I spent about 4 hours studying for L1 and passed, but I was only a year removed from an MBA with a finance concentration and had 4 years of relevant work experience. I tried the same thing for L2 and got my ass handed to me. It was so bad for L2 that I didn’t even bother to sit for the afternoon session.
I am absolutely amazed. Just four hours, I bet out of the four you spent most of it on Ethics.
I appreciate the comments from you folks and I’m kind of confused as to what to do now. December’s testing location requires me to travel and I don’t know if I’m going to be up for it, or even be capable of doing so because of my works schedule. The next probably one in my area would be June 2013.
I guess, I’m curious to know what route I should take. I’m thinking about enrolling into a MBA in Fall 2012 as well.
I literally have to juggle w/ working full time, upkeep at work, LEVEL 1 CFA, and maybe a MBA program.
Someone told me that I shouldn’t do both, as it is very intensive.
What do you folks think?
-Thanks
Well, I’m looking at June 2013 for the CFA - Level 1. But at the same time, I’m wondering about an online MBA program as well.
Would like some guidance.
Yes, primarily ethics. Then skimmed through the LOS to see if there were any topics I wasn’t comfortable with and just had to refresh my memory on some supply and demand curve stuff because I didn’t use that at work. That was more than 10 years ago though, so I imagine L1 is harder now. It also didn’t work for L2 the next year.
It is very possible and I think it is very common; MBA included. I did it and a lot of people did it as well, even for L2. Ad I’m prety dumb - just worked hard at it. It will probably be intensive though. The question only you can answer is how hard you want to work. Just try to estimate how and when you’ll fill the time into your schedule and see if it’s worth it.
What I mean is that you can do it. That’s for sure. What is up to you is to decide how important it is to pass L1 in december and if it is important enough to justify the time you will lose with friends, family, fun and what not.
Depending on how much finance you know, you may need a few hundred hours to be “sure” of a pass. Can you fit that into your schedule? If you want it hard enough, you can probably do the required hours just by cutting sleep. Is it worth it? Only you can answer that.
You may also need very little time as some of the guy above pointed out. Maybe you could find some sample questions first to “feel” the material.
Hi,
Thank you for your post. I’m currently looking at core online mba courses, but I would say, the CFA is a priority of mines. I’m looking at JUNE 2013 as my LEVEL I test date. I won’t rush it because I don’t need to, but rather, I want a goal right now in my career.
There’s no doubt that I’m also growing at work and it does require me to prepare as well. I spent days & weeks waivering and talking w/ people. Posting online has helped. I had talks w/ people at work and have found this forum to be very good. I really appreciate the community here.
My heart is leaning more on the JUNE 2013, CFA study route, while working hard at work.
That seems to be a very good plan. It’s good that you have your priorities mostly figured out. Best of luck!
my advice would be to go for Dec 2012. If you pass, you can try L2 in June 2012 and you’ll be a year ahead
Nobody has said don’t do an online MBA yet? Shocking.
For level 1, get through the books as fast as you can and start doing practice problems. Schweser question bank is actually very useful for L1.
If I ever saw someone do an online MBA I would probably trash their resume asap
What’s the issue with an online MBA?(I’m curious - not trying to argue)
I mean, I understand that the candidate will be missing out on some of the best perks of an MBA (like networking), but for a hiring company I don’t see that much of a difference.
I’m not sure, but I think some Executive MBAs from good schools are closer to an online than to a regular MBA.
Maybe I became CFA biased now, but CFA is practically a mail course and works pretty well.
A CFA won’t guarantee me anything, neither will a MBA. I don’t want this to be a debate about that. It’s like trying to compare students from an IVY LEAGUE program against a state program. In the ‘real’ world, does that really matter?
With that said, my focus is to take some of the courses online but attend sessions for classes I feel fitting to my career. As you’ve mentioned, the network and interactions is real reason why I’m going with it, but as they say, “A CFA is earned, an MBA is bought”.