Finding Time to Study...

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Zforce12000

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Hello everyone. Each day is getting closer and closer to the big day! For those writing the exam in december, I would like to ask, where are you find the time to study and how are you managing...I work in asset management and I get home around 6-7pm. By then I am tired and not in the mood to read. But I carve out a few hours a night before I fall a sleep. I find the material not too difficult, I have a leg up with a finance degree. For those who are working, and finding the time to buckle down, I would say good for you.

I was thinking to aski my boss to cut my hours so I can study more efficient. Has anyone on this forum asked for less hours to study for the CFA? If so, what fields tend to be more flexible in giving their employees study time?

And overall, how are those in this forum managing both full-time work and studying for the CFA? (some I have read here have families).

Cheers!
 
Zforce12000 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

>
> I was thinking to aski my boss to cut my hours so
> I can study more efficient. Has anyone on this
> forum asked for less hours to study for the CFA?
> If so, what fields tend to be more flexible in
> giving their employees study time?
>

Good luck with that...Unless you have a very different boss than any I've work with you are more likely to end up getting a lot of time off and an unemplyment check than time off to study.
 
I wouldn't recommend asking your boss that, unless your CFA pursuit is very important to your boss. I know in my case, my boss probably doesn't give a crap that I have been pursing the CFA and would rather I spend my time working.

In many instances (but not in my case) bosses see the CFA progression as an inducement for their employees to leave the firm. Look around this board at how many people are hoping to pass another level so they can go look for a new job.

Finally, I don't know of too many people who have made a favorable impression by suggesting that they should work LESS.
 
Some things people have done to manage work life balance and study:
Come in an hour early and study
Study at lunch hour
Study after work
Study at library one full weekend day
Read on train
Make tapes and listen while driving

This early in the game all of these should be good options for you. I would not ask boss for more time unless it was some sort of study leave (i.e. week before the test), and even that I would guess they will take from your vacation balance.
 
I passed the Level I exam this June, and I can honestly say I started studying as late as January 26, which was a few days after the Schweser on-line seminar series had started. I came home from work at around 5-6 pm but nevertheless I was quite unable to start studying until 8 pm and then I studied for (only) about 1.5 hours Monday-Thursday. I solved this dilemma by getting up an hour earlier, and studied for an additional hour before I went to work (5.30-6.30 am), and threw in the additional 6-10 hours during the week-end and took the final week off, thus summing up to something like 300 hours. If I was tired in the evenings I preferred to listen to the notes (mp3) rather than trying to do any reading on my own, all squint-eyed as I was by that time at night. The audio was also useful for studying while commuting to work.

The "cut hours" question is a bit tricky. I have had colleagues have their hours cut during the entire final week, as a special treat from their boss so as to better being able to prepare for the exam. In truth I now realise all of them had the same boss, one who is also known for supporting people who want to pursue higher education. In my country there is also a law stating that anybody can ask for (unpaid) time off in order to study (anything) and the intention being to induce people to improve their competence as adult learners, but I take it it's not all that popular with the bosses unless you're his/her favourite to begin with. Nevertheless, the option is there. I have used it once but unfortunately got downsized in the process. It seems it's more adequate when pursuing, say, full-time education and then do some job-hopping thus not returning to the previous job.

If you do work a lot of overtime maybe it can be worth discussing with your boss if you could be allowed to leave so you can get home by 6 pm every night. It all depends on your relationship with your current boss, how supportive s/he is to your project, whether he/she regards it as a strategic investment for the firm or just simply as your odd hobby, how much you hate your current job, whether or not you want to have a different job in the future etc etc.

The trick of studying for the CFA and working full-time at the same time surely must boil down to good time management AND making use of additional study material so as to make your studying efforts more effective. I'm thinking on such things as making use of prepared Study Notes so as not having to penetrate all LOS's on your own, making use of audio or flash cards, prepared practice questions etc.
 
My trick:

Get up EARLY, and in my case that was 5am-6am. Study until 8am, then head off to work. I also worked until 6/7pm and didn't do anything in the evening. I wanted to be sharp as a knife when studying and I certainly wasn't after a full day at work.

After some relaxing I went off to bed at 9/10 pm and get up again early. I had my sleep, studied and worked again.

Then on Saturday I squeezed in some three hours again and I made a huge number of Schweser q-bank questions on Saturday, again for some three hours.

All in all I managed to do 18 hours of studying per week, including some practice questions which are invaluable.

Then the last month I took a few days off work whenever possible (some 5/6 in total) to study and the whole last week before the exam.

My tip: don't study when you're tired, you don't really consume the material.
 
Cut your hours isn't the right way to frame it. There are many places where people get some flexibility during the last week or two to take off time to study, though it usually involves sacrificing some vacation or sick days. Firms vary on this.

