Attempting to sit the CFA Level 1 in Dec - my platform and a few questions

Hi there folks, I know that preparing for CFA is an individual thing - and I’ve scoured the forums looking to answer some of my questions. Yet despite the two aforementioned acknowledgements, I want to throw a few questions out to see if I can get some further insight. - I come from an Eng background with no academic experience in finance or accounting - I have been working in a commodities and futures field for the past 5 years - all my knowledge was acquired through day to day workings and certain books i picked up along the way - To enhance my knowledge in the field I recently undertook two courses from my local university - 1) Capital Markets and Portfolio management 2) financial account - beginners. In both the courses I’ve scored very good marks. Now I am looking to give my CFA Level 1 exam this december. I also work full time - usually pulling in 12-14 hours Monday through Saturday. And, with prior commitments I wouldn’t be able to begin studying till end of September. With this in mind, and my background above - 1) will studying in all of Sept, all Oct, and all Nov be enough to prepare for the Dec exam? 2) Are there any other strategies I can leverage upon considering that knowledge learned from Cap Mkts + Fin Acct is still sitting fresh in my memory? For example my university offers a CFA tutorial course for over 2000 dollars, there are smaller online courses that charge north of $1000 - will these be worth it given my background? PS. I know topics like ethics still requires coverage on its own outside my knowledge from the two courses undertaken - Capital markets and Accounting. 3) With the PS note above aside, what additional major topics do I need to cover through self study till Dec? In short - how strong is my platform/base for the december exam? If anyone is able to help me out - in my planning stages for the CFA L1 - I’d appreciate your input very much Thanks

with those work hours and starting in sept, props if you can pass. you better start picking up a book now and reading every lunch break, every minute you are free. There is alot of info to memorize. formulas etc. And the thing that sucks is you will forgot half of what you read 3 months later, so you need to repeat over and over

thanks johnny - the reason I’m aiming for dec is because I have taken courses in investment and capital markets + accounting, which I’m hoping I can leverage upon heavily. I’m hoping this knowledge will overlap (significantly) with majority of the topics - maybe I’m wrong.

Only based on the limited study time you’ve allowed yourself can I say while it is certainly possible, you are not a ‘lock’ for passing in December: 1) it is possible if you are incredibly focused Sept/Oct/Nov…many have come before you (with similiar backgrounds) and been successful in a limited amount of time. The encouraging thing is your willingness to learn despite a commanding work schedule. 2) I recently started doing some personal tutoring (via Skype) and would be interested in visting more about working together, assuming you are looking for a more one-on-one instructor, rather than a classroom experience. I set up a simple website with contact information if you are interested: AnalystAIDE.com