most important 2 things to pass level 1

CFA Level I
#1

1 read and work through the cfai-book 2 do questions, questions, questions… (from all sources)

#2

yeah pretty much no need for any of those rituals people keep posting about

#3

i only used the CFAI books and that is all you need, honestly. my sample size is lame, but i took the test with 2 other MBAS. they used stalla. i used CFAI. only i passed. could be a random fact, but I know that for level II, i am focusing on the CFAI books, which should be arriving THIS week.

#4

cfa institute doesn’t give you nearly enough problems to adequately prepare for the exam… in fact, in 1 day of serious studying i probably go through more questions than there are in all the CFA volumes combined if i was only solving CFAI problems, i would certainly fail… then again, my background is math not business – if you’re a business student and it’s all fresh in your head, you might be able to get by with just CFAI (though i wouldn’t recommend it.)

#5

btw daj, i remember you posting a lot about your schweser flash cards and secret sauce - so you didn’t actually just use CFAI… plus you got a lot of practice from people posting stalla/schweser questions on this forum when you made 1000+ posts in 2 weeks so you can’t really say that the CFAI textbooks are all you need to pass this exam… i agree that the CFA volumes are the best source for reading, but it’s definitely not enough questions to come close to passing

#6

ok, you are right, i looked at flashcards here and there, but 90% of my studying came from CFAI books. i am just trying to make sure the guys who did not pass DO pass in dec. i honestly want us all together for level II – we will be one big crew.

#7

daj224 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > i only used the CFAI books and that is all you > need, honestly. my sample size is lame, but i took > the test with 2 other MBAS. they used stalla. i > used CFAI. only i passed. > > could be a random fact, but I know that for level > II, i am focusing on the CFAI books, which should > be arriving THIS week. I agree, I used only the CFA books and their mock exams and passed.

#8

Same with me…only used the books and did the 2 mocks and the free sample

#9

i would suggest using secret sauce, it helps to retain major concepts.

#10

i agree on the questions. do lots of them. what was key for me was the mp3s from Schweser. maybe i have ADD or something like that, but i can’t read for more than 30 minutes straight. so I just skimmed my books and used the mp3s to reinforce the ideas i had floating around in my head. i had to take the subway to work every day so for about 2 months i listened to these mp3s an hour a day. that’s 60 hours of studying right there. i’m stuck on the subway anyway so might as well get something done. leaves more time at home for Counter-Strike Source. i probably only put down 125 hours of actual sitting down and studying with most of that time doing questions. so 60 extra hours of listening to the mp3s is a 50% bonus on top of my sit down time. most of the test isn’t computational anyway, so having some guy explain things to you is pretty good. especially for econ. quant is semi-worthless on mp3 since the guy is trying to tell you how to do TVM calcs which is hard as hell to follow.

#11

i think everyone has a different method of studying… for me, i used schweser and schweser only (didnt even read one line of CFAi text), and i passed first time (coming from a non-finance background), did no more than the recommended hours of studying and didn’t even do schweser practice exam 2 since it was too irrelevant i felt at the time its about finding which method suits you better. Personally don’t find secret sauce useful at all since the concepts introduced there are too basic and you should have grasped all the concepts in there by heart already

#12

What reg said…You can pass using Schweser and Schweser only!! This website is a great tool please don’t waste your time with the CFAI books. You can read 20 pages in the CFAI books or 2 pages in Schweser your choice! If you want to pass memorize every formula in all of schweser. Memorize Ethics. Read everything in Schweser twice.

#13

I think CFAI books have a lot of redundant material, which you dont need to read for CFA.any comments?

#14

I used only CFAI books and Q-bank (and of course AF). I will probably use the same combo for L2, next year. I’m not going to change my winning combination :slight_smile: Cheers Milos