I’m deep into study session 2 and am just a bit worried about having all this stuff done and still having 2 full weeks to take mock exams. I’m working 3 - 4 hrs per night during the week and 4 - 6 hours on sundays and am dedicated to the program. For all those who passed Level I in June, did anyone begin studying in February and pass the exam?
You should be able to get it done if you stick to the study time you said. That’s more than 25 hours a week. I’m still studying for GMAT and don’t intend to start with the CFA until September 15, neither do I intend to fail.
September 15th is pushing it but you can get it done if you have a finance/accounting/econ degree. I started like March 7th-10th and got through all of Schweser twice and took all the questions in Qbank with some time to spart. If I can do it, you can. I went to worst school on this board and passed, you just have to be dedicated and put in the time.
Being dedicated isnt the problem for me. I’ve just sitting at my office from 5-8 every night (fridays included) and squeezing an hour of studying in during low points in the day and just working through the material - social life be damned! and i have a finance degree, so thanks for the confidence boost. Can you please tell me more about the exam? Its 120 questions total in the morning and how many in the afternoon? Thanks!
120 morning and afternoon. The test is way more qualitative than quantative. There are more questions in FSA like what will happen to the current and cash ratio if a company switches from an operating lease to a capital lease? There are a ton of questions like that. I would say just read everything once and highlight things you don’t understand. Don’t spend 3 days trying to understand one concept, if you can’t figure it out initailly just move on and come back to it. Eventually it all clicks and makes sense. Then read everything again but concentrate on all the tables, formulas, and highlighted areas. Memorizing all the formulas makes things a TON easier. Lastly, I did all of the Qbank questions. You should try and be done by November 1st so you can take practice tests for a month and study the areas you aren’t great it. Good luck!!
houston what school you went to?
texas state in san marcos,tx
the answer to this question is always: If DaysTillExam*HoursStudiedPerDay > 250 Given that DaysTillExam = 116, if you do 15 hours study per week, you should be ok. If you have a finance degree or an accounting background, you should need less than 250 hours.
With a finance background and 3.5 months to go, you are in fine shape. Try to get done with the curriculum by Halloween, leaving a month for practice exams and review. Work hard and don’t fret.
I have an econ degree and have been working in the industry for 7 years or so and at this pace, I feel like I will spend well over 250 hours, though I do not keep track. That is reading every page of CFAI text, but still… it just takes a couple hours to knock out 50 pages. Maybe I spend too much time staring out the window at the pretty buildings? *shrug*
I would take a look at Schweser, alot less confusing and about 1/3rd as much reading as the CFAI books
i don’t mind the reading at all - im doing and understanding about 40 pages or so a day, except for saturday which is my off day. my schedule should have me all buttoned up by November 15th (14 weeks from now, last week was my first study week). I will then only take mock exams and practice questions. and yes, i keep an ethics outline on me at all times. I just realized how dumb i am for not taking the june exam bc if I fail ive got to buy ALL NEW books because of the curriculum change! damn! i’ll probably just buy schwesser notes the 2nd time around, hopefully taht wont be a coincern though. P.S. im in monmouth county, nj if anyone wants a study group (Near rutgers U, 45mins outside manhattan).
Houston, yeah, I actually do have Schweser and found it (the book and video instruction) quite helpful for the second half of quant where I got a bit lost in the CFAI detail. I really enjoy the econ book though so have not felt the need to use Schweser for that, but I imagine I will for FSA… which I should get started next week. I almost wonder if I should read Schweser first for FSA and then CFAI books given my incredibly thin (read: nonexistent) accounting background. Any thoughts?
Chi Paul Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I almost wonder if I should read Schweser first > for FSA and then CFAI books given my incredibly > thin (read: nonexistent) accounting background. > Any thoughts? If you’re really weak in accounting (and the time/location works for you) consider John Harris’ 2-day seminar: http://www.accountingworkshops.com/leveli.htm It’s well worth it (I took the L2 one).
i’d suggest the opposite… for your weak areas (particularly something as complex as FSA) I’d read the CFAI text and supplement with Schwesser. your going to need the level of detail that CFAI provides for the difficult study sessions, IMHO.
Either way will work. I took my last accounting class like 4 years ago and thought Schweser did an excellent job explaining things in a concise way. CFAI books on the other hand can take 10 pages to explain one topic that Schweser does in 1 page. Just read parts of both and see how you feel
jrbbikerx Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > my schedule should have me all buttoned up by > November 15th (14 weeks from now, last week was my > first study week). > > I will then only take mock exams and practice > questions. The exam is Dec 6th? I just took L3 and I’m waiting on my results, but on all three exams I found it beneficial to finish my curriculum / Schweser study about a month before the exam, leaving that time for practice exams and review. This exam / review process will take much longer than you think, and unless you were reviewing each study session as you went along, you’ll be shocked at how little you remember. Of course, your mileage may vary. I used only Schweser for L1 and L2, but I already have MBA finance, so some of it was stuff I’ve studied before. I think a person with a finance background who studies the hell out of Schweser should be just fine in L1, and you can always look at the CFAI books for reference in your weaker areas.
Busprof, thanks for the suggestion. That seminar comes to Chicago end of October, so if I am still lost on FSA at that point, I should probably consider it, though I might be in serious trouble if that is the case. Other suggestions are noted as well, thanks guys. I was initially thinking that CFAI text would be most helpful on the first read because of the detail, but I began to second guess that when I had some trouble with figuring out what was important when some of those quant sections went off on tangents. I will start with CFA text… FSA starts Monday for me!
A quick question from people who passed the exam, for ethics, r the questions really tough as compared to what schweser have or the text has? Also, r schweser notes good enough for Econ, I am little worried about the actual difficulty level of the exam, any help will be appreciated.
actual exam ethics is more straightforward than schweser (i.e. less trickery and hand-waving) but often still presents more challenging scenarios b/c of the particular standards they’re addressing to give you an example, there was a 2x4 regarding how GIPS applies to real estate companies and a 2x4 question about usage of the CFA logo on a company letterhead and resume… i had trouble with both of these there was no schweser-esque question asking which standards have and have not been violated by a guy who gets drunk and writes a research draft while disclosing to his dog material nonpublic info after robbing a liquor store