Hi,
I will be giving my L1 exam on Dec 5. It has been two months I am studing on and off. Following is my progress:
Volume 1: Ethics - could not complete, very boring
Quant - Completed
Volume 2: Micro economics - at reading 15
I am not able to focus and concentrate on exam preparation. I am thinking of taking regular inperson classes.
Can any one suggest some in-person classes except Kaplan. Kaplan is very expensive.
Not to be harsh, but if you are not able to focus after that much I am not sure if you should pursue this. Level 1 is a drop in the bucket and you still have 97% of the work required to pass level 1 left.
Hi JDP1845: I will say it is too harsh. But thanks for the inputs. I am possitive about passing my cfa l1 in dec, 2015 and then I will plan to take L2 and L3.
Can some one please share me the plan to follow during study.
#comprehension #retention #practice
#outofMILLIONSofsperm…
#YOUwerethefastest?
This exam does not seem like it is for you. It does not seem like you have the capability to complete. I would suggest you pursue something else.
Ok, so you’ve been trudging along. The exam is still a few months away. Don’t listen to the downers who’ve been posting. That said, it’s time to get going!!!
I’ve self studied, so I can’t recommend any live classes. You could try video courses - I watched the Wiley ones for Level II and the accounting ones by Peter Olinto were seriously good.
Also here’s a thread from CFA Hook Ups of a couple of people looking to form a study group in Boston. http://www.analystforum.com/forums/cfa-forums/cfa-hook-up/91342754
Alternatively, you post regularly on AF as you progress through your studies. We’re quite a little community. You’ll start recognizing everyone’s handles in no time at all and eveyone is quite helpful if you ask specific questions regarding the content.
Mostly though, you need to map out a study schedule TODAY and stick to it. You’ll want to have read all of the material (and done all of the end of chapter questions at least once) 3-4 weeks before the exam. Keeping to a schedule might help light the fire under your feet.
Cracked up at “could not complete, very boring”.
Lol!!!
‘i studied for 10minutes and then got bored and fapped instead’
Dude!!! L1 is a piece of cake!! And if you can’t study then just forget it all! YOu need to work your ass off for L2 and L3!! It’s an overwhelming amount of information to absorb. If you’re bitching and fapping over L1 then you aint got a chance with L2.
Hey there! Ill let you know what I did for Level 1 and Passed the first time through, however, definitely will need to change it up for Level 2. I used the Schweser notes. I started a quick pass through to get familiar with the concepts. then I went back through a second time. Used the CFA EOCs, significantly harder than Schwheser. Take mock exams starting in November. Its really about the amount of time you spend. I starting in November for Level 1 in June and studied a minimum of 2 hours of day and ramped it up to closer to 3-4 the few months before. IT favors the prepared. By the end of it all I ended up passing through the materials 3 times. You got this!
From my point of view as someone who has started his preparation 20 days ago - you may have problem in finishing all the readings until the exam day. If you are good at staying with the goal and try to reach it even when odds are against you - maybe next examination date will be good for you? Think about that.
Before CFA, I wasn’t great at studying but one thing that helped me pass was to make myself study nearly every single day. If I missed a day, I had to make it up the next day. So if my target was 2 hours every single day and I missed a day for some reason, I’d have to do 4 hours the next day.
Unless if it’s an emergency, no days off. The risk of taking again, and cost, both in time and money, is too high. You either do or you don’t.
For those who are positive and never give up, but still have issues with motivation (which is normal) I would suggest taking TimePrep app (iphone/ipad). It is an excelent study planner that gives you feedback on how much you have to study taking into account your study preferences and amount of materials you have to master. It also enables you to reschedule your study sessions once you fail to complete it. It is excelent tool to keep you up to your schedule and make sure you complete the preset goals on time.
I sat for the L1 exam last December and did not START studying until mid-August. That being said, I studied 20-25 hours per week from mid-August until the test date. So it is definitely possible and really not too difficult once you accept the sacrifice . There really is no shortcut, especially if you’re not familiar with the material from before; you should read the CFAI material. That being said, you don’t have to follow the order of the readings and maybe you’d be better off starting at a topic you find more interesting/have a background in.
Not to be a downer, but if you’re having trouble finding motivation to study right from the beginning, this will be an incredibly arduous journey. If you’re lacking the motivation now, then why did you sign-up to begin with? You probably should take a day to really think about it and figure out if the sacrifice of at least 1000 hours of studying needed to get the charter is worth it to you. If the charter is means to an end that you desire, use that as motivation. More than half of the battle with the CFA is accepting the sacrifice you will have to make to achieve the charter - I know many average people who got the charter because they set out to do it and wouldn’t stop until they did; I also know of geniuses who didn’t get the charter because they didn’t care enough. If you can’t figure out why you’re doing this, you should probably stop before you pay the cost in time and money.
To be fair (and I realize I did make light of his post as well) - he did not say he wasn’t motivated, just that that he was having issues focusing/concentrating. I can definitely relate to that.
I graduated college in 2007 and didn’t sign up for the CFA program until two years ago… and I did literally no studying of anything in between. Even when I did study in college it was poorly executed and consisted of all-night cramming, which we can all agree is not something that works here. So my first two months with the Level 1 books was a fierce battle into learing how to sit and concentrate on the material without getting easily distracted. I remember my first attempts at studying in a coffee shop… I would read about three lines of text and then just start people watching. Read four more lines and then look at my phone. Then realize an hour had gone by, and everything I had read I hadn’t understood or retained.
But I guess that’s where the motivation did come in to play. Rather than raise the white flag I just kept at it and eventually I could grind out a couple hours of productive studying at a time. I found my Level II experience to be even more productive than Level I in terms of staying focused and keeping distractions to a minimum. Hoping that’s the case for next year too!
In summary: don’t be all that shocked if early on in Level 1 you’re having a hard go of concentrating. For me it was a slow build into being able to productively study. And if you’re stuck on certain topics, just move on. It’s still early in the game for the December test.