Exam Prep - Feel skrewed.

CFA Level I
#1

Hi everyone,

I really need some advice.

I’m currently prepping for L1 as well as my final Uni exams. I feel behind in both.

Uni - writing my exams between 22 & 30 May. The modules fully cover derivatives, most of fixed income, some corp fin and equity (CFA syllabus speaking).

My current status at prepping for L1 looks as follows:

Corp Fin - completed Schweser notes + EOCQ

Ethics and Quants - completed Schweser notes + EOCQ

Derivatives - completed CFA textbook Qs + all my Uni stuff (confident in this section)

Econ - done a rough read-through

Fixed Income - Uni stuff + Schweser notes

FRA - I’ve got the last 4 reading left in Schweser notes and EOCQ

Alt Inv - haven’t looked at

Equity - Uni stuff

Portfolio Man - done Schweser notes + EOCQ

Please can someone point me in some direction as to how on earth I’m gonna pass this exam.

Plan is to complete the rest (Alt Inv, Equity, FRA, Econ) by Secret Sauce + Schweser note EOC Summaries - by latest 14 May.

Then to hit the CFA book Qs and past exams from 30 May.

I’m tired, burning out and stressed and am struggling to keep productive.

Please give me a scare, a pep talk, an idea of a plan.

So appreciated xxxxx

#2

I can only console you in that believe me. A lot of us are feeling SCREWED. Going through practice questions and asking myself when I even learned this stuff. I did some practice questions for quant and got 50%.

#3

Thanks for the consolation :frowning:

I’m honestly stuck with how to move forward.

#4

You have loaded a lot on! Your prep looks like you’ve done well with readings. Biggest challenge now is keep your head clear so when you do study you have resources.

Eat and sleep, breathing and exercise all help. You feel like you don’t have time but these things give you productive time.

And everyone feels this way – even candidates without the load that you have!

I wrote a blog on some tips if you google “Peak Panic”

There’s this feeling of being stuck – can’t go forward and in too far to go back. That’s the same feeling of mountain climbers and marathon runners. Just keep going!

#5

Sorry for the super late reply, Cynthia. Been shackled with exams.

Thank you for your words - I really feel a lot easier. As we speak I’m busy perfecting my derivatives techniques for my exam on Wednesday.

Haven’t had a second to allocate to CFA work for a good 15 days now - safe to say I’m having a mega freak-out.

Mentally preparing myself for whats to come…

Planning on taking a few days off from Wednesday to unwind before I rewind and wind-up to write L1. The next 12 months I’ve got planned have perhaps stupidly taken it as a given that I’ll pass.

Planning to be back studying on Sunday. Plan: hit EOCQ’s - write a formal/live mock exam on the 9th - touch up on week spots - EOCQ and mocks from there. Any readings I haven’t completed I’ll get the hang of through questions and referring back?

Any tips?

Huge appreciation, thanks xx