We keep hearing over and over again that each level of the CFA takes 300 quality hours of study to pass. I would agree with those estimates.
For you CPA’s out there, what would you peg it out for the 4 CPA sections? Also, did you think the CFA or CPA was more difficult?
The whole CPA exam is somewhat harder than L1 of CFA, but you get to study for it in four little bite-size pieces.
When I took it way back when, I believe both audit and law review books (Gleim) were the size of 1 and a half Schweser books. So that is almost one-third of the CPA exam for about one-third of one level.
One other comment: if you did well in undergrad accounting, the CPA exam will be a lot of review. But again, that was a while ago.
Good summary - I studied 4-5 weeks for FAR and REG, probably 3-4ish for BEC and AUD. 2-3 hrs a day. Passed all on the first try.
+1
Once you’re qualified to take the exam, you’ve probably already seen at least 80% of the material in one of your college classes.
And if you fail, you study that one section for a couple of months and take it again. You don’t have to study the whole thing and wait for a whole year.