Over 70%=> Alternative investment/Equity/Financial reporting
Less than 50%=> Economics/Corp Finance
The others are 50%-70%
Study materials?
Schweser+NYSSA condensed review class
Estimated hours?
around 200 hours including the time attending review class (not by choice as I work full time)
Any tips?
I tried to grasp only the basic concepts for the lesser weighted areas and drilled deep into the details for Ethics, Equity and Financial reporting. I employed the approach of doing one practice exam then tackled the poor performing areas with Q bank questions. I repeated this cycles for 3x and then started doing the CFAI mock exams. My focus was trying to employ the basic concepts to make the best guess. I was polishing my guessing skills for the areas I wasn’t acing. I hope this helps. (Note that I would personally put in more time if i have the option. As my work was very demanding this is a compromising approach i had to employ w/o a choice)
What was your matrix? Got less than 50% in Portfolio Management, Fixed Income, and Corporate Finance. 50% - 70% in Economics and above 70% in remaining topics.
Study materials? CFA Institute text book, as I did for Level 1 in the previous year.
Estimated hours? 450 - 500
Any tips?
First up, my matrix reinforces the repeated point that you really want to nail FSA, Equity and Ethics to give yourself a good shot at passing.
Second, don’t do what I did and start early, take your time through the readings, finish about February, and then remember NOTHING before about December. I literally would look at pages that I had underlined and made notes on and was convinced it was the first time I saw it. Following my realisation, I went through the whole six books again and typed up notes - this took about a month and a half but helped a lot. My advice would be that if you start early, summarise as you go and revisit material you’ve learnt every so often to keep it fresh. It’s easy to say and hard to do (as you tend to want to finish the material as fast as you can) but i can assure you it’s the best way - I could have saved a lot of time had I done it this way.
Third, do the work as it’s the marginal hour that could prove the difference. All that work I put in would have counted for nothing had I failed, given my wife and I agreed to set aside three years to do this thing and no more. Had I chosen to watch TV that morning instead of studying, it could have made the difference - treat every hour like it’s the difference between a pass and a fail, particularly from March.
Fourth, think of interesting ways to learn material. If you’re good with excel, make a simple lookup function with question on the left and answer on the right. Make a graph and a table at the top of the sheet and put the question and answer down the bottom so nosey passer-bys think you’re working when you’re legitimately using your lunchbreak to study but want to keep it to yourself (and for the more cunning, are simply using work time!). Write down the formulas as you go so it doesn’t eat up precious days near the end. Laminate that shit and pin it up in the shower - best way to learn!!! Audio is good too, whether that be your own recordings or Allen Resources - the guy on that audio is faultless.
Fifth, read the fucking question and read the fucking footnotes - that’s worth more than a month’s study at best. Also, give the exam 100% until the final whistle - don’t flake out and think you’ve done enough… the guys around you also passed L1 and (probably) aren’t mugs, so make it count and save your booze till after the exam.
Oh, and one more: Don’t lose your head like I did.
I was consistently scoring high 70s and even managed a low 80 a couple of times in my practice exams (did about a dozen), without even coming close to under 70. I wish I had been complacent, given my scores, but I was instead completely on edge and had talked up the exam so much that I read, re-read, looked too hard for tricks, missed the actual point yadeeya.
Point is to approach the real exam like a mock. In reality, the real was a lot easier than the mocks (in my opinion), probably the easiest. However, my parranoia, anxiety, lack of sleep, and fear of failing made me overanalyse every little thing and I almost blew it… man, I really did almost blow it and I would never have forgiven myself.
So, on exam day, relax, treat it like a mock, go over your answers if you have time and don’t treat it like it’s something else… it’s a mock, but slightly easier.
Yes, do not go into the exam room thinking it’s life or death. go in thinking it’s a festival and you are participating a survey and you will get a prize whatever happens!
Just think, 15 years down the road, you will miss the anxiety and the concentration everyone has in the test centre, it makes good anecdotes!