I don’t think videos and classes alone add that much value. They’re good if you need clarification on a topic but that’s about it. The only real solution is diving into the books and drilling questions until your eyeballs fall out.
If I had to start all over from scratch, I would have started earlier, avoided the overconfidence trap of “only two books…cake…”, outlined each chapter in my own words rather than just copying theirs and/or making some notes on their slidedeck, and purchased additional question banks.
I took the March 2018 L1 this past weekend and thought it was rather difficult given I had studied quite significantly over the last three months. The first session was more challenging than the latter. I’d say really focus on the higher weighting’s and don’t get caught up on anyone question as it can have a waterfall effect for the remaining. Schweser was good but there were a small handful of questions that were never discussed in the material.
Just curious how many hours everyone put in for level 1? I hit the 200 mark with Schweser by reading the books twice, doing all the Qbank, doing all the mocks, did the CAIA mock.
~184 hours. 14 weeks x 12 hours + 16 hours in library this week. Read Schweser, attended class, all Qbank, all Schweser mocks and CAIA mock. Reading parts of CAIA book this week that I am weak in.
Hours are a tricky thing though. CFA LII was ~350 hours for me and LIII ~150 hours. Depends on what you know going in and how intuitive certain topics are for you.
Are you taking it Friday, Holden?
Spikeyball - yes on Friday. Can’t wait to get life back.
I have to agree with Sterling. I took the test yesterday and despite putting in a lot of time with Schweser, I thought it was actually quite difficult. All those folks who say it is a piece of cake, I don’t know. Maybe CAIA Association is now just starting to make it more difficult than past years. We shall see how it goes! Good luck to everyone.
For what it’s worth – I emailed CAIA Association asking for an explanation of their “75% Pass Rate” on the bottom of the page of their Sample Mock Exam. They told me that this number doesn’t mean the average score was 75%, nor that 75% of people who took the sample mock would have passed. They told me it meant that if you scored 75% on the sample mock, that you would have passed. Not sure how they get this number or if it even really means anything, but thought I’d share.
Took the test this morning. Definitely harder than expected. Way harder than their Mock Exam or any of Kaplan’s practice tests.