Passing Level 1 with just EOC questions and practice exams alone.

CFA Level I
#1

Hello all,

December 2014 candidate here. Time and again folks have mentioned practice, practice, practice as the key to passing the level 1 exam. They’ve mentioned reading every blue box example in the curriculum, solving every EOC question in the curriculum, and doing as many mock exams as possible. My question is, can one just practice from start to finish (without reading the material) and be prepared?

The Schweser q-bank providers answer explanations for all its questions as does the curriculum so isn’t it feasible that just practicing until one is blue in the face would be enough to master the material? I’m looking as finishing all the readings in Schweser by the end of this month and then practicing all throughout November but after taking my first practice test yesterday (only a 3-hour morning session) I thought about just abandoning what’s left of my reading and just doing one practice exam a day from now until a few days until the exam.

Now, I understand that reading is important to grasp some of the concepts, but wouldn’t one achieve the same from repeatedly going through examples and looking at answer explanations for mock exams? So here is what I’m proposing;

Just read the summaries of the readings

Solve every blue box example and review the answers for understanding

Plough through Schweser q-bank exams

Thoughts? I’ve heard anecdotes of this being done but never from the source, of course.

Thanks

#2

While you will learn a lot by doing the EOC and q-bank questions, you will learn at most only the material that is the subject of those questions. If a topic isn’t covered in the questions, you’ll be in the dark.

I’d suggest that you, at least, skim the readings to see the entirety of the curriculum.

Best of luck.

#3

I would suggest against OP’s strategy of not reading the material. Read the material and then practice.

#4

You’ll be putting in something like 250hours in 2 months with your method. It’s not the worst strategy, but there are probably better ways to budget your time.

Even if you did 2 readings a day for the next 31days, you’d still have 35days to do practice exams and other questions.

I guess it depends a lot on how you learn.

As S2000 alluded to, you will have to embrace the variance. It’s very possible the exam will have questions you have not covered, and you’ll be left guessing.