study session order for MAXIMUM effectiveness for lv.1

CFA Level I
#1

I have completed Ethics and FRA. Initially was thinking of completing the first 2 readings of quant (readings 5 and 6) and then moving on to Corporate Finance and onwards and then finishing up with the remainder of quant and econ.

However, I figured to ask AF community as what would be a ‘better’ order for better effectiveness of studying.

Given that I have completed Ethics and FRA to date, what do you think of the following order:

Equity --> Derivatives --> Alternative Investments

Quant readings 5-6 (TVM, DCF)

Corporate Finance --> Portfolio Management --> Fixed Income

Remainder of Quant

Economics

Am using Elan/Wiley videos to go through the study guides. Find their videos very useful to date (Olinto & Bassit are awesome) and keeps the studying active.

Feedback much appreciated!

#2

Unless you already have the quant stuff down, I suggest tackling that earlier as it carries over into other topics.

#3

When I studied for Level I I read the topics I knew the best first as a refresher and then kept going and saved the most unfamiliar material for last.

When I studied for Level II I read them in order and it helped a lot because later sections built on things I had already read.

For both tests I reread ethics before the test to make sure all the examples were fresh in my mind.

It worked for me so far. I think for Level III I’ll read in order again.

#4

I dread Quant. It’s definitely not my strong point, but it’s a good place to start, as suggested above.

IMHO, it does help to cover topics that overlap.

I’d suggest:

Quant

Economics (just the reading that covers currency tradings, if it’s still in the curriculum) + fixed income + derivatives + alternative investments

FRA

Equity + corporate finance

The remainder of econ

Portfolio management

Ethics. Ethics is a snooze. I suggest reading 1/2 hour here or there over the next several months w/ a final review just before the exam.

Good luck

#5

When i prepared for the L1 exam I focused on the most interesting volumes first. Due to the fact the topic of the volume was interesting (or well known) to me I usually completed these topics quickly and this made me think I progress with the curriculum quickly and gave me self confidence to complete the whole study process.

It can make sense to put some readings ahead of some other, especially in level 1. You can find some topics repeated across readings (like time value of money concept); also some topics are built on the previous topics; and threfore it make sense to organize your readings in the manner to capture the topics efficiently.

When I studied for the Level 2 exam i followed mainly the orders of topics as suggested by the orders of readings, except for Ethics for which I remeber I had put as the last topic in TimePrep when I was selecting the order of readings for the purpuse of study plan development.

Good luck!