December 2014 Level 1 study plan

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snakesnake

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I just want to gauge the feasibility of my study plan for CFA Level 1 to be sat this December.
The major constraint is that I’m also sitting the Technical Integration papers of the ACA (United Kingdom accounting qualification) in early November so one month before the CFA. That will eat up my entire October where I will be doing virtually zero CFA studying.
As such my plan that I’ve been thinking of is:
Within the next couple of weeks start reading through the materials. Schweser first and possibly the CFA study manual as well. Then start doing question practice and mainly focus on that.
Then take a bit of a break as I do my ACA exams and then (about 4.5 weeks before the CFA):
- First 2.5 weeks: try to go through the materials one more time. I’m estimating 2h per workday for 13 working days and 8h per weekend day for 4 weekend days ~ 58h total.
- Last two weeks I’ve taken off work, so with weekends (less one day for something else I have to do) that gives me 13 days at say 10h a day (I know it sounds long but I have studied from 9 AM to 11 PM in university ~ 130h.
So month before the CFA 180-190h of studying.
I’d say maybe another 100h at least over the summer, though this will be running somewhat parallel to my ACA studies at times.
Which brings me up to the 300h recommended total.
For the record I’ve also done finance at university and obviously an accounting qualification as well so I don’t see there being too much stuff thats that brand new to me (aside from ethics that is).
What do you guys think, does that sound reasonable?
 
u can do it, but its hard 2 study now that the world cup is on so u have a disadvantage compare to ppl who took in june
 
ProjectPat901 wrote:
u can do it, but its hard 2 study now that the world cup is on so u have a disadvantage compare to ppl who took in june
Click to expand...
Fortunately for me then I have virtually zero interest in football.
 
Man if you did finance in university and an accounting qualification then you won’t need anywhere close to 300 hours. Don’t touch the CFA materials, just use the Schwesers. I put 170 hours into the June level 1 and I’m sure I passed, if I had your background going in that number would’ve been significantly less because accounting took me the longest by far. If you divide 170 hours by 8 hours a day, you get 21 days or study time, that’s 1 month if you take 2 days off per week. Maybe you are faster than me, maybe you are slower, but either way that should be plenty of time with your background.
 
It will be challenging but you can do it.TimePrep can help you organize your study plan especially because you can choose when will you study and when not, which can also give you feedback will you manage it or not. Do not stick to 300h rule because it may vary among candidates and among study strategy and strategy elements you choose. You may end up studying 400h. good luck!
 
Wekko wrote:
It will be challenging but you can do it.TimePrep can help you organize your study plan especially because you can choose when will you study and when not, which can also give you feedback will you manage it or not. Do not stick to 300h rule because it may vary among candidates and among study strategy and strategy elements you choose. You may end up studying 400h. good luck!
Click to expand...
Dfridge wrote:
Man if you did finance in university and an accounting qualification then you won’t need anywhere close to 300 hours. Don’t touch the CFA materials, just use the Schwesers. I put 170 hours into the June level 1 and I’m sure I passed, if I had your background going in that number would’ve been significantly less because accounting took me the longest by far. If you divide 170 hours by 8 hours a day, you get 21 days or study time, that’s 1 month if you take 2 days off per week. Maybe you are faster than me, maybe you are slower, but either way that should be plenty of time with your background.
Click to expand...
These two seem to be completely contradictory of each other.
I have read that having a finance/accounting background really does help but I don’t want to take that as an excuse to be complacent as I still want to at least at first study as hard as I can and then if I find the material easy/repetition of what I already know/I can ace the questions, then I’ll start focusing more on the other bits I’m less familiar with.
Wekko, are you a sales rep for TimePrep? Because thats what your posts sounds like (not that I’m doubting the merits of the product in question).
 
Caution: The posters above have done you a great disservice stating that an undergard in finance will propel you to a pass. The material may seem easy at first, often a review of undergrad, but trust me when I tell you - this is deceptive. The real challenge of the exam is the sheer breadth of material all accumulated on one exam, and when taking into account the creative question writing of the CFAI and speed/efficiency required to answer the questions, you are facing a formidable opponent that only passes ~30% of candidates.
 
Read through quickly and do the qbank, eocs and plenty of mocks. Review constantly. Good luck!
 
IsThereAny wrote:
Caution: The posters above have done you a great disservice stating that an undergard in finance will propel you to a pass. The material may seem easy at first, often a review of undergrad, but trust me when I tell you - this is deceptive. The real challenge of the exam is the sheer breadth of material all accumulated on one exam, and when taking into account the creative question writing of the CFAI and speed/efficiency required to answer the questions, you are facing a formidable opponent that only passes ~30% of candidates.
Click to expand...
Well said. After taking Level 1 with an Acct degree (Although I got it in 2003) and some work related Finance experience, I can assure you that I studied considerably more than 170 hours for this exam, and thought the exam was challenging.
So while the poster above may have thought that amount of study time was sufficient and may have dominated the exam, I would say that the “typical” candidate would not say the same thing related to the amount hours needed to prepare.
There is a ton of info that you need to have a thorough understanding of, and while its challenging, its definitely not impossible. However, there is a reason why basically 60+ percent of people fail Level 1.
 
TE600 wrote:
Well said. After taking Level 1 with an Acct degree (Although I got it in 2003) and some work related Finance experience, I can assure you that I studied considerably more than 170 hours for this exam, and thought the exam was challenging.
So while the poster above may have thought that amount of study time was sufficient and may have dominated the exam, I would say that the “typical” candidate would not say the same thing related to the amount hours needed to prepare.
There is a ton of info that you need to have a thorough understanding of, and while its challenging, its definitely not impossible. However, there is a reason why basically 60+ percent of people fail Level 1.
Click to expand...
Fair enough, I do realize that my background in accounting-finance only helps me on some parts of the exam and even then its nowhere near enough to just wing it or anything like that.
My current plan is to read through the Schweser materials once (no question practice yet), which I’ve already started, and then start going through questions, both Schweser ones as well as ones from the institute/official study materials (my experience from my accounting qualification exams is that question practice more useful than simply reading the materials) and then referring back to the notes as and when necessary when I find a concept that I don’t quite understand in the questions.
Sound like a decent approach?
 
snakesnake wrote:
TE600 wrote:
Well said. After taking Level 1 with an Acct degree (Although I got it in 2003) and some work related Finance experience, I can assure you that I studied considerably more than 170 hours for this exam, and thought the exam was challenging.
So while the poster above may have thought that amount of study time was sufficient and may have dominated the exam, I would say that the “typical” candidate would not say the same thing related to the amount hours needed to prepare.
There is a ton of info that you need to have a thorough understanding of, and while its challenging, its definitely not impossible. However, there is a reason why basically 60+ percent of people fail Level 1.
Click to expand...
Fair enough, I do realize that my background in accounting-finance only helps me on some parts of the exam and even then its nowhere near enough to just wing it or anything like that.
My current plan is to read through the Schweser materials once (no question practice yet), which I’ve already started, and then start going through questions, both Schweser ones as well as ones from the institute/official study materials (my experience from my accounting qualification exams is that question practice more useful than simply reading the materials) and then referring back to the notes as and when necessary when I find a concept that I don’t quite understand in the questions.
Sound like a decent approach?
Click to expand...
Here’s a study plan that I’ve went through last December. I believe this is a great way to pass the exam with confidence if you put in the hours and effort.
First of all, do yourself a favor and purchase Schweser’s notes. This is true at least for L1 in my experience so far. Although the real exam was more conceptual and different than I imagined. Still, nothing well preperation can’t overcome.
Go through your weakest topics first, leave the Ethics section last. Solve all EOC Qs and blue boxes from the original CFAI textbook (I believe Schweser has them copied in theirs). Mark the incorrect ones. This should take around 3 months.
Go through them a second time, and again, solve all EOCQs. 2 months.
Do at least half of the question bank, they are about 4000+ questions overall. Assess the parts you are weak at through it. Do another 500-1000 on the topics you scored lowset. Then redo all the incorrect ones on all the questions answered, there is an option for that. 3 weeks.
Go through the Secret Sauce from Scheweser, make your own handwritten notes as you go through them. Write all the important equations and concepts down in your own language. Write down extensively the parts you have most difficulty with. One week.
Go through the CFAI Mock Exam, and another past Mock exam. Do two Scheweser Practice exams. Time and score yourself. One week.
There you go, around six months and 300 hours of work. You could cut the total length of study by as much as half depending on your background, spare time, and retention rate.
 
MrSmart wrote:
Here’s a study plan that I’ve went through last December. I believe this is a great way to pass the exam with confidence if you put in the hours and effort.
First of all, do yourself a favor and purchase Schweser’s notes. This is true at least for L1 in my experience so far. Although the real exam was more conceptual and different than I imagined. Still, nothing well preperation can’t overcome.
Go through your weakest topics first, leave the Ethics section last. Solve all EOC Qs and blue boxes from the original CFAI textbook (I believe Schweser has them copied in theirs). Mark the incorrect ones. This should take around 3 months.
Go through them a second time, and again, solve all EOCQs. 2 months.
Do at least half of the question bank, they are about 4000+ questions overall. Assess the parts you are weak at through it. Do another 500-1000 on the topics you scored lowset. Then redo all the incorrect ones on all the questions answered, there is an option for that. 3 weeks.
Go through the Secret Sauce from Scheweser, make your own handwritten notes as you go through them. Write all the important equations and concepts down in your own language. Write down extensively the parts you have most difficulty with. One week.
Go through the CFAI Mock Exam, and another past Mock exam. Do two Scheweser Practice exams. Time and score yourself. One week.
There you go, around six months and 300 hours of work. You could cut the total length of study by as much as half depending on your background, spare time, and retention rate.
Click to expand...
I’ve gotten the Schweser notes. Using them to study and not the CFAI materials (except for ethics which I’ve been told to study from there).
Thanks for the detailed guide, thats very detailed what you’ve got there.
By “the” question bank, what exactly do you mean? Tbh, I haven’t yet downloaded the CFAI materials that I got when I signed up so is it in there?
I also found this Qbank from BPP: http://www.amazon.co.uk/CFA-Level-1-Question-Bank/dp/1472704169/ref=sr_1...
Does anyone think thats any good?
 
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