CFA Level 1 for December 2015

blitzspades · February 17, 2015, 4:20am

Hello AF members, I have gained great insight from the site and happy to be a part of it. I’ll get right to it. Original plan was to give level 1 a go for June but after getting through only one book through Wiley / Elan guides, videos, topic questions and CFAI blue-box and EOC questions, I realize with work and other commitments that June is nearly impossible. Am thinking of a longer study period (starting in March) with a first run through of all the materials (as described above) by end of July. This will leave August - October for review and all of November (or earlier) for practice exams. Would like to know input from the community. Thank you!

n_jaya · February 17, 2015, 12:12pm

Hi Members,

I am new to this forum. I am engineering graduate with MBA in operations management. I am planning to write Dec 2015 exams.

AndyBernard · February 17, 2015, 2:16pm

I think June is doable, try to study 3 hours a day, in three broken parts (AM-Lunch-PM), you would make barely above the recommended 300 hours and if you start today and have a reading per day (which is fair even using CFAI curriculum) you would finish the curriculum in mid-April leaving ~50 days to review and do practice questions.

blitzspades · February 17, 2015, 4:09pm

As much as I wish I had the time to do this as such, it will not physically be possible for June without burning out.

Just want to know if an extended study plan is doable and what kind of hours I would be looking at from March to July before the last 4 months of intense review. I am going to attempt to get 2-3 weeks off before the December exam as well.

dwheats · February 17, 2015, 4:16pm

I don’t think 3 months of review is necessary. I would say 1 month is easily sufficient. I had 2 weeks.

I suppose if you have the time anyways then why the heck not b ut I would encourage you to write in June.

If you write in December, you will not get marks back until the end of January and not sign up for L2 until february, in which case you will only have 4 months to study for arguably the hardest level.

You already have a book down so you are in okay shape. Aim for finishing about 1 book every two weeks.

blitzspades · February 17, 2015, 4:38pm

Thanks for the advice. Again to reiterate my schedule is ultra-busy from now until beginning of June. Not including CFA it’s about 60+ hour work weeks and I was starting to feeling burnt out (and physically ill) hence why I want to do it in December. What this means is if I do keep on studying it will be at a much slower pace with the objective of completing a full run through of the material by end of July (where many candidates will have just started their studying then) so what’s left is ‘review’ but can really focus on practice questions and areas of weakness from August-October and leave November for practice exams -thoughts?

Even with a successful level 1 in December, the idea is to start up for level 2 studying the following fall (I’ve heard too many awful stories for level 2 to leave it with just 4 months of studying)

AndyBernard · February 17, 2015, 6:14pm

In this case, that would be something like I did, but in my case I wasn’t allowed to take level 1 because I wasn’t in my last year of college, so I’m studying for over one year, intensively for about four months. The main problem with extended study plan is forgetting details, so I would recommend engage in periodic exercises reviewing everything.

blitzspades · February 17, 2015, 10:33pm

Is this what you are doing now? Speading over the studying over a year until the December 2015? What is your plan?

n_jaya · February 18, 2015, 12:22pm

Hi AF member,

I am from India (Tamil Nadu) and planning to do CFA levela 1 by Dec 2015. Can anyone guide me where can I take coaching (classroom or online virtual). are there any private teachers available who can take coaching via skype?

AndyBernard · February 18, 2015, 1:31pm

I will take the June exam.

That was and is my approach, let’s see if it works.

Rimy228 · February 22, 2015, 2:56pm

Hi guys,

I’m new to the forum and planning on taking the level 1 exam in December. @blitzspades I’m in the same boat as you and opted to go for the December option.

BTW @blitzspades and @AndyBernard would you guys mind shedding some light as to how you’re finding your third party content providers (Schweser and Wiley)? I’m to a certain extent undeceive as to which one to pick but definitely leaning towards Wiley. Any feedback would be much appreciated.