I started seriously studying in Jan. Currently, I do 3 hr/day M-F and 6-8 each Saturday and Sunday. I’m making pretty good progress (at about 135 hrs since mid-Jan and based on my projections should finish with around 490 by the end if I keep with my current trend). I’ll finish Corporate Finance this week and presently I knock out a Study Session per week and review the session via the weekend then move on to the next unit. I try not to get too bogged down by not knowing some of the materials. I typically review at least some of FRA just to not completely forget anything. I plan to finish my overall review of the curriculum with about 3 weeks remaining to review (I was planning on using the CFAI topic reviews during that 3 weeks) inclding one week off from work to cram and bang out additional mock exams and practice tests. Is that sound advice? I typically use the weekends to review the CFAI EOC (they’re so intricate and long compared to the Schweser questions which is probably a good thing). Last question for fellow Level II/III candidates and charterholders, do any of you use the mock exams and unit test via the CFAI website? I took a quick look at them they seem ok. Not excruciatingly difficult, but difficult nonetheless.
Anyway, any comments, advice, and questions are welcomed.
Your plan doesn’t look bad at all-- just make sure you stick to your schedule and cover the curriculum.
In my opinon, Schweser doesn’t really do a good job at preparing you for the exam in comparison to the official CFAI materials (practice questions and arguably, the content). For what it’s worth, I used only CFAI EOCs/subject tests/mocks for Level 2 (because I disliked what I saw of Schweser at L1). I was very happy with the level of preparation I had on test day. I’m sure other people have success with Schweser (or another 3rd party), though.
If you have anywhere near an average aptitude for this type of stuff, I think that you will probably pass pretty easily
Our approaches are quite different. The core of my studying is lectures and CFAI Blue Boxes.In 490 hours (I will not reach anywhere near that) you didn’t mention either. I will do CFAI EOC and a some mocks, but no Test Bank questions.
I also will do a LOT of high level review to keep things generally straight in my head. For L1, I loved Secret Sauce.
One thing I will add now, since the previous post called it to my attention, is that the number of hours studying is irrelevant. You should be looking to achieve two things, mainly:
-cover the curriculum
high accuracy with low variability on practice questions (on the first attempt)