Hi All, do you have any suggestions for where to start? Ethical and Professional Standards first and just go up on the list with Quantitative Method, Economics, Financial Reporting, etc.? Or is it better to focus on the Sections with higher weight % first? I’m using Schweser. thank you and hope you all had a nice xmas!
I think CFAI does not determine order randomly, so I would follow that. One exception being that you could skip ethics and leave that until the end, but I would definitely go quant, econ, FSA, etc.
Start with FSA
I read CFAI text in its entirety. Everything flowed smoothly from one section to the other, and would often reference stuff from the previous books. It helped refresh your memory on subjects you read 2, 3 books ago.
I started with ethics and ran the whole lot straight through, then finished with another read of ethics. I think that this was a good way to do it. Firstly I had two scheduled reads of ethics (which was needed) and secondly as previously stated the books are designed to be read straight through (the will mention about how some topics will be covered in future reading and they refer back to previous readings to add clarification and further points). A disclaimer I would definitely recommend this if you have the time to get it done - noting that it is the end of December I would think that it is probably the case. I hope it helps.
aussie_jaco Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I started with ethics and ran the whole lot > straight through, then finished with another read > of ethics. I think that this was a good way to do > it. Firstly I had two scheduled reads of ethics > (which was needed) and secondly as previously > stated the books are designed to be read straight > through (the will mention about how some topics > will be covered in future reading and they refer > back to previous readings to add clarification and > further points). > > A disclaimer I would definitely recommend this if > you have the time to get it done - noting that it > is the end of December I would think that it is > probably the case. > > I hope it helps. +1 Just start sometime soon and have a nice, relaxed, clearheaded read of the CFAI books. I have learned the hard way that : shortcuts + CFA exams = metaphorically getting ‘packed’ unexpectedly on results day on the b-ball court by some dude with a CFAI jersey on who came out of nowhere when you thought you were just going to go in for a quick layup - -
I think you have to do the quantitative subjects in order…ie quant and fixed income and derivatives. I’d start with a strength first…to give confidence. I started with Eco…
I started with ethics and ended with ethics. I read the CFAI texts entirely, then went through all of the Schweser material.
i started with eco and fsa… fsa is pretty huge so u’l need quite some time to get done with it… n plz follow the order of the quants chapters, u need to understand the prev chapter to move ahead… atleast thats what i thought…n then as manavec said FI and deri come next. ethics…do it as many times as possible… n like i said in the other post, plz dont ignore GIPS! but dont neglect other subjects coz of ethics…i had started ethics a lil later down the game… but ended with it like kevin… good luck
Ethics is a good introduction to the curriculum, I think. Plus, the ethics questions were the most tricky, imo. CFAI seemed to go out of its way to ask the questions with as little clarity as possible. I started with ethics, and was able to score >90% on most of the practice tests. I’m sure this would not be the case if I had put it off - the more time you have to practice it, the better. After that, I wish I had went to FSA. It’s a lot of questions, and a lot to learn - especially with all of the ancillary trivial pursuit questions that they asked. Other than spending more time on FSA by bumping it up a bit, I think the order that CFAI put them in was pretty good.
timea, I don’t think the order you read CFA book matters. Later books reference early ones several times, but the material is explained from scratch anyway. Thus, you will not be in disadvantage. Personally, I went through familiar material first and left everything else for later. FSA was extra painful, so I was glad to have it saved for “dessert”. Ethics are quite convoluted so you will want to read through it several times. It’s a short read, so have a go at it in the beginning and at the end of your studying.
follow the order of the books. thats what i did do not skip ethics. read it once, then read it again at the end. it took me about 6hrs to read through ethics. you should definately read it twice, there is an “ethics adjustment” when they grade the exams. if you fail but are close to passing, if your ethics section is strong, they can bump you into the passing zone
depends on your personal preference and strength/weakness … you can search on AF for old post on study order. I’d suggest start with FSA/Quant and recapture FSA/Quant again at the end, i also saved Econ for the very last. Ethics you don’t have to study the session in isolation, you can read that on the subway/bus or during your lunch break at work and together with other sessions, just keep reading it.
Agree with FINDIS07… It depends on your strong and weak areas. I started with Fixed Income since FSA was relatively strong for me. I too did Ethics in parts, in between other sections. Ethics needs to be read multiple times.