I feel like I may be falling behind. I’m only on the third study session after spending way too much time on the ethics portion. Is anyone else in the same boat, or do I need to put in some extra hours and catch up? Edit: Thanks for the reply. I’m going to start devoting more hours a week as I am clearly falling behind.
Hi there, not sure how much time you’re dedicating to studying (as in, do you have a full time job and family, or whether you’re studying the whole day) and also what your background is. I have a full time demanding job, and also very limited background in finance – and I would advise you to pick up speed if you’re in the same boat. I am on FRA now, and this material is pretty challenging and needs to be allocated a good chunk of time. I went to FRA after Ethics, Quant, and Portoflio Management. I’m intending to pick up Econafger I finish with FRA.
Best of luck!
I’m following the textbooks in order and I’m about to start fixed income.
i would recommend speeding up your studying. It’s important not to only finish the books but to review the material and do mock exams. To do that effectively you’ll need at least 6-8 weeks.
I’m about 250 hours into my course of study. Initially, I had intended to complete all of the study sessions in order, but lately I’ve been “cherry-picking” through the material in order to maintain my interest. I will be completing Fixed Income this week. After that, I still need to work through Portfolio Management and Derivatives. I estimate that I will have about 10 weeks left for review. My retention of FRA the first time through was minimal. I’ll likely take a week off of work soon in order devote an extra 50+ hours to FRA.
I’m on Session 11, reading 40 right now. I go in the order of the textbooks. I do about 3 hours Monday to Friday and 4-5 each on the weekends.
I plan to do one session per week and leave 6 weeks for review/mocks.
I’ve learned most of these topics though. I graduated last year BBA undergrad with a concentration in finance. So most of these topics are review and recall. There are some new readings such as duration of bonds. Didn’t really study it that much during my time in university.
Bucks County resident?
I started in January and I am currently have 1479 pages under my belt. The curriculum has roughly 3000 pages of material, so I’m half way there. The plan is to finish by April 15th, going at a rate of 35 pages a day (3-4 hours a day).
That will leave me about a month and a half to review.
Close, Philadelphia 
Thanks. I actually have a finance background, but I htink I got way too caught up in the ethics portion. I’m just now realizing that I really need to pick up the speed on this material. I’m planning on leaving the Quant Methods towards the end of the April as this will most likely be review. I work a 9-5 but I’m going to be staying in the office about 1.5 hours later to study then get another 1.5 hours at home.
MY APPROACH…
MY study approach is solve all the curriculum EOC as well as the blue box questions as many times as possible plus solve 100 MCQs from the Qbank for every study session ( 100 questions * 18 study session=1800 approx)and review them as many times as possible…
Is my strategy correct,…
please post ur views on this !!!
I am following the Kaplan books in order. Started in Dec, currently midway through Equities. Then on to FI, Alt, and finally Deriv. Plan to review and practice over and over and over again after finishing all the readings.
I am done with Ethics, Quant, FRA and almost done with Econ. Have done most of the EOC’s and big chunk of the FRA and Quant advanced & intermediate questions in the Q-Bank. My plan is to be done with the readings by the end of April and focus on consistent scores in May (Elan Qbank), inclusive of doing a mock per week. Let’s see if it works out (another flu wave is going around in the office at the moment).
BTW according to the hours needed to clear Level I - is 300h the time spent reading, or is it inclusive of review and practice?
I think the 300 hours is only reading. But it also depends on your background. It could range from 200 hours to 400+.
I have a finance background from university (no work experience) but I haven’t kept track of how many hours I put in.
Well the curriculum has about 3000 pages - which would mean a 10 page per hour average…I think the CFA states total prep time.
You could be done with Schweser and EOC’s in around 200hrs which would leave you with 100hrs of practice and review. Which is probably what I am heading towards ( am an extreme slow reader with a business undergrad).
I have just started referring Schweser notes for level 1.
Being from an engineering background , i find that there are lot of financial terms which obstructs my flow. and It’s problematic to refer online every time i am stuck with a terminology leading to very slow progress in the chapters. Any suggestion how to come out of it ??
Ravi,
I might be mistaken, but I think its important to understand at least the basic terminology. In the end, concepts build upon each other so it would be prudent to understand them.
Hope this helps.
Santiago
I think the ‘300 hours’ is in reference to total prep time. Just like everyone says, its a +/- statistic so it will be different for everyone, but that is a good guideline for total prep time. I personally have not been keeping track. More along the lines of tracking my schedule for covering certain material and then practicing.
IMO, read ethics once at the start, then dont look at it until May. Then start hammering out. like crazy (some every day). Memorizing it now or in Jan doesnt help much because youll forget it by May.
I also recommend the schweser MP3s, especially for the ethics. I used to listen to that on repeat on my commute. They pretty much read you the standards and have examples, so after months of driving to and from work, you learn a good amount.
I wish i followed this approach. I spent way too much time on Ethics. I feel like i could have did a qucik reading then refreshed myself once a week.
Hi…just started off with corporate finance,…plan to finish in 2 days…