Non-native English speakers studying CFA

My question is for those who are not native English speakers. How difficult you find the CFA curriculum text to understand, Do you use 3rd. party material in your own language, What language you use when making notes? Myself as a native Finn, i start taking notes in my own language, but all the material i read is in English since there is no material provided in Finnish from any party. I also have to use translator sometimes when reading the curriculum. Btw. Any Finnish people here? i read that in CFA Society Finland there are only 70 Charter holders.

It really depends on your level of proficiency in English. I would think that if you are capable of writing essays then you have the necessary background in the English language.

hmm i thought scandinavians are very proficient in english?

I was using Schweser Notes and I didn’t find the content particularly difficult to understand. A few words I had to look up but generally the language is quite simple. I found taking notes in English worked better for me as translating all those new terms and phrase made things unnecessarily complicated.

One thing I noticed while studying abroad in Europe is that Europeans write their numbers differently than Americans. Eg. The number 1 has a serif that sometimes goes all the way to the base making it look like the letter A (without the cross line), instead of just the straight line American way. The number 9 sometimes looks like the letter g. The seven has a dash through it, which is somewhat common in the US. Also, Europeans us the decimal comma instead of a decimal point point and sometimes use an apostrophe for the decimal. I wonder if this has ever caused problems for graders on the level 3 exam. I sometimes write my number ones the European way and people ask what the hell it is. Pretty funny.

I don’t know why anyone didn’t bother to mention that on the exams they do tend to use words in such a way that the meaning can be twisted. I don’t mean to scare you but I think you might be to brush up on your english and preferably study the course in english to get a better grip on the words and how they can be used in the exam.

I am not a navtive English speaker but the CFAI materials are not hard. BTW, it is highly recommended that you make your notes in English since everyone write English version exam. (at least, I think there is no other language version. Correct me if I am wrong.)

You are right EddieChen. And I second shaharyar and EddieChen, try to make yourself familiar with the keywords used in LOS. The language on the exam will more or less similar to that in the curriculum, so imho you not only need good understanding of the material in CFAI textbooks, but also good comprehension of the language (keywords) used.

Thanks for advices, i try to use more English with my notes. And for Alladin, it’s true that Scandinavians are usually good in English, especially Swedes and Danes, but to be accurate Finland is not part of Scandinavia :wink: