I know this topic has been discussed ad nauseum, I just wanted to discuss what to do after reading through the material for the first time. Maybe the forum could post tips on how to prepare with a month remaining. A little background info, I work 830-530 in a finance job, finance degree from US college, and have been studying since January. I’ve studied 6x a week with added workloads on the weekends. Recently I’ve upped my studying to every day of the week. I finished reading the L1 material last night. I have the CFAI books along with the Elan complete package. For the rest of the time leading up to the Level 1 exam, I plan on reading through the 11th hour review guide and doing EOC questions from the book and practice questions from Elan. I am planning on taking a sample exam this Saturday and Sunday. I will continue doing practice questions and EOC questions during the week with sample and mock exams on the weekends. Any other thoughts or tips to help prepare for Level 1?
I am in a similar position having finished my first read through the material last week (using Elan). As I finished each reading, I completed the corresponding CFAI EOC questions and read the summary out of the CFAI book. I began reading the 11th hour last week and was about half way through when I completed the first Elan mock over the weekend. This week I plan to finish the 11th hour and review everything that I missed in the mock. I scored 75% but had to cheat by looking at notecards for many of the formulas so that is not an entirely accurate reflection of where I am. For the next month I plan to take at least 3 more mocks on the weekends. I will also attempt to reread each EOC summary and complete all of the EOC questions again. Given that I work full-time, I’m not sure if this is realistic or the most beneficial way to review the material. I also have a lot of formulas to memorize. Looks like I’ll finish with around 300 hours of study time. Any thoughts? Good luck to everyone.
Questions, questions and more questions. Review any notes you made in the margins or notebooks, work on lots of practice problems, attend any live mock exams your CFA society may offer. Studying with a friend or colleague is goo to identify weaknesses you may not have thought of.
is anyone here planning to attend the live mock exam ?
ive made notes to everything but econ and fra, as well as done the eoc questions. I plan to review during the week doing schweser and finishing those two sections in the next three weekends. the last two weekends I will use for mocks
I am about one third of the way through Elan’s eleventh hour and I definitely think its helping so far. I took a CFA sample exam on Sunday and scored a 70% overall. I scored a 90% on both of the topics I had covered through the eleventh hour (ethics and quantitative methods). @ Miss*Yiota I am attending two live mocks - 1 this Saturday through BSAS and 1 next Saturday through Stalla. I plan to take the CFAI mock Saturday the 21st. I am a little nervous for this Saturday’s mock - I really don’t feel ready. I am very weak in Economics and Financial Statement Analysis. My plan for the next month is to finish Elan’s eleventh hour (I should be done by the end of next week), review mock results, and go back through questions in Stalla’s passmaster. I will focus on my weak areas first. Personally, I hated all the EOC questions that weren’t multiple choice. I felt like they took WAY too much time. If I go back through the EOC questions I will have to skip those. Anyone else feel the same way?
Yes I didn’t like comprehensive questions either. I just skimmed through them. Never really cared to solved them.
I also despised the non-MC EOC questions, particularly FI. They took forever to complete and I’m not sure they helped me that much given that FI was my worst section on the mock.
I hate those comprehensive questions, especially in Quant and FI. During my review process, I am planning to substitute those with the questions from Elan.
dcfox83 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I am about one third of the way through Elan’s > eleventh hour and I definitely think its helping > so far. I took a CFA sample exam on Sunday and > scored a 70% overall. I scored a 90% on both of > the topics I had covered through the eleventh hour > (ethics and quantitative methods). > > @ Miss*Yiota I am attending two live mocks - 1 > this Saturday through BSAS and 1 next Saturday > through Stalla. I plan to take the CFAI mock > Saturday the 21st. I am a little nervous for this > Saturday’s mock - I really don’t feel ready. I am > very weak in Economics and Financial Statement > Analysis. > > My plan for the next month is to finish Elan’s > eleventh hour (I should be done by the end of next > week), review mock results, and go back through > questions in Stalla’s passmaster. I will focus on > my weak areas first. Personally, I hated all the > EOC questions that weren’t multiple choice. I > felt like they took WAY too much time. If I go > back through the EOC questions I will have to skip > those. Anyone else feel the same way? You sound like you’re on the right track…I’m about halfway done the 11th hour as well…how did you find the passmaster questions to CFAI’s mock (I’ve done about half the passmaster questions).
kinda starting to freak out. i bought the 2000 elan prac questions, im around 60-80% in each reading. There is just so much freakin material. ugh.
Welcome to my world…I’m kinda freaking out, so many stuffs to master and feel like I need more time to review evrything. Also the retention issue, damned !!! I will take my 1st mock this weekend, an Elan one, hope the result won’t just break me down tkiv Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > kinda starting to freak out. i bought the 2000 > elan prac questions, im around 60-80% in each > reading. There is just so much freakin material. > ugh.
Same here!! Retention issue is definitely the biggest problem and even more embarrassing is that you know, “you know this concept and it’s so damn easy” but still don’t remember and can’t crack at the time of exam or make silly mistakes. I wish I had more time to prepare. I am planning to take my first(and second as well) mock this weekend. Let’s see how it goes.
I don’t think I can take a mock exam now without a glance at my notes or formula…I still feel like concepts are not stuck in my brain yet, loool
Victory loves practicing.
I know, that’s why Im planning to take some days off and fight to win this F*battle optiix Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Victory loves practicing.
After revising two times, I started feeling that there is nothing called perfect feeling with CFA. You just need to start practicing even if you don’t feel ready and keep revising the concepts. I would say go for it!
Personally I feel that I’m doing pretty okay with 4 weeks to go. Now I am just going to take mock exams, read over the stuff Ive highlighted in the study notes and read the 11th hour whenever i have time on my i-pad.
Wow - you guys sound like you’re doing way better than i am 
I’d finished with my first reading on the 5th of May (Schweser), and i’d skipped quite a few of the concept checkers. Right now, i’m going over the material a second time, while making brief notes for every study session, and i’m doing questions from the Schweser QBank as well. (an average of 80 questions per Study Session) So, in brief - 6th May - 25th May - Cursory reading of the Schweser material (plus note making) + Roughly a 1400 Questions from the QBank over these 20 days 26 May - 2nd June - Atleast 3 Schweser mock papers, and the official CFAI mock paper I just plan to revise my self-made notes during the last 2 days. Really hoping to make it through!