I am registered for the December 2015 Level 1 exam, and was looking for advice from the forum. I am an engineering major with very little accounting/finance/economics experience, and was wondering what the most effective study strategy would be for me.
I am considering solely reading either the Schweser or Elan notes, (I plan on reading through them twice, and also supplementing with the lectures provided by Schweser/Elan, the EOC questions in the CFAI books, and the CFAI material itself for concepts I can’t grasp with the third party sources). Ideally, it would be great to essentially be walked through the readings, as if it were my first time hearing the information. My questions are:
Since I have little financial background, would it be best for me to read the actual CFAI material, even if it is over 2 times the length of the third party study notes? I would be worried that the verbose nature of the text would cause me to read the material even slower.
Which third party would I be better off with? I am considering Schweser or Elan right now, and I would like to know which provider has the “best” notes, video lectures, mock exams, online classes, REVIEW COURSES, etc.)
Thank you so much for the help, I really want to get these questions, start pounding through hichever material would suit me best, and never look back!
If you’re an engineering major then you must be good at math. That a plus, not because the math in the CFA exam is difficult but because you’ll be able to better see relationships in formulas — you’ll probably need to memorize fewer of them than those of us who are a bit more math challenged.
Become an expert at using your financial calculator. The more quickly you can calculate an answer the better. Schweser has a book on learning how to use your financial calculator that I bought and pull out from time to time even though I’ve been using an HP-12C for years.
The CFAI books can be rather dense, even if you’re familiar with the topics. I started reading them but then switched over to a third party provider. I worked through the blue-box questions and end of chapter reading in the CFAI books and that’s about it.
Both Schweser and Elan (Wiley) are good providers. I used Schweser for Level I and am using Wiley for Level II. There was no particular reason for switching to Wiley. Wiley’s video coverage of FRA are supposed to be top notch. The problem with having hundreds of hours of video available is that you have to have time to actually watch them. I don’t have the time.
Unless you’re not working or want to devote all of your personal time to prepping for the exam, you’re going to be hard pressed to get through your reading schedule. You want to do as many problems as you possibly can. And then redo them.