Help: Doing CFA in Undergrad

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g5cubed

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Hey guys,

I'm really interested in doing my L1 CFA while in undergrad. I'm currently entering second year (Soph), and I wanted to write it in 2008. I already have two years of FT professional work experience, and they confirmed that I could combine my 2 years of work experience with 2 years of education.

My plan is to study for the entire summer (2008), allocating 3 hours a day, and then to write the exam on December 1. My only problem is that I won't be able to retain all the information from the summer until December, would many of you find that a problem? I'm also afraid that my two years of business/finance university background might not be sufficient enough to pass the exam. I was planning to read the entire curriculum, do some samples questions and then around exam time to read Scwesters and do some more sample questions. Any thoughts/suggestions...
 
I called them and they told me it could be a combination of work exp and school, yielding 4 years. I already have 2 years of work exp, and by the time i would write the exam, I would also have 2 years of school. I told them my scenario and they said I was eligible.
 
I would recheck so you do not end up wasting valuable time. I'm taking the exam and I'm in my senior year.
 
I just took and passed L1 as a senior. I would recommend that you take your upper level courses before taking the exam. Most of the basics were covered in those courses and it made the material easier. I am not saying the test is easy, its not. You have to put in a lot of work. Unless you are that confident I would wait.

P.S. I would recommend doing A LOT of questions. From your study plan that you outlined, I wouldn't bet that you would pass. Why can't you study during the Fall anyways?

Good luck.
 
I called again, and they told me I was eligible, as long as I have a combination of four years or in my senior year.

I think I'm going to register for the Dec 2008 (when it opens). Then over the summer read all the curriculum books, while trying as many questions as possible, and I will try my best to study the three months up til the exam during school. The reason I don't want to spend too much time studying this in Fall is that my main priority would be school grades, and I dont want to affect that.

About doing it after senior courses... My school offers its finance courses in second years, whereas most schools (CND) offer it in third, as well I just did another finance course this summer, and I've learned quite a bit from that. So, I'll see how it goes, if I fail, I could always do try again.

Thanks for all the suggestions.
 
By the way, Schweser offers student discounts on their products. Call them up and ask for Sarah Fisher.
 
Although I know nothing about you, I'd caution against writing L1 while you're a soph. You have plenty of chances to write the CFA, but you're only an undergrad once. Volunteer on campus or meet new people/go to varsity games/have a drink or two

It is a demanding exam and if you're balancing it with regular school you're GPA may suffer. IMHO you are better off graduating undergrad with straight A's and a padded resume of extra curricular's than being a CFA candidate with B's and a compromised social life. (This may be an unfair suggestion...because I don't know you, but I'm speaking in general terms).

Just my two cents of course, if you choose to proceed, good luck I hope you do well.
 
If you are not doing an internship, I would suggest you take the June 08 exam. I was going to take the December 06 Exam but decided that I would be screwed on my actual college exams. I ended up taking the June 07.

I studied about 4-6 hours a week (very casual) during the Spring. During April I started taking practice quizzes just to get a feel for where I was at. I dropped all CFA materials to study for my actual final exams as I agree with you those are much more important. As soon as I finished Spring semester I focused on nothing but CFA materials. They were my life for that month, and it paid off.

I also did not take summer classes so I could devote my full attention to the curriculum.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at Monday, August 6, 2007 at 08:44PM by Niblita75.
 
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