Remember that if your job is in some area of valuation and/or asset management, you are actually learning to do your job better. If you are given an investment problem, you may need to research to solve it for your job, so learning some techniques to do this is part of your job. So you may be able to squeeze in an hour a day on the job, just make sure that you point out how what you are studying connects to your job description. No boss should be upset that you are learning to do your job better... just make sure you can concretely connect the two.
 
Wow. It seems everyone is putting the hours in. In asking my boss for a reduced work week. He may support it. This guy does like me, for some reason? Every chance that comes along he throws be premium baseball tickets and such. But I have decided not to go that route and stick it out til December. I've tried the Schewser audio cd's. They have been helpful somewhat.
Thanks for your input. Good Luck!
 
Yes, but probably not in the US...... It's quite different over here. So the managers simply have to resort to grinding their teeth in frustration. Or move their business abroad. It always amazes me that it still works:

"The individual worker enjoys benefits, by law or by union contract, that include five weeks of paid holiday, paid time off for illness or child care, 16 months of paid parental leave, regulated working hours, overtime compensation and pension benefits. Employment contracts are normally valid for an indefinite term. Vacations and holidays are covered by legislation. All employees in Sweden are entitled to a minimum five-week paid annual leave. In addition there are twelve public holidays per year. STUDY LEAVE SCHEMES are aimed at making it easier for older workers to retrain." (www.scandinavica.com)
 
welcome to the CFA programme - one of the most difficult thing of this programme is finding time to prepare extensively for (at least) three exams
shorter hours is just simply a nono, maybe you can try in mid/lae May but otherwise asking three times for shorter hours will not please your boss and your coworkers will just hate you
I get in the office at 7am so studying before work is not an option, most nights I come home at 8.30pm and hit the books most nights from 9pm for two or three hours, during the year I take one of the weekend days to study (about eight hours), in May I study every weekend day
I take as well holidays to study, mainly the week before the exam and another week in April
this programme is not very tough or intellectual but requires stamina and sacrifice
good luck
 
I just studied from 8am - 12 pm every Sat and Sunday for 3 months. And then I used 4 vacation/sick days before the test so that way I had 7 whole days to cram (In the US we have a holiday the Monday before so I get a 3 day weekend plus my 4 days).

Worked well for me. I went 3 for 3 Dec/Jun/Jun. I did have several years of industry experience and had recently completed a MBA so a good portion was review.

I also only wasted time studying quant for Level 1 after that I just took the calculated risk that I could pass even if I missed every quant question. I simply saw no point to memorizing all of those formulas.
 
RAwannabeCFA: Wow, that is an impressive study schedule! Did you go out on any of those weekends or just hit the books?
 
I went out all the time I just didn't really go out late or drink heavily for those 3 months. I tried to do more stuff in the day time like go to baseball or basketball games or surfing or just to the gym. I hung out with my GF alot since she liked to do outdoor type stuff. I also watch a lot of movies. You just have to have discipline so if you do go out on a Friday and are hungout on Sat and don't wake up until noon you just have to commit the rest of your day Sat or your whole day Sunday to studying. It really isn't as hard as you think especially if you have a GF who doesn't have to be at a club everynight.
 
I put in an hour or so most nights - I tend to study at one of the couch while my partner reads or watches tv or PS2 at the other. I focus pretty well, so i find that lets me dip my toes into the households goings-on so i don't feel locked away with the books.

I'm taking a classroom course, which I'm finding helps to structure the content although its hard to get away from work on time. I'm ending up trying look super-available at all hours of the day to make up for the fact that i leave on time one day a week.

I try to spend a weekend day at it as well, and take at least 30minutes out of my lunchbreak to work some questions. I also listen to audio to and from work, and if i didn't take the tube i'd be doing online practice questions then too. I'm expecting to have to spend hours in practice questions.

It sounds a little daft, but I've shifted my reading habits too - many people in the field probably do this already, but turning straight to the business pages / sites, or picking up the FT on the weekend rather than my usual read helps to emerse me in the whole thing. (my job is nothing to do with finance, but a lot of trade mags pass my desk which helps)

my wife doesn't know it yet, but I'm about to begin plastering equations and ratios over every available surface at home - study by stealth!
 
Zforce12000 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

>
> I was thinking to aski my boss to cut my hours so
> I can study more efficient. Has anyone on this
> forum asked for less hours to study for the CFA?
> If so, what fields tend to be more flexible in
> giving their employees study time?

I would not do that. What happens if your boss tells you to be more efficient with your time. You won't have any answer to that suggestion, which is kinda of a rebuke too.

It's too early to panic. I would probably drop some hints about taking some time off closer to the exam.
 
Here are someone's thoughts on the subject:

http://www.successfulacademic.com/success_tips/Manage_time_organize.htm
 
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