Hi all, For those of you who are currently taking the CFA, or have just taken the exam, would you say that the courses you took in Univ helped you out a lot? To put it differently, without any background in taking Finance courses, did you find that studying from the CFA text (+ Schweser …) was sufficient in understanding the info? Thanks very much.
Yes. (I had finished a strong finance mba) The second question is for the complement of people able to answer the first?
My accounting undergrad covered a lot of it. Micro/macro/quant/fsa/finance.
yup, my finance undergrad helped me alot. ALOT. If i hadn’t gone to uni, the CFA material would have been very hard to grasp i think.
Thanks everybody
I was a finance/psychology double major and none of the topics were too hard for me to grasp. none. I’ll always maintain that what makes the CFA hard is the breadth of information and the way the questions are worded, not the information being learned. However, some of the FSA concepts are kind of tricky on their own, but overall if you are any kind of business major, the concepts shouldn’t be too bad…at least for level 1.
I think your baground will matter alot in understanding what CFA centered !!
I had no financial background and knew nothing about accounting, economics and corporate finance. CFAI + Schweser materials were sufficient.
Not a business/finance/econ major in college, Schweser notes alone is enough to pass.
buffetier, which Schweser notes did you purchase? I posted this in another thread but no one answered my question 
Did you get Premium, Essential, or Q&A Pkg? Or others, what do you recommend? Thx a lot
I do have a Finance background in both my Undergrad and my post Grad, so CFA Level 1 atleast doesnot seem really difficult. Though I can say anybody can pass CFA if the right amount of dedication put in. A friend of mine who passed all three Levels latest being June 08 (Level 3), all in the first attempts with only and Under Grad in Engineering. For your second question, I am using Stalla so not really sure about Schweser. But I would suggest the premium package with the Video CDs or weekly online classes(if your are flexible with timings) as these would give you a greater understanding of problems especially when it comes to the more practical parts.
I used Essential, but I started very late and didn’t get the chance to use the CD, online stuff, etc. I just read the notes. Start early, put in the time, you should be all right.
Well I am a fulltime undergrad and I am still waiting for cfa to OK me going ahead with the program. So, after I get the ok from them, I’d be starting in January. Jan-June is 6 months so I’m thinking that will be enough time to study. I’ll be a hermit in the library all year long, but if that’s what I gotta do then, I will. So, maybe I wouldn’t have enough time to do the online stuff. Thanks for your input guys.
The undergrad background I had helped though I don’t deny that I forgot some stuff so… FSA was a bit hard for me cos there were some stuff which I didnt cover in class, alternative investments wasnt covered in school also…but the rest like corp. finance was a breeze so i actualyl skipped that section while studyign
I was in your situation JJane - was a senior. Don’t procrastinate. I didn’t start till May, and was lucky I passed, but May was REALLY painful! Start whenever you can.
As a chemical analyst I found my education background didn’t help my level I exam. I guess if you know English and math you can manage it.