CFA difficulty

It’s not easy. 30-40% pass rate, at level 1. Even with a finance background you’ll likely have to spend some time familiarizing yourself with definitions and topics specifics, not to mention get accustomed to the exam format (back to back three-hour exams with an hour in between; roughly 1.5 mins per question).
Without a finance background…well let’s pray you have at least six months to grind through the material.
 
Even with an accounting/finance background, I feel L1 is a real tester. You got to go through a lot of content. If you dont have an accounting background, you might want to start early and get a head start. At the end of the day, they will test your basic understanding in L1. The challenge is to retain the content.
You can always borrow some material from a friend who has taken the L1 exam and see the topics and the overall structure of the curriculum.
 
Background - bachelor’s and master’s in engineering.
Financial background - The day i started to study for the exam, i did not know what is equity or dividend.
Begining of self-study - Early January 2016.
Numbers of hours studied - 600+ (I am being very conservative in counting hours)
Employment Status - Unemployed so i was able to put 600+ hours. No family. No life.
Books Used -
1) Scheweser Notes,
2) Principles of Economics by Dirk Mateer & Lee Coppock (i love this book),
3) Financial & Managerial Accounting by Warren-Duchac (another good book),
4) Understandable Statistics by Brase & Brase (my long time companion) and
5) An online video course.
Most Difficult Part - In the begining of the preparation, i struggled with Financial Reporting as i did not know even the most basic terms like equity, preferred shares, dividend etc. But, once i got a hang of it, it was not so bad.
Difficulty of the Course Material - The mathematics and complexity of concept used in CFA level 1 is similar to complexity in high school (9th and 10th standard). So, the material is not dificult in itself but it is hugeeeee…
Exam Difficulty - PM session was very easy. I was done 30 minutes before time. AM was little complex and i did not know the answer of 12 question as i got little confused.
Shortcomings - I did not study from the CFAI books. I did not solve any CFAI books chapter end problem. I did not use QBank even though i had purchased it. I did not solve the free sample exam available on the CFAI website. However, i did solve most of the Scheweser Notes chapter end problem and the questions given in my online video course.
Lessons Learned -
1) If you are staying in a hotel the night before, make sure you take your luggage with you to the examination hall. After you are done with your AM session, you may realize that couple of formulas are mixed up in your head. You may desire to go through those formulas in your break. I left my luggage in the hotel lobby at the counter. Fortunately, my hotel was very close to the examination center and i was able to go back to the hotel to check on few fundamentals.
2) Make sure that you are in your seat in the examination room 30 minutes before the start of the exam. The staff closes the door before 9 AM and 2 PM for instruction. And if you are outside, they will not let you come in even if you are ahead of time. It does not damage a whole lot but you may come in the panicky mode if you are outside and they close the door.
Good Luck to everyone on their exam results….
Thanks
Phil
 
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