Dec L1 Prep/ Good luck June L1 Candidates

CFA Level I
#1

Hi Guys,

Getting ready to prepare for L1 in December, please advice for best way to study and the resources to use.

Good luck guys for June exam.

Thanks.

#2

Hey Ivan,

Thanks for your insights. I plan to register for it in June and will start around june mid or end. Just wondering have you used or analyzed Elan guides. Money is little tight just wanna see the cheaper option as far as study guides are concerned.

Thanks for your response again.

Amar

#3

Elan is surprisingly great quality and thus is pretty good value for money. The notes are more than adequate, however you will find Elan lacking in practice questions which will become important as you get closer to the exam.

I actually disagree with Ivan’s 3rd point - CFA syllabus is great for clarifying and exploring more conceptual stuff, but on the whole I completely ignored it (blasphemy!!!)

Let us know if you need more help. Good luck and kudos for starting early.

#4

Sometimes you can find hand-me down copies of study materials on Ebay. Check there, you may get a steal.

#5

I’m very interested to know what your routine was if you used the official CFAI texts and did it over 6 months? Good for you man. That was way to much reading for my liking so I am using the Elan study guides. The videos are a great way to get an overview before you start going into the notes in depth.

#6

This is true. However, I have heard that the Elan questions are closer to what you get in the actual exam than what Schweser provide. I don’t know if this is true but that was part of the reason why I went with them (heard this from various sources on this forum).

#7

Thanks Guys!! Will let u know as soon i make final purchase. Looks like the best combination would be-

  1. Elan Guides + Videos

  2. Schweser Qbank

  3. CFAI EOC.

Wat do you guys think?

Amar

#8

Would love to hear your thoughts on that after the exam.

#9

Sounds good to me. Obviously there isn’t a secret combination that will guarantee success though - the material is only one factor and not the strongest one at that. The time to read and practice is the main thing. :slight_smile:

#10

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Would love to hear your thoughts on that after the exam.

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You will do. I’ll post something on the forums after the exam. You’ll have to stick around for a while to find out though (sitting in December).

#11

Another early starter!

#12

With the june exam this weekend, you should be able to find people selling their 2012 SchweserNotes on craigslist/ebay/etc pretty easily next week. Save you a lot of money (but not sure if you can buy used qbank’s)

#13

I read the official curiculum and it felt like a giant waste of time. It just took forever to read and it was tough to stay motivated through the reading. It depends on what type of studying style works for you. Some people can just read something and get it, I just happen to learn better through question and answer.

I’ve done exams from Elan’s and Schewser and they are definitely different. As previous people have said, Schewser is more quantitative and Elan’s is more concepts. The official CFAI feels like somewhere in between as far as concepts vs quantitative questions.

#14

Agree with the poster above. Elan’s questions are more conceptual while Schweser’s are more oriented towards calculations. The two CFA Level I exams I took were definitely more conceptual. FWIW I thought the 2000 or so questions that Elan offers and their mocks were more than enough and very helpful.

It is most important to do the EOC questions first anyway and then look towards supplementary sources. Use the seach function and you will see that is the overall sentiment of past test-takers.

#15

What is your guys’ plan if you pass in December to start on LvII???

#16

The one thing I would do differently is I would start on practice exams sooner. Versus Qbank, the questions are crafted much better from a test writer standpoint, require much more careful reading of the question, and sometimes test topics that are linked conceptually, but not found close to each other in the text.

They’re a great learning tool. I wish I had time to take the 3 Schweser Practice Exams I have remaining after having taken three already.

#17

I’ve tried to study the curriculum for like a month or so now, but I’ve concluded its not for me. Checked out a friend’s Schweser materials and Elan’s free trial and it SO much easier going with a provider.

Are any of you considering live classroom training as well or is that overkill for level I?

#18

@oliverk120 I liked your study notes page. Good stuff man!

#19

From Ivan…post…

>>3. I used the CFA official curriculum - although it is quite a read, and takes more time than Schweser, if you >>have enough time left (and you do), i suggest taking that route

Yes, this is 1 thing which even I recommend. The main diff is CFA books show the mechanics of the problem and recommend using the Calc for speed during the exam.

other notes mainly show using the Calculator directly.

I prefer knowing it + doing it fast with calc.

Understand this: as someone quoted earlier on some thread

“This isn’t an exam you need to pass, you need to know the topics to apply it in practical life”

So to add to that., the amount of money you end up spending on this, you are better off knowing the topics rather than just getting an answer and choosing the right bubble.

#20

If you go with a prep provider:

  1. Do Ethics from the curriculum

  2. Go over all the EOC summaries to make sure you have covered it all.

  3. Do the EOC questions (preferable once after covering each reading and once right at the end). These questions offer great practice, even if they are not all in multiple-choice format.

FWIW I went with Elan and was very happy with that choice.