Guidance for CFA Level 1

CFA Level I
#1

Hello everyone! Just a brief introduction of myself. I graduated with a Diploma in Accountancy (US Associate Eq.) early this year, and currently, I am serving my national military service. After that, I will only be entering University to pursue my studies on Accountancy 2 years later.

Knowing that CFA Level 1 only accepts entrance candidate with a bachelor degree, or in the final year of university (3rd year), this means that the earliest I can sit for Level 1 will be in December 2020 (or June 2021).

I have already purchased CFA 2016 Books - CFAI and SchweserNotes, and begun my studies recently starting with Quantitative Methods.

Here are a few questions;

  1. What are the non-permanent topics in CFA that will change over the next few years? Like for instance, Ethics’ topics will most probably be renewed or updated drastically by the time I sit for the 2020 exam, whilst topics like TVM or statistics will remain unchanged.
  2. How should I begin studying the CFA materials? What are the study-topic orders? Honestly, I haven’t read the CFAI books yet, but I do find SchweserNotes quite condensed and useful. I am thinking about this order: 1. Quantitative Methods 2. Financial Reporting & Analysis (Skipped Economics first.) 3. The rest flows accordingly.
  3. Should I also be using CFAI together with SchweserNotes? I have yet touched the bulky CFAI books yet. How should I use them? Read them together with SchweserNotes?
  4. Is it me, or the TI BA II Professional calculator’s buttons are really hard to press?
  5. With regard to the 48 months of working experience, must it strictly be investment-related, or generally finance-related? Let’s say, for instance, I work as an audit associate at KPMG under Financial Services. Being audit-related, allows me to clear my 36 months of working experience, so that I can qualify for my CA. Since I will be also working under Financial Services, my clients are mostly investment or finance related corporations, will this work for my CFA as well?
  6. Does Internship count? I worked at KPMG for 6 months previously. Can it be subtracted?

Thanks a lot for the responses!

#2

Why did you buy the books so early??? 4 years of prep for level 1 MIGHT be overkill.

#3

@StageRight Wait, are you telling me you haven’t been studying for 4 years? I’ve had my books since I was 16

#4

With regard to question 3. Scwesernotes isn’t really that thorough compared to the CFA curriculum books. I bought both Schwesernotes and a set of the CFA curriculum books earlier this year thinking I’d be taking the exam this December (but I decided to put it off till June 2017). Schweser is a much more concise version of the curriculum books, and in my opinion, is good if you want to prepare for the exam under time constraint to help you get through the material faster (but with less in depth knowledge).

I will say though, it is nice to sometimes skim Schwesernotes, (to get a quick preview and get exposure to content) prior to studying off of the CFA curriculum; but overall, in my case, the Schwesernotes was not worth the money. Question bank access is probably money better spent.

#5

Aside from Financial Management, I don’t really have any other finance or investment related subjects to aid me in CFA. Also, I am a very slow learner - it will take awhile for me to understand and get used on the concepts taught; 6 months are definitely not sufficient. To add on, I will be struggling with my own accounting modules in university.

I see. So I guess it is alright for me to understand the concepts being taught in SchweserNotes first, then move on to a more-thorough CFAI? Like, for instance, after I finished the whole section of TVM, I’ll read the TVM and CFAI to reinforce the learning?

Thanks guys for the responses.