I’m an undergrad studying a business degree with the choice of specialising in finance in my final year. I will be undertaking a year long internship as an assistant accountant ( internship is part of my course)
However I am also interested in trading and I’m considering sitting the level 1 exam this September, my question is will I be able to pass the exam if I start studying in June or should I just get the level 1 and ethics book and register for the March 2014 exams? so I’ll have about 10 months before I sit the March exam.
I really appreciate your feedback… keep in mind that I will be working full time as an intern over the summer!
Youll be fine with a couple of months of studying. I took CAIA L1 Sept 2012 after taking CFA L1 in June 2012 and working full time. I think I put in 6-8 weeks for CAIA Level 1 (and obviously was not studying every day until the final weeks).
I started each CAIA level in mid-to-late July for a September test date. For me, six to eight focused weeks was enough for each level.
As mentioned above, be sure to do lots of questions. The “test banks” for the different prep services (Uppermark and Schweser) were fairly similar to the actual exam (in format and relative content) at each level.
Thanks for your feedback its reassuring, are the prep services neccessary for level 1, I read somewhere on the CAIA’s website that the material provided by them should be sufficient for level 1 exams only.
I’m just short on cash so can only afford the exam and core texts, I think they are just to expensive for a student I’ll only be able to afford them a few months into my internship.
Getting the main intro to core topics this Friday EXCITED!
I never actually opened a CAIA book so I wouldn’t know but mind you, my employer paid for all the level 1 materials and schweser. I had to pay out of pocket for level 2 unfortunately.
How is everybody progressing on their studies for level 1?
I am half way through the CAIA textbook on Chapter 16: Equity Hedge Funds. I am enjoying the book so far. I like the fact that the material is about one third of the size of any level of the CFA or FRM material. I also signed up for the Schweser Qbank. Planning on getting everything done in 9 weeks.
I never bought the CAIA textbooks…I only used Schweser for both levels. You should at least get the Qbank from the prep services. The schwesernotes are a far shorter read I think than the CAIA textbook.