Hi guys - I know this is a very subjective matter, but I would greatly appreciate if you can share your experience with balancing your social life and study time during your CFA journey. I’ve been eliminating my social life lately and am kind of worried that I get burned out. Thanks!
This is definitely a commitment not to take lightly, and having just sat L3 for the first (and hopefully only) time this exam does become all consuming so some spillover into social life and family is almost inevitable. A lesson I learnt when I resat L2 and carried over to L3 was that you can never start too early, so I began reading the material in September 2018, aiming to finish by Christmas giving me c. 5 months of question and mock exam practice. A couple of months out I decided to set aside one day a week when I did no study (normally a Sunday) as I noticed my performance in questions was sub-par and felt I needed a full day away from the material to reset.
Is it possible to have “balance”? Probably not, but if you plan your time well there is no reason you cant have a night off a week to do something else. Also helps to know that studying won’t be forever…
You’ll have very little social life on this journey, especially during the last 3-4 months before the exams. Eat healthy, exercise, get enough sleep and rip it up every once in a while and you’ll be fine.
When I was preparing for L2 and L3, I went through a crazy schedule but still managed to put in around 500 hours. I was working full time, taking a couple of MBA courses, and studying for the CFA exams. Unfortunately, I could not afford to have much of a social life. I managed burnouts by planning ahead and leave more than enough days for breaks (I guess you can substitute breaks as social activities?). Good luck to you!
You don’t necessarily have to be a hermit as you prepare for the exams (unless you have no finance background and need to study every single thing in the curriculum and spend 1,000+ hours per exam). Just cut the useless things in your life so you have more time to socialize. Spend less time on social media, playing video games or watching TV. Study efficiently. Study third party materials and notes, so you don’t have to peruse 5,000 pages of CFAI material. Focus more on practice questions and recalling concepts/formulas.
Or use an all-in strategy or I call it IB style whereby you live your normal life up until 1 month or even less before the exam. You then go all-in (taking holidays from your job) and study 12-15h a day. You can basically get the 300h in as little as 3 weeks. (and so 0 impact on your social life, just say you’re going on a vacation and turn off your phone).
Study an hour or two each day Mon-Thurs. Party Fri-Sat, study 4-6 hours on Sunday. If you started 5-6 months before you will be golden.I started around 180 days to go and I’m 80 hours in with multiple QBanks completed and honestly half assing/studying “when i feel like it”. Realistically if you let this exam consume your whole life you should reconsider. I’m 22 and fresh out of undergrad so if you need that much extra time for L1 don’t do CFA. Half of this is refresher for the real challenge that lies ahead in L2 and L3. (Multiple coworkers and friends have already completed and told me this)
Work during the day, Family time in the evening and Start Study after 10.00 PM in the night. Every day.
Weekends are family time during the day and in the evening. Study in the night after 10.00 PM