December writers...study tips for us June writers?

CFA Level I
#21

My only advice is… leave a FULL month to do REVIEW/MOCK EXAMS

What I did was … I read all the chapters, then did the EOC questions right after, had no issues as I was scoring 80%+ in all sections. My biggest mistake was not leaving enough time at the end to review and do mock exams. I did all of that in only 2 week because work and other personal stuff came in between.

The real issue started when I had trouble recalling the majority of the material that I have read 4 months ago, especially quant, econ and fra… so yeah, I had to pretty much read secret sauce which SORTA helped a little and did a few mocks. Thing is, I scored between 65-75% on my mocks, which is why im sooooooooo unsure if I’ve managed to pass or not…

Anyway, good luck and manage your time REALLY well.

#22

I will advice when i get the congratulations email angel

#23

This is why people find you and your posts irritating

Read the title of the thread CAREFULLY again

It says … "December Writers … "

It didnt say

“People who found the exam the easiest … Please advise”

OR

“People pretend to be the most confident of passing the exam in one thread … and then display their anxiety in some other thread (Oh!! … but could fail in XYZ section … can i still pass) … Please Advise”

Either be a Smart@ss and be proud about it (like some of our esteemed seniors out here)

Or

Dont complain of being called a Smart@ss when u behave like one

#24

googleboy fuck off

#25

I am outa L1 forum to L2 forum u keep ur ass here googleboy cheeky

#26

study

#27

Does everyone study the ethics first or last? Or first and last??

#28

I did it first and last! LOL! Once a the begining and then again at the end…

#29

Something I did which helped keep the info fresh was to review ALL the material after I finished a study session. This helped remember FRA when learning Equities and so on.

#30

The biggest mistake I made was registering for L1 with only 4 months left until the exam date. I work 50-60 hours per week and thought that I would be able to study during my down-time at work, as well as after work. Big mistake. Work and life will cause you to constantly put your studying on the backburner – I’d rather finish up everything at the office than half-ass my work in order to leave early and study the CFA at home. So I wound up rushing through material and not doing practice problems as the test day approached. When I wrote L1 this month, I finished the second section in about half of the allotted time, because I just didn’t know how to solve many of the questions and had to guess. The CFA exam isn’t hard; the material is just a LOT to master in a short period of time.

In my opinion it is very difficult to sufficiently prepare for the exam in less than six months while working full-time. The only exception I can think of is if you work in accounting and deal with FRA-like material on a daily basis, which will allow you to breeze through that study session.

My recommendation for anyone with a full-time job who is still considering L1: don’t register for June. Register for next December instead. Give yourself a year to take your time and really conceptualize the material. You’ll feel much better on exam day and won’t feel pressured to rush or neglect your work in order to find some extra study time.

#31

This!

I started studying around March because I didn’t want to sacrifice the quality of my work output and exercising. Before, I used to study at night. That only goes so far until you start feeling burnt out. After a couple of months of looking like a zombie, I started going to sleep early, waking up early, and studying 2 hours a day. (Mind you, I also cook, clean, exercise 3 times a week, and am one of the last people to leave my cubicle.) Of course, I sacrificed a lot social time to do everything too. Waking up at four in the morning is what did it for me. No interruptions, no loud neighbors, no nothing. Just the CFAI book and classical music will do the trick.

I did questions along the way and if I was still fuzzy, I’d do the Elan questions until I understood what was asked of me. (And this helped a lot with hypothesis testing and remembering formulas.)

Around revision time, my biggest mistake was visiting this site. It gives good studying strategies. Seeing how you’re doing against your peers is a good gauge as to where you need to be, but like someone has said, it’s real confidence killer. People show boat WAY too much and it turned me off from posting. Trolling around and showing your grades everywhere is a waste of the time for you and the people reading the site. Just saying.

Last month:

DO read the EOC summaries.

DO read Elan’s 11th hour, it’s good with detail.

Redo questions from the CFAI books and 3rd party provider.

DON’T just do mock exams for the sake of grading them. Figure out what you got wrong and redo the questions again. Repetition is boring, but it helps you remember what you studied.

Read the Elan’s 11th hour again. Repetition is boring, but it helps you remember what you studied. :wink:

As far as prep providers, they are meant to be a supplement. So for me, it was all about quality. I didn’t have money to blow on Schewser, Elan, AND Stalla. I bought Elan’s because they didn’t skip through material and they offered better quality practice questions. And I redid questions as well so I can get the hang of things, which I did. Their audio books were great for the subway rides and for the gym.

I can’t guarantee that my method is successful. Even if I pass, I can’t guarantee it. Everyone is different and when one method doesn’t work, don’t be afraid to switch it up. The test wasn’t difficult to READ and I definitely won’t say it was easy. But I feel safe to say that I felt prepared for it and hopefully everyone that studied their asses off passed.

And even if I didn’t, I won’t lie… I’ll probably cry and pitch a fit and question my intelligence (at least once or twice), but in the end, it’s just an exam.

Hope that helps. :slight_smile:

Sometimes the CFAI is too wordy. So notes help you get the big picture faster. CFAI is good for details. (Sorry guys, I didn’t want to double-post.)

#32

For the love of everything that’s holy, make sure you do a TON of practice questions/mock exams. In my experience that’s the ONLY way you will pass :slight_smile:

#33

Having taken and passed level 1 in December 2011 and some hindsight I think I can offer some input. This a more efficient way of how I did it: Go on the CFA website and familiarize yourself with which sections have the biggest weights on the test and focus on those. Read the Schweser notes, if you want you can take notes or make notecards. Definitely go over FRA twice or more. And if you have time go over fixed income and quant if you have enough time and aren’t confident. For ethics I would read the CFAI ethics section once every 2-4 weeks so that it is fresh in your mind. FRA and ethics take up about 30% of the test. After you’ve read all the Schweser books you should do the CFAI end of chapter problems for each section. Then do the Schweser Q Bank questions (I think there are about 4000 questions, do as many as you can). For the last month or so do as many practice tests as you can and do the CFAI end of chapter questions one or two more times. Also make a document that has explanations for difficult problems that you missed so that you can refer back to them.

#34

About 4 weeks out start working on mock exams even if you haven’t finished reading the syllabus. You need to start working on answering questions from all the different topic areas within the given 3 hours.

#35

Stop whatever you are doing right now and read ethics. Learn it. 15% for free. It’s the absolute easiest section in the whole program, as long as you don’t leave it to the last minute. And it’s really short too. It’s the one section everyone can ace.

#36

Thanks.

helpful. u will pass sure