For all you that passed

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libba

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Congratulations for everyone that has passed! Your hard work has paid off!

Now the ultimate question - what do you recommend in relation the way to tackle study? Eg Books, notes, other materials, topic order, time, etc...

would be great to hear from you.

Regards
Christian
 
1 method-balls to the wall.
I used Schweser, felt good about it, referred to CFAI text a few times. Hit up lots of questions, practice/mock exams, leave about 4-6wks at the end for review and sample tests....pray. I liked the Secret Sauce book...I dunno, still in shock.
 
Eat, sleep and breathe the exam. I used Schweser study materials alone and found it sufficient to pass. I also have a BS in Finance.
 
700+ hrs (i MAY have overdone it) ,

no life,

dumped my gf (wasnt 'intellectually stimulating),

f*** your friends (figuratively speaking),

and LEARN THE CORE CONCEPTS WELL


i touched nought but the Schweser notes

FOUR SCHWESER PRACTICE EXAMS , Remaining practice exams used up for Ethics & Asset Valuations (my weak points)

and most of all ...keep the faith

I cleared, above 70 in all the ten.
 
I read through each CFA book twice, did every question in the schweser Q-Bank, and did sooo many sample tests...

... and it paid off with over 70% in every category!
 
-cfa institute text to understand the material
-schweser notes to review the material

-schweser qbank to drill concepts into your head (do all 4000 questions)
-schweser book 6 and cfa mock/sample for mock exams
 
I used Schweser and passed. I would say leave yourself at least a month to take practice tests and go over areas where you need help. I read each Schweser book twice and think that really helped.

Do not dwell on one section too long, just come back to it later. Eventually it all just clicks.
 
I total studied the recommended 350 hrs. and felt i knew everything about as well as I was going to going in. Mainly did CFA texts, then had time to read through most everything again with Schweser. May was 10 hr days 6 days a week of pure studying, practice tests (mainly the Schweser ones (book 6), review, etc.
 
If you have tons of time - use all available resources possible.

I just cleared L1 in around 150 study hours. My focus was on q-bank, book 6 and every single mock I could get my hands on. For quick reference and a frequent refresher Secret Sauce was key.
 
I recommend reading CFAI books. I did not like Schweser because the books summarize the subjects too much and sometimes leave out some important relationships..

I used the Q-Bank for only a few areas, but I solved all the sample and mock CFAI exams.

I recommend Schweser Video CDs for FSA and Economics. The instructors for those were very good.

Do not forget to repeat everything until the last minute..

Good Luck!
 
I read the CFAI text first and then Schweser Study Notes along with the Video. I was starting on Oct. By April, I finished all readings, started practice exams from Schweser as well as Schweser Online questions. Two weeks before the Exam, do the CFAI sample and mock exams. Mock exams are important and you will find out the format and similar questions. BTW, this is my first time using CFAI text to prepare and I finally paid off since this was my 7th times.
 
I just used Schweser, however towards the test I thought that I should have read the CFA books at least once, but I didn't. Passed this time around and next year i will use schweser and CFAI books
 
I read CFAI book first. Could be my ignorance, but did not hear about Schweser until Dec 2007. That happened too luckily since I called up a guy whom I know has finished all the 3 levels in the first attempt. But that was the best thing I did. Schweser was amazing. CFAI as someone mentioned on the forum is all about building your concepts because its quite a detail. And Schweser can just add to that.

Honestly speaking all the Schweser exams that I took I failed. I passed the mock exam of CFAI, but failed the sample tests also. And I did certainly find Schweser exams to be tougher than CFAI mock exam

Yes lot of studying and dedication should help. Best of Luck
 
I only used the CFAI text; studied maybe 6 hours during the week in the evenings; another 4-10 hours on the weekend depending on what was going on. I also made flash cards as I studied which I like doing as its personally helps me retain the info. Then the last month or so I took a couple practice exams and went through my flash cards.

That being said, I think I'm going to pickup Schweser for Level II.
 
I did the following, looking back.

-- Piss friends off
-- Stay late at work with empty desks around and CFAI books
-- Try to solve the problem even if you dont know which section it is from or what LOS it covers or you've never heard of that topic, just do as many problems as possible. Don't care about time, just keep doing problems. AF is great for problems. And review the problems and think would be able to do that problem if it appeared in another form. Go to CFAI text then, read the pages that are relevant to the problem, sometimes 3-4 times and come up with your own problems and post on AF. That's what I did with most of my study time. You don't need schewser or stalla or anything, just do the CFAI text and tons of problems on AF. Go thru last 2 yrs of post.



Also towards the end i realized i ran out of time to finish the course even once. If this happens to you, have faith and keep chugging. Skip the not so important part (like i couldn't get to economics at all, the book is NEW at my home). Also I hurried thru Alt investments but it only has 8 question. It means squat on exam. My goal was to maximize my limited study time (5 wks). so my approach was very different from others here, but if I could i'd follow map, mcf, topher and gdiddy and few other top achievers.


GOOD LUCK TO YOU ALL AND THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT, HELP AND MOTIVATION.
 
I started late, and did a lot of cramming in the last few months.

I used Schweser for everything except Ethics (I used the CFA text here).
I did a lot of practice questions.
I asked a lot of basic questions on AF, and burned those explanations into my mental hd.
Instead of re-reading certain parts of the text, I memorized answers from such reliable posters as MCF, pepp, and thunderanalyst.
I pulled a few all nighters on the week of the test.
I drank 3 red bulls on test day.

I thought I failed.

but fortunately for me, I passed.
 
I know that most of the people are from finance background, so I guess it will be a change to get the perspective of someone who comes form an Engg. + MBA background. I started my preparations Feb beginning and used AnalystNotes summary for all the SS along with the CFA texts. Analyst Notes mock exams are great, they are much much harder than the real exam and make you prepared for the worst. CFA mock exams and sample exams are closest to the real thing as has been said multiple times on this forum. But THE MOST important study material for me are the CFA texts. The other stuff is supplementary; they can never replace the real thing. All this and about 2-3 hrs study everyday and I am sure you would do well. I got more than 70% on each section so I guess all that work has really paid off!!! Hope this helps
 
KrisC

I have the exact same background and thinking of taking the exam in june. What was most challenging given the education background...and is there something I should eb careful...or else will fall into the trap....due the given background.
 
Bee:

Being an engineer I guess quant. and all the other calculation related things would come to you naturally. For me, the most challenging and the difficult portion of the exam was FSA. This time it was easy comparatively but then, that won't always happen. Read the CFA texts carefully, do all the mock exams and you should be OK!!!
 
thank you KriscC....will take extra care with FSA !!
 
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