I am thinking seriously to attempt passing the exams of CFA Part I on December 2015 and I need your lights!!
Having a legal background and not an econ/financial one (have a second master though on Banking & Financial Law, so basic notions like cash flows or beta do not sound totally like greek to me), would it be feasible? How long you believe the preparation would take?
Please let me know your estimations/opinion, no matter how dissapointing might be…
That’s encouraging, thanks a lot!!! Do you recommend trying CFA material (around 3600 pages) that as far as I read is more analytical and thus, might cover in more detail all the unknown fields or rather, another set of material (like Schweser for example)?? Thanks a lot once again!!
Ideally, you want to go through CFA books and then Schweser books. Though as you previously mentioned you have decent background so you can skip CFA books and do only Schweser considering you have a job and not much free time. If yoo have enouhg time you can read both. Skipping the CFA books and going through Schweser books twice is also good. And an additional note, if you are not familiar with some topics reading CFA books is better, simply because explanations are long and some informartion is repeated to make sure you have a clear understanding of core topics. Schweser books are more of a summary books so its more preferable to do them after CFA books. I personally did CFA books then Schweser books, but in 8-9 months not 6.
Many thanks David and Itera. I think I’ll start with CFA’s material and if while time runs and I don’t advance, I’ll go for Schweser. While I understand that CFA is an investment for our careers, it’s true that it is quite expensive and I’d rather not spend more money for Schweser material too. Anyway, thank you very, very much for your input guys.
I’m a physics/history teacher and L1 wasn’t really a problem for me, and I’m definitely no wunderkind. I’ve found that the CFAI material is more comprehensive, but third party material teaches to the test more efficiently. I absolutely loved Elan’s Level 1 guides. I studied around 300 hours for L1.
Its your choice whether you go with CFA or Schweser, but your chances of advancing should be better with the CFA materials, Schweser is a summary and alot of information, explanations, examples are skipped. Schweser is useful when you have some time limitations othwerwise you should definitely stick to CFA books.
