Actuary Taking level 1

I am going to be taking Level 1 next Spring or possibly Fall. How much study time is typically needed for someone who is previously well versed in the material? Is there a good condensed study guide that would let me get through it in 50-100 hours? Any recommendations would be appreciated Cheers Commodore.

This question has been addressed many times on this forum; use the Search function and you’ll see lots of useful discussion. It’s very hard to give advice on how much time it will take someone in your position, since it depends so much on how in-depth your knowledge is, whether your previous experience is as broad as the Level I material (including, say, ethics) your personal study habits, etc. The most popular condensed study notes are from Schweser and Stalla, and each of those providers has various options available. Previous threads will tell you lots about the advantages and disadvantages of those.

on the same note, Level 1 is offered only in June & December.

WHy study condensed notes? IF you are already going to shell out almost $1000 bucks on registeration on the CFA website, take your time and study all the material. If your well versed, than you will just get through the material that much faster and that much more easily. Also, if you think you can do it in under 100-150 hours, why not just take it Dec. 1?

I want to clarify that by condensed notes I did not mean either schweser or stalla

take a look at the curriculum. i was an actuarial math major when i was in college and although i dont have any practical actuarial experience… i imagine you will have to study more than you think you will. just consider the fact that there are PMs that have failed this exam and they are exposed this everyday or at least sections of the exam (just because you are in equity doesnt mean you’ll pass the altern investments or FI sections). anyhow. the actuarial exams are more mathematically focused and the CFA exams are not. they ask a lot more theoretical questions… apply this concept type questions. Also, the actuarial exams split up the topics a lot more in their exams (or at least they used to be… stats and calc on the first exam, econ and something else on the 2nd). the most challenging part of the CFA exams IMO is the amount of material you need to keep in your head at a time. you need to know about a lot of different subjects at one time. I imagine taht FI, quantitative methods, econ will be a breeze for you, but you might have to spend more time on FSA, alternative investments, corp finance and maybe even derivatives (they were changing the FSA exams and i dont know what are in them). you will most def see some stuff that you recognize (CAPM was a section in my theory of interest class i believe), but that doesnt mean you should skip that whole section. in other words… dont underestimate the exam. how many of the actuarial exams have you passed?

^Good post. I’m sure I studied more than 50 hours for CFA I and I used to teach those classes…