this was my post on another thread but i figure i could post it here too....
FYI a little background on me: i graduated from UCLA (duh!) in 2004 w/ a BA in econ. so even w/ some econ/accounting background, studying for the test was still hard. so take it seriously!
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i took level I last december and passed and just took level II a few weeks ago.
i started studying for level I last june and i was 3 weeks ahead of when schweser's starting you (usually the 3rd week of july). i was able to finish everything by early november. i took forever (roughly 2-3 weeks) to review for all the materials and probably 1.5 weeks to do all the practice exams.
i probably devoted a good 4-5 hours each nite for 6 nites per week to studying. my only day off was saturday but when it came down to crunch time (probably the month before the test, i took no saturdays off). i think everyone needs to give themselves a break, whether it's half a day or a whole day each week or else you'll burn out. fortunately, i didn't get burnt out for level I but got burnt out for 2 weeks for level II. after all i had been studying straight for almost a whole year.
your ethics reading should be your bible. you probably know by now that if you're on the borderline, your ethics score will make/break you.1 the questions on the test were definitely tricky! i will say a few things about the test though: you'll have plenty of time to complete it, so time isn't a huge issue i believe. it seems overwhelming when you have 120 questions to tackle and only 1.5 minutes to do each but some of them were pretty easy and took no more than 10-30 seconds to do simple calculation.
for those of you who ordered schweser notes, i believe they come w/ an book consisting of 3 tests. i don't know how their question bank online is, but those schweser tests saved my life! they were hard and i don't believe i ever got above 75% on all schweser tests (i did about 5 tests total....i had extras from someone else). needless to say, i went into the test thinking i was gonna bomb it but i ended up doing good! the schweser tests are HARD and they are tricky but man, you'll learn SOOOOO much when you're going thru your answers. the real test is actually easier than the schweser so if you can score above 70% on the schweser tests consistently, i think you'll be in decent shape!
if your work's not paying for the $45 test you get from your local CFA society...don't bother taking it. it was too easy compared to schweser and easier than the real exam. so it would be a waste of your money!
just remember...stay on track, be focused, and be confident in yourself!
good luck
