I was jus wondering how everyone is tracking their time spent on CFA studies/prep… I am maintaining an excel for this… so far I have spent about 80 productive hours and I am on SS9 FSA (skipped SS 3 for now)… Are others in the same boat as me… or better off? I am using Schweser for most of it… The worst part comes here… I can only concentrate for roughly about 70-75% of the total time I spend on studies… does this happen to anyone of you… or is it just me? Any tips to help become more focussed? Thanks!
Since you are that far in 80 hours, you are doing very well now. It takes much more for me to cover that manysessions.
It’s hard to keep track of the hours but I would say around 50-60 at this point.
to stay focused, map out a timetable for completion of each topic… that will give u deadlines that motivate you to stay on track.
Wish I had a track of the hours…I know I haven’t hit 80 yet but am on SS6. Skipped SS3 too…am using Schweser too. I know what you mean on the concentration bit!!
I’d totally agree with wilier, emphasis should be laid on learning the required material in a little time as possible.
i’m keeping track of the hours too. i have a feeling that people over estimate the number of hours they’ve put in. i want to know for sure that I’m not putting in enough hours
When I say 80hours, I would have spent atleast 100+ hours with the books… I have not included time spent on practice problems, etc… Just the study time alone is 80 hours so far… I’ve started to follow Wilier’s suggestion… Have kind of estimated time for the remaining portion of the SS9, in the excel file that I am maintaining for tracking time. Hoping this helps… Thanks to all!
finfan Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > The worst part comes here… I can only > concentrate for roughly about 70-75% of the total > time I spend on studies… does this happen to > anyone of you… or is it just me? nope, never happens to me. When it comes to this exam, I can pretty much focus 50-60% of the time… here’s to hoping that things change fast with 4 months to go…
Woah; I’m like 13 Hours but I’m skipping around. And I have the econ covered pretty well; I have an Econ degree. 
finfan Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Any tips to help become more focussed? Thanks! ------------------------------------------------------------------- Adderall
I used to keep an excel. But then stopped… basically because I’m working full time and dont have the time to keep track! I think what’s more important is not how much time you spent, but whether you’ve grasped the topics… for some it means more (I’m slow reader) and others it means just a few hours a day. I don’t wanna whine after the exam that I put in this many hours… (especially if I mess up!) - so rather not record it… ok, back to studies!
great question… they say that you should spend 250 hours on this level but that is not considering previous experience. fresh off passing the cfp with a 50% pass rate i think i finally got the work ethic these tests are after… started tracking hours religously in sept. beginning with cfai ethics. after wasting time on the cfai book i ordered allen resources. not bad. easier to read format. only the questions are online. had a friend just pass level one with schweser and LOVE that there are test questions at the end of most los’s. since i have both materials, i switch between allen and scweser. for the most part schweser is awesome. a couple parts though allen comes through with laymen term recommendations… what i hate about allen is that is the level of detail (probably due to printing costs)… for example: in quant sampling and hypothesis areas allen has no visual aids like the z and t disributions. allen will solve the questions without making the reader resort to the t and z tables for the answers. they just provide them! THERE IS NO ZTABLE T TABLE CHI TABLE OR F TABLE IN ALLEN that is easily accesssible. scwheser is tight, but get a secodary resource. sorry i got off on a tangent. im at 84 hours. goal is for 2 hours before work 5 days a week and a minimum of 4 hours on saturday. sunday i rest as much as possible. im fresh off passing the cfp (50% pass rate for june 07 takers) so hope that will help in additoin to the 300 hours i am aiming for. dont try to kid yourself and not track your hours in my opinion. it only takes an extra few seconds and can only help. they reco 250. you should aim for that in my opinion. otherwise you simply underestimate the exam…why am i writing this on a saturday night???
I think some of you are missing the point about the 250 hour recommendation… just becoz you keep track of your hours and end up at close or above 250 hours has no bearing on your ability to pass. As mentioned earlier, you should set a timetable to keep you on track for revising each section. This allows you to have maybe 2+ weeks spare at the end to go over all the notes again or focus on areas of weakness. Make sure you do all the questions and see how you score… that is the real test of your readiness, not number of hours. My colleague did most of the questions and scored highly without doing much revision… it just depends on your initial knowledge base.