Alright, first off its ‘Portfolio Management’ and not project management, I am sorry but I can not imagine someone making such a mistake after writing a L1 exam. CFA exam testing is all about ‘details’, you pretty much know your mistakes. QBank is only good for understanding the numerical portions, you should have got this from solving the Mock exam provided by CFAI. I strongly feel that you must aim for >70 in all areas. Good luck studying!
Lol and I made that mistake twice! 
oh well thanks a lot guys…
Lol and I made that mistake twice! oh well thanks a lot guys…
take it easy. It happens to the best of us.Sometimes you have another word in your head and unconciously use that word instead of the correct one no matter how deep is your knowledge of that subject matter.
@ Ayesha18
I dont think you should give up. We all have our ups and downs and one failure doesnt mean we stop trying, does it? Completing CFA is a struggle within itself. But after completing it and becoming a Charterholder, you feel GREAT.
Band 8 means you were lacking greatly in 1-2 areas. I believe if you practice much more this time around, you can ensure you get 70+ in all areas, as you’re still fresh from december. Just be dedicated and give it all you got!!
Give it a rest dude 
We misthink words all the time! If I had a penny for everytime I did that. When I first joined the CFA program, I thought it stood for Certified Financial Analyst 
How dumb of me
Haha yeah dumb me too!
kaveh_nobari; Jigga69 - At times that is exactly the reason ppl fail in general, not because of their lack of understanding but rather silly unintentional mistakes. Anyway, it was simply a rectification.
How did u prepare ? what was your study scheme ? Did u join any academy like CFE, Skans etc or study all alone ??
To me it looks like that you followed a study routine which caused the failure. Level 1 is not difficult rather it’s a mess so one should have clear idea what is she/he studing and what she/he suppose to know in order to pass the exam.
I may guide u about proper study scheme as I ,myself, tried each and every option available…
So dont be disappointed. You just need to focus on the right direction …
Yes I joined an academy and relied on them a lot… In the end they skipped economics, alt investments, ethics and previously had barely skimmed through derivatives, portfoliio and quants. So that made everything get very haphazard for me in the last two weeks when I was spending time learning new stuff. Did you join any too?
Oh man, that’s aweful. You know a friend of mine kinda insisted me to join one of the academies, but i strongly declined her offer. Honestly speaking, I don’t see any value in going to these academies. CFA in all its aspects a self-study program, and so it should be approached with the same mindset. The things you can learn studying by yourself, you can’t possibly learn them all in the classroom (unless the instructor is really very good).
Plus there are plenty of online instructions available by some renowned prep providers (i personally like elan). Their videos can easily be accessed in the comfort of one’s own home and time schedule. So i really don’t see any point of joining the academy.
It’s just that I was working full time so I wasn’t really trusting myself that I’ll be able to complete my syllabus on time. The instructor is really well known here but apparently doesn’t really care anymore. He was literally skimming and reading through his notes. Telling us to skip areas and all. I shouldn’t be blaming it on my instructor as obviously people do it themselves home but I do think it resulted in me wasting a lot of time. I guess going slow in the start, relying on someone else’s schedule and studying my head off in the end really isn’t the way CFA goes about…
Exactly! Good to hear you have realized that now. Best of luck for your next attempt!
Yes, i joined the same academy, studied with same instructor and witnessed & experienced the all what u mentioned. There shouldn’t be any doubt that you failed because of him as my other friends, who relied heavily on him, also got failed miserably. His teaching style, philisophies (skip this & that & u would be fine) and irrelevant stories etc would end u up loosing…
I started my preparations for level 1, 8 months before the exam i started with schwser and covered FRA, ethics, equity, CF, derivative but i couldn’t understand Quants and some of the readings of FRA,CF,Der. then i thought i should join academy so that my weak areas would be covered. But when K (instructor) left 2 or 3 reading of Fixed income i started feeling sth is wrong and when he left Def. taxes and finally quants, technical analysis I understood at that moment he gonna ruin CFA level 1 if i follow him. To me CFA is not just passing exam its more than that i wanna be a good analyst and how could this be possible if i skip a lot. I then followed a contingency plan and end up covering all readings and scoring >70 in all topics in exam.
Following study plan should b best for u
video lectures + Finquiz notes + Curriculum blue box examples & EOC questions
Some of the readings are missing in finquiz notes, which can be covered from schwser.
For video lectures i recommend Arif Irfanullah videos (except Quants). For Level 1 you can get free lectures on youtube. If youtube is not running then use proxy site, if that also doesn’t work then let me know i can arrange them. Dont purhase them before listening. Once satisfied then buy and i think you only have to buy economics lectures because it has been changed completly.
Start video lectures from derivative.
For Quants I rocommend Elan guides video lectures, again they are free and can be found on youtube or on their website. When u sign up u get free 7 days access to quants video. After 7 days if u dont get access then no problem sing up with new account
For practice EOC questions and examples are more than sufficient. There are almost 1500 to 2000 in curriculum and must be attempted atleat 3 times. There is no point to waste your time on Qbank esp when u have limited time.
In the end, one thing u must learn from your failure and that is; what is the best way to study esp having limited time ? if you couldn’t find it i fear you might fail again not because u cant study but because you couldn’t utilize your time in best possible manner.
