relentless, just read your post to McPass…i think (and obviously don’t know) that he said to skip ethics because you have no background in finance and there is a lot of other material that you need to know. But your post seems to indicate that you took “skip ethics” to mean it will be easy. Maybe its just me, but I have been in the finance business 17 years, and am finding ethics to be a nightmare, there is a ton of little things to get tripped up on. At 10-20% of the exam points, don’t write it off as slam dunk. i would try doing a practice exam (or half anyway) right now and see where you stand. After reading this thread yesterday I decided to take the morning of Schweser practice exam one last night eventhough i haven’t gotten through Fixed income, derives or alternatives. At the very least, i know when i start my big review, that i am going to glaze over some things (quant, FSA) and really go through hard on ethics and micro. good luck…will be interested to hear how you do on your first practice exam.
Petetini, No way was i planning to skip ethics, but tx for reminding me 
I just suspect the harder quant stuff will freak me out more lol so i am starting with the hard stuff. I don’t feel ready to do a practice exam…I mean I am just *starting*…and right now I can’t answer anything. But I will do the FSA section of the exam/question bank after I finish all the FSA Schweser stuff. You think that’s a good idea?
good luck…
Correct me if I am wrong, but I have previously read on the CFA website that even after passing all 3 exams, you will not get the designation until you have 4 years work experience in finance. So when you apply for jobs, you won’t have the CFA credential, you will only be able to state that you have passed the exams. Just thought I would mention this in light of your post regarding using the credentials to switch careers…
Abbymac81, thank you, yes of course I am aware of this, but it is helpful to have passed 2 or 3 of the exams even if you don’t have the credential per se.