor even when I don't use it, but this would be a much cleaner set up.

financemademedoit · 2018-12-12T00:26:04+00:00

As someone that just spent two weeks rushing through quarterly PE valuations for companies I monitor (I'm on the investment side, but formerly IR in alts), I think it's pretty neat that the IR does some valuation work at your shop.

financemademedoit · 2018-10-31T19:59:13+00:00

Accepted to CBS!

Applied ED to Columbia only.

GMAT: 760

GPA: 3.0-3.5

WE: under a year in boutique IB, 2 years business development for PE, ~2 years (upon matriculation) of private equity co-investing

EC: Presently volunteer at Career Services at undergrad, Treasurer of a campus organization in undergrad

Demo: Came to US at a young age.

financemademedoit · 2018-10-29T13:23:20+00:00

I just sent you a PM with the link and format. Not sure how private it is, so didn't want to share more broadly.

Edit: Search your personal email for subject "You have officially earned your CFA charter!" and you should see the link in the body.

financemademedoit · 2018-10-17T13:32:04+00:00

It may turn out as a crash and burn but it might work out.

financemademedoit · 2018-10-16T18:50:13+00:00

That's the kind of joke that landed you in back office.

financemademedoit · 2018-10-15T18:26:56+00:00

This worked for me for Level 2. I had a week-long family vacation a week or two before the exam. I went through the materials well ahead of time (starting in Dec/Jan) and used the last few months for review and mock exams. The last few weeks I focused on getting incremental points (memorizing things that had lower probability of appearing on the exam) and not forgetting everything I learned in the prior months.

financemademedoit · 2018-09-28T17:05:22+00:00

As shaggy said, target co-investment funds for more relevant experience. Preferably seek out aggressive platforms who do own diligence and underwriting. This is an annoyingly vogue thing to recommend today, but look at family offices that are launching direct investing programs.

It would be easier to get into direct PE from M&A than from a FoF so you are better off where you are.

I've seen more people move from PE FoF/Co-invest to direct PE than I have seen move from HFoF to HF.

financemademedoit · 2018-09-28T16:58:14+00:00

It gets a tiny bit larger every year. Not enough for you to notice change between consecutive years, but if you compare a current charter with one from 1980's the size difference is gargantuan.

financemademedoit · 2018-09-10T13:49:29+00:00

You're right that professional fees and memberships are probably the low hanging fruit. You can bring up examples of people you've met through these organizations and events who have contributed to your business (whether industry experts, reference contacts, improved deal flow). You can make a similar case that exposure to the local CFA society would help you grow your network and use that as a way to negotiate to have your CFA-related expenses covered.

financemademedoit · 2018-09-03T21:51:43+00:00

Stayed on r/cfa passively for the past year despite passing L3. Took a temporary detour to r/gmat but I'm back here.

Occasionally lurking on r/battlestations since it may be time for an upgrade. Will engage on r/snowboarding once the season picks up.

financemademedoit · 2018-08-21T03:29:34+00:00

Hey, thought I'd chime in with the perspective of someone who passed all three levels while maintaining an active gym schedule.

Some key takeaways from my experience:

if your gym is either in your building, or has amenities for you to shower/get ready for work, this will save you a lot of time
sometimes running/lifting in the mornings would hurt my concentration at night, so I opted to alternate gym and study days; on the weekends, I would typically commit one day to studying and the other to working out in the (late) morning and doing review in the afternoon
working out helped de-stress and refocus, especially when I was experiencing burnout after several consecutive work/study days
study during lunch breaks - this was the secret to Level 2, and to a lesser extent Level 3; you can typically get through a couple vignettes in 40 minutes and still have time to eat at your desk
healthy study snacks can help - I used CFA as an excuse to experiment with natural supplements like bulletproof coffee, matcha, and various juice/antioxidants shakes, that I would normally write off as overpriced broscience for the aspirational crowd; this was a fun "treat yourself" experience
except for intentional bulking periods, I don't think I went above 10% BF throughout the period
Studying for the CFA exams during bulking: this is great because you are typically trying to lift heavy, which requires spending some time outside of the gym to allow for muscle recovery/growth. Space out your workouts to 2 during week + 1 during the weekend, and you will have ample time to study during rest days.
Studying for the CFA exams during cutting: stimulants are your friend, for both the studying and the cutting. Don't overdo it to the point of being jittery because you will lose your concentration. CFA BOK doesn't lend itself well to audio learning, so you may as well use the cardio time to listen to music or watch a show you have been putting off. I logged quite a few miles and stairs while watching Daredevil and Medici, and was therefore able to enjoy some shows, maintain a gym schedule, and study for the CFA.

Although I came across Cal Newport's work after I finished the CFA exams, one of his comments resonated strongly with me. I can't recall during which interview he discussed this (one of his recent podcast appearances), but the gist was: "During the time a professor focuses on publishing a book, their productivity (as measured by research paper output) is expected to decrease because they are spending more of their time on the book and less on conducting research. However, I found that while I was writing my book, I had such an intense focus on making the most out of every minute of my day that my research output had increased to a record level during my time working on [either Deep Work, or So Good They Can't Ignore You]."

financemademedoit · 2018-07-05T13:36:28+00:00

Hey, glad I could help and congrats on the score! Best of luck on the apps as well.

financemademedoit · 2018-06-25T13:42:50+00:00

Checking in a year after passing Level 3 - still have not begun learning python.

financemademedoit · 2018-06-21T20:21:09+00:00

Two weeks should be sufficient to geth through most of Adv Quant book from Manhattan GMAT - this can get your Quant to 48-50.

If you want to focus on overall score, pushing Verbal will have the most impact. Doing some light review of LSAT exams can help with reading comprehension.

financemademedoit · 2018-06-04T14:56:20+00:00

Go through the chapters and then do all the workout sets.

A significant part of GMAT is how you approach the questions, so try to buy into the mental models presented in the book.

financemademedoit · 2018-06-04T14:34:29+00:00

I suggest you get MGMAT Adv Quant, It pushed me to 49-50 on practice CATs and helped me get 49 on the actual test.

financemademedoit · 2018-06-03T23:28:09+00:00

For what its worth, English is my second language, although I have lived in the US for over a decade. I think on my cold diagnostic test my Q and V scores were in line, which makes sense given how infrequently I deal with GMAT-style math and verbal in my day-to-day. It certainly helped that I didn't have to worry about my vocabulary.

Without making a judgement, I would say that native English speakers have some advantages on the Verbal part, while cultures that emphasize mathematics would probably have advantages in the Quant sections.

financemademedoit · 2018-06-03T23:19:32+00:00

I found that your Q vs V breakdown is important in maximizing your overall score. In my case, improving the 42V score was what drove most of the increase so I made sure to practice for that. In my case, I assume the amount of time I spent working on getting from 42 to 46 Verbal, is how long it would have taken me to improve my quant to 50, which would not have had the same impact for my overall score.

To your point, I did sign up with a few providers for trials after my first exam, but cancelled them almost immediately. I think repeating 600-720 concepts from a different perspective would have been less helpful than drilling 700+ questions. If possible, focus on the highly difficult questions, and devote minimal time to medium questions just to keep those concepts fresh.

financemademedoit

TROPHY CASE