Projected Benefit Obligations, Economic Pension Expense, etc

I found this pension topic to be very difficult. The concept is easy once you understood what’s going on but the problem is that it is hard to figure out what is really going on. Again, the CFAI text was poorly written in which the writer just keep on taking to himself. For each sub-topic, the CFAI just give one or two examples but you are left to reverse engineer on what’s going on. It does not help that the text keeps on switching from IFRS to US GAAP and back to IFRS. Very often, it is very unclear which standard it is discussing and so it is easy to get confused. There is also no proper formula because they expect you to reverse engineer from the examples. I took nearly two full days to figure out what’s happening and that’s after combining the resources from Schweser’s video slides, notes, Schweser’s notes’ question and the answers to the CFAI end of chapter questions. It is really so unproductive.

Intercorporate Investments

Once again, the Financial Statement Analysis is very difficult. I am stuck with the Intercorporate Investments Reading 21. On the surface, it is only one chapter. But the LOS requires knowledge of so many things and the comparison between US GAAP and IFRS is driving me crazy. The CFAI text is very poorly written. It just show one or at most two examples for each point and expect the reader the reverse engineer. It was exactly the kind of problem I faced in Level 1. The Schweser notes didn’t help much as it was also not well organized for this topic. However, the Video help a lot. Especially the video slides. Nevertheless, I have to compile my own notes. It is really a struggle. This year, I am not so prepared like last year. Also, after having such a low pay last year due to the recession, I am highly unwilling to sacrifice low pay again. I think I might actually fail this exam…