How long does it take for you guys to read 10 pages of CFAI?

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I’m not sure if it’s just me, but it takes me a really long time to read each page. Some pages are much quicker than others, but the difficult conceptual ones takes me a while. I just wanted to get an idea of how long it’s taking you guys to read around 10 pages. I’ve been reading 50 pages a day, and it takes me on average 3-4 hours. The 50 pages also includes doing the EOC problems as well as reviewing them.
 
I’m the same way. It usually takes me around 1 hour to do 10 pages. i am a slow reader, especially when it comes to textbook reading. but unlike you, i couldn’t read 3-4 hours a day. but i still passed. so you’ll be just fine. the key is to get as many practice problems in as possible.
 
10 pages a hour is fine, but do the math - if only can cover 10 pages a hour or 50 pages a day. How long will it take to get through the 3000 pages of CFAI text. That’s 300 hours or 60 days - that’s just reading, it does not include reviewing, memorizing formulas or answering the questions at the end of each which is probably close to or over 1000 questions.
This is when candidates start to panic and look for shortcuts to finishing the material. They read the post on analyst forum with the one person who claims they used only Schweser and passed forgetting that this is one person is the exception not the rule out (or did not pass on their first try) of the 50,000 people who wrote the exam - this number does not include candidates who signed up for the exam and decided not to write it. Of this number 37,500 people failed.
When you come across the threads on Analyst Forum on the people who claim they passed using Schweser - ask yourself why Schweser doesn’t post the number of people who pass the CFA exams using their prep course on their website.
Candidates failed because they cut corners. Don’t look for the easy way out or you will be writing this exam again. At level I it feels like you will never finish the material, but you can - it takes hard work.
Don’t give up and don’t cut corners.
 
Simply, your response is exactly why I asked this question. I really don’t understand how the average amount of hours needed to pass the test from successful candidates is only 300 hours. I feel like 1 hour for 10 pages is the average pace for reading the CFA curriculum. At this pace, you would have spent 300 hours just reading everthing alone. Maybe add another 150+ hours taking the EOC twice, Qbanks, and taking 2 exams and going over those exams. This amounts to about 450+.
Basically, is everyone else a super speed reader that they only need 300 hours to pass (yes, I know this is only an average? I consider finance one of my stronger subjects as I go to a target school majoring in finance, so I learned a lot of material. I don’t want to take any shortcuts so I want to do all the readings even though I learned a lot of these concepts already. What is a good pace to read?
 
I was speaking to another Level 3 candidate the other day about how slow it takes to read the text. This individual also could not read more than 10 pages a hour. One of the biggest mistakes all candidates make is assuming they already know how to complete a problem because they have seen similar questions in their undergrad study or the question looks to easy to answer so they skip it.
I don’t know where the CFA gets their data on how many hours people spend studying for the exam. Maybe the should not use an average because the candidate who said they only studied 100 hours is throwing off the average when everyone else said they spent 400 hours or 500 hours.
For Level 2 I liked the Schweser Video Series (not the online class, it was a longer video insturction series), didn’t use Schweser for Level 1 but I wish I did - just for the videos, the Qbank has too many questions that would never be asked on the exam. If you understand a concept by visiualizing it, it may cut down the hours of study a bit - but not by much.
It really is just a long and slow process.
 
i wanted to see how long it takes me to read 10pages and take notes and i needed like 75-80min … quite a lot just hope that some sections will go faster
Anyway i think it depends very much on your style for example i know people that read the material and that’s all they consider it learned…others highlight what they think is important….and i can’t sleep at night if i don’t go through all the material and take notes written by hand which takes a lot!!
 
Anna, I highly suggest you either read at a much faster pace, or just read the Schweser books and do lots of questions. At 80 minutes for 10 pages, it will take you 450 hours just to read the CFA material. CFA says that successful candidates on average prepare for 300 hours in total (including practice quesitons, exams etc.) I understand you want to understand everything, but at your pace you might spend well over 800 hours studying for the exam. I will tell you some good advice now, read faster and don’t take as much notes, or just use the Schweser material. You are not preparing efficiently, you will be using your time more smartly by doing more practice questions.
 
I don’t know about a per page rate, but I’m doing an LOS probably every 1.5-2 hours w/blue boxes, and roughly the same to do all the concept checkers/challenge problems/EOC’s. That’s schweser though, so it might be a bit faster.
 
Hi Ana,
I remember I employed one of your described methods in the past, preparing for different exams as a student in Romania, but for CFA exam I think they are counterproductive - too much time consuming. You will not have enough time to practice and without practice you are half dead. So go to Paris well prepared. My method is to read the LOS faster and retain as much as you can. Try to retain almost 70-80% of what you read for the first try. After finish it repeat one more time to catch the % you missed for the first try and do the exercises from CFA books to solidify the concepts. You can season them with Schweser. Be careful with Schweser – every word must be understood -behind a Schweser word is half page of CFA curriculum.
Most importantly: employ what is the best method for you. Every person has his style.
Good luck
 
I read all the material in around 101.32 hours. Then my first review of those chapters after finishing reading (including Schweser videos) was 68.18. So I had roughly 169.49 hours studied before the last month.
I tracked the reading and study pretty maticulously until the last month, when I stopped using it as motivation. I made a spreadsheet which had a benchmark of 250 hours and calculated the average amoutn of studying per day. Then the next formula took days from today until test, see what my average was. It worked to keep me focused and get the reading done.
I recommend everyone to find ways to quantify their initial progress. I found the difference between the two averages took all the moving parts and simplified it to one number, which I wanted to keep greater than or equal to zero.
 
simply_put7 wrote:
When you come across the threads on Analyst Forum on the people who claim they passed using Schweser - ask yourself why Schweser doesn’t post the number of people who pass the CFA exams using their prep course on their website.
Click to expand...
Third-party providers are not allowed to imply improved pass rates - that’s why none of the CFA providers tout stats.
 
Well in my case it depends on the subject i am studying, on one hand It took me just 3 weeks to complete the entire FRA portion as i am from an accounting background i already knew IFRS and US GAAP while on the other hand PM took more than a month to complete as i was not aware of the concepts and was studying it for the first time.
 
going at a speed of 10 pages per hour, I spent way too much time just “reading” the textbooks. It left me no time for EOC. I just relied on mocks.
the textbooks are very wordy. For instance, one section explained how money got started! While this is interesting, it’s time consuming. There’s no point of reading this. I think reading the important parts is enough, and this is where Schweser comes in very handy.
If I were you, I’d use the textbooks to compliment Schweser, and not the other way around.
 
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