Thank you so much for your guidance! I did discover Arif Irfannullah but literally in the last week. So you were in the class too? Lol. I guess they must have had a terrible result. I relied heavily on him as I thought he is so well known. How can I be thinking ahead of time and going against his teaching methods. But congratulations for passing so well Do you have a background in Finance too? I was planning to watch Arif this time thoroughly since people talk about him a lot on these forums. There have been quite a few changes especially the Alt investments I believe has changed completely.
Only if K would have told lesser stories and focused more on the lectures. I get angry now that I think about that haha. You are right about focusing just on the curriculum. I kept thinking that just the EOCs wont be enough but there are examples too. 1500 to 2000 questions are more than sufficient I hope. Why start from derivatives?
Seems like you were quite close to making it. I don’t think you really need to watch videos. Just a bit more practice should be enough.
Yes, i was in the same class & i alwasy used to sit in first row, right hand side and if im not mistaken u once asked me to turn off the split ac.
Anyway these are the changes in 2013 from 2012
http://www.elansguides.com/docs/Los-changes-2012-2013.pdf
Indeed one reading in Alt Inv. is changed. One new reading in FIS. other changes are good esp in FRA, rest is same.
Start with derivatives because no new changes and Arif youtube lectures (2011) are excellent, esp options and Swaps. And once you go through options you would have a better idea of him because options are tricky esp last reading if Arif is good in that then he is ok, right !!!
I purchased his level 2 video lectures yesterday and there is a slight change in them. Those are actually live sessions, when video lecture is recorded other students are also present (i can hear them, he asks questions to them frequently) and he seems little bit distracted. That thing is not present in his youtube lectures. Hope you find them up to the mark.
Ohhhh I recall you now! You really seemed to like his stories though haha well only one of the front rower’s passed I guess 
Anyways many of my friends are going to another teacher. I studied from him for a month for L2 and he was amazing! Like three hours full focus on the subject, class extending upto 11 pm etc and keeps asking you questions to see if you are clear.
Arif’s new videos are live in class? Like K use to have recordings online? I really don’t like that stuff. It’s too long and not very clear. Are they better than L1 videos on YouTube? Because I’ll have to buy his lectures for some new topics. I had seen his videos for a few areas and I loved them. Only if i hadn’t been so short on time when I had discovered them. Best of luck for your L2 though!
I did enjoyed some of K stories esp hockey stick one but there was another guy in front row who alway enjoyed his stories more than anyone, the tall guy around 6 , 61/2 ft who always sat on first place on that long seat. He used to laugh blindly producing (sometimes) huge sound and whenever he did that I indeed laughed. He was the real culprit who made K think students enjoy his stories and encouraged him to tell more stories.
BTW there are two things i found good in K acedemy. First was the notes; they were indeed very helpful, i read all curriulum books except Econs. and i know that one can easily be lost in them so notes really kept me on track.
and second was the popcorn i have no shame to accept that im the one who ate most popcorn. i used to bring a bag with me and hid them in my bag on my way back home. because i thought them as my return on investment the actual return was the knowledge or CFA preparation but once i found that return is missing then i made popocorn as my return and grabbed as much as i could… lol
Before result announcement you started l2 preparation and studied for a month OMG… that must be really really painful even double painful when u knew ur result. Well i hope that shouln’t be happend with anyone esp with me otherwise i’ll loose my senses.
Video lectures are better than any instructor. They provide flexibility: one can increase or decrease speed, if one is not in a mood to study he/she may listen in other time, one cant miss the video lecture but may miss instructor classes and last but not least one can watch them again and again. There is another issue with the instructor, what if anything happens to him then what ?? Similar thing happened in karachi with l2 students. So one should make careful decision. and i think the new instructor u r talking about is A.H… I dont know much about him but i met him once and he hasn’t got his charter yet…
As far as Arif new videos are concerned they are not bad… new lectures are same as old econs lectures on youtube. Nothing is different or weird or quality or quantity compromising or lengthy or short. So once check econs. lectures on youtube if not satisfied then just make a phone call and ask Arif or his assistant directly u can find his phone number on his website. I have his l2 videos not l1, may b what i feel in l2 videos might not be l1 videos.
and u should not spend too much money this time…u already did that last time… if sth in available for free first try it and then make any decision…
Haha and I never knew that the popcorn was for free lol! You read through complete curriculum books? Wow. That was good effort you put in! Ofcourse you would have passed lol. Do you work full time?
Haha yeah a lot of people loved his jokes. I did start my preparation beforehand. AH might not have his charter since he has been teaching through out I believe but he makes sure you have understood the concept. Like seriously he looks at your expression and asks you if you need to hear it again. I was very much impressed. You can sit in a trail case and see it for yourself.
Hmm yeah I’ll be regularly watching those lectures now. Just need to make a plan. Reading the curriculum doesn’t seem possible right now. I want to go through Schweser though. However I will for sure be attempting ALL the examples and EOC’s. I better!
FinQuiz notes really are awesome. They are practically summaries for the curriculum but boy did we pay a lot for those lol! I believe they are available for 200 dollars or so.
Didn’t u get 2013 finquiz notes yet ???