Good morning all-
I just registered for the March 2017 Level 1 exam. I’ve purchased the Wiley book directly from Amazon to start. Can you guys please share the materials you used for the L1? I see that their are Uppermark and Kaplan materials, but they are way over my budget. Do you think the Wiley core book and a lot of practice tests will be sufficient?
Thanks in advance.
I just used the book and the uppermark questions- not the full package. I think it was like 260. Honestly it’s probably well worth it to have at least 1 qbank. Many of us on here would read a section, then immediately take a section quiz following. But you’re way ahead of the game now, and you should be able to get by on just reading for a couple of months.
I used Schweser study notes and the Uppermark Qbank. All in, I believe the study materials were about $500 between the two programs. I highly recommend the Uppermark Qbank for drilling questions. You are probably fine using the Wiley text.
Thank you for the responses. Hopefully the Wiley book will be sufficient. I will also purchase the Uppermark Qbank.
I would advise caution with Uppermark as I found it overpriced and support is highly questionable.
Noted. I will look into it.
I received the Wiley Book last night. I was surprised at how large it was! I plan to start reading it this weekend but did skim through some of the content and noticed a lot of formulas and equations. How much of these do I need to memorize? If I’m not mistaken, no pre-written formulas/equations will be given on test day.
I would say that the number of formulas you will actually need to know for the test is only a fraction of what is presented in the source Wiley Book. I studied with Uppermark - and while they provided every formula under the sun in both their books and formula sheet - you really only needed to know some of the simpler ones.
Note: A lot of the calculations are not simply “know the formula and plug and chug” type questions but being able to use concepts to arrive at numerical answers. Those types of questions might or might not use a direct formula.
^Right on. I think the number that was thrown around was 30 percent of questions use calculations. But a really high percentage of them did not involve the advanced level formulas. Honestly, I wouldn’t be too intimidated by them. I may be an outlier, but after the exam was over I felt like I wished there were more math problems (that was kind of due to overpreparing with the uppermark qbank rather than reading though)
I felt the same and really wanted them to use some of the crazy stuff I had learned haha. you definitely need to know how the formula works and how to derive certain information from the questions. At the end of the day I was glad that I over studied since there is nothing better knowing you passed
One other thing that I would add is that the emphasis on the quantitative-type of questions is more on interpreting and analyzing given information rather than applying random formulas. For example, instead of directly calculating the Jacque-Berra statistic, you might be given a table with skewness and kurtosis data to determine whether a distribution of data is normal.
This isn’t to say that random formulas can’t/won’t be tested (because like investing in general, past performance is no guarantee of future results), but learning the more obscure formulas isn’t likely to be the best use of your time to score more points on the test.
A bit off topic, but I have the Kaplan level 1 past paper book from Sept 2016 exams. I passed btw. If anyone wants it let me know and it’s yours. First come, first served. I’m not back in the UK until the start of November but if you want it I will happily meet you in November.
Interesting. I will try to take in as many of the formulas as possible. I plan to start reading this weekend.
Any recommendations on whether to start with the CAIA Ethics first? Or after the Wiley text.
After the wiley text. Ethics is tricky and I found it best to really dig into it until 4-6 weeks prior to exam. You can read it and take notes but I wouldn’t spend much time on it in the beginning.
Hey - I’m in London, looking to sit CAIA in feb 2017. Can collect. PMd Also any london candidates keen to chat about the upcoming CAIA exam feel free to PM. I’m normally not an advocate of ‘study groups’ but its a bit of an obscure qualifcation so more then anything to share past papers and see the different careers/career paths people take.
Is schweser enough? Im a level 3 cfa candidate and passed all prior with JUST SCHWESER.
Schweser is good for CAIA. used for both and passed at first attempt. drill that qbank
Hi,
I have old study books for L1 I can post you for free as long as you pay the P & P not sure of how much relevance they will be to you, I have no more use for them.
Just sat the exam in Sept 16.
Thanks
Anyone in NY/NJ interested in a study group?
I would be interested. I am in NJ. Thanks
I am in Freehold. Where are you?