Dear students from Classes 1A and 1B,
 
Thanks for your participation in the quiz last Sunday. For those of you who scored 7 and above (out of 10), you are on track and do keep the fire burning; for those scoring less, do review the errors and find out where you have gone wrong.  It is heartening to see some of you scoring 9 or 10-- well done!
This goes to prove my claim that the top 1% of the global cohort have the potential to score >95%, which means the target passing score is still close to 70%.  When I shared about my exam preparation strategy in class, I said that all material needs to be covered at least once by abt 8-10 May (just 3 wks away), thereafter the focus will be on practising mock exam papers to gear up for the actual day.  We have a mock exam review on 16-17 May, so target that weekend as the ultimate deadline when you should have completed all revision.
 
In this week's mailer, I will respond to a query during class on how to derive the CAPM.  There's no special way to derive the CAPM; it's a conceptual model to express what the required / expected return on a stock should be and I try to interpret the terms of the CAPM equation, just in case some of you didn't fully graspthem when I explained in class.  I will also respond to some questions from Stella Passmaster sent by someone from Class 1A. 

Why you need to focus on exam now?  Becoz even folks with major in Finance can FAIL Level 1 exam
Some of you have also started asking me on how to join the industry, career path, etc... The answers to all these career-related questions are found in one of my mailers last year "Continue learning and Keep on networking", which I will share with you all after your exams.  For now, I will suggest that you focus on the upcoming exams and maybe if you have a bit of time, start reading the piece below on "Embracing the right mindset in networking".  Last season, I got to know two friends (at CFA networking events) who were fresh from school: one had a Master's in Finance and the other had a Bachelor of Commerce (major in Finance), and both were doing Level 1 exam in Dec 2008.  We would have expected my two friends to pass (given that they major in Finance and are young and fresh from school with lotsa energy); unfortunately, both didn't make it becoz they were also trying to look for a job (in the finance industry) while they were preparing for the exam and eventually got distracted.  Eventually, they also didn't manage to find a job in Singapore (we know it has been so difficult since 2008Q4 till now), but the fortunate thing is, both have gone back to their hometowns and found jobs in the finance industry through their personal contacts, which once again proves that networking is so IMPT.
 
It is easy to get distracted by many other things in life, so my advice is: FOCUS your attention on exam preparation and leave everything else (including career switches) till after the exam.
 
Study well and have a good week ahead.