I did not use Wiley for Level I, but it is a highly regarded 3rd party provider.
After the exam you’ll likely read that so & so provider didn’t cover a particular topic well and that candidates were blind-sided on the exam, etc., etc.. For Level I, Wiley is likely more than adequate. (I used Wiley for L II.)
Some suggestions:
- Go through the Blue Boxes in the CFAI text. ”Blue Boxes” are example problems throughout the CFAI readings (that are highlighted with, you guessed it, blue boxes.) You’ll often see them referred to on AF as BB.
- Be sure you can do the problems at the end of each CFAI reading. These problems are often referred to as EOC.
- Consider reading CFAI material if you don’t feel you have a good handle on the topic after doing the Wiley practice problems, BBs and EOCs.
- 2-3 months before the exam CFAI will upload a mock exam and practice questions referred to as “topic assessments”. Do at least the mock.
- If you’re an active learner, you might want to consider the Schweser question bank (“qbank”). I did each qbank question 2-3 times before I sat for Level I and was sure I passed when I walked out of the exam.
- Doing mock exams is helpful. Some candidates recommend doing as many as you can get your hands on. I did 2-3 for the Level I exam. Many candidates do 6-7. Schweser offers 6 mock exams that are quite popular. One nice thing about them is that after you enter your answers on the online answer sheet, you get feedback on your relative strengths & weaknesses. You’ll come across quite a bit of chatter on AF about the Schweser mocks starting about 1 month before the exam. If you only have time to do one mock do the CFAI mock (because you’re sitting for the CFAI exam, not the Schweser exam.) (The CFAI mock is also free.)
- Don’t spend too much time on any one topic. Make a study schedule of what readings you want to cover each week and stick to it the best you can. You’ll find keeping up some weeks easier than others. You don’t want to fall more than 2 weeks behind your schedule. You can create a study plan on the CFAI website under Candidate Resources, create one on excel, or map a schedule out on a calendar, the old-fashioned way.
- Plan on spending at least 3 weeks reviewing the material before the exam. If the exam is the first weekend of December, you want to have gone through all the readings and questions by mid-November at the latest.
- Spend some time becoming BFF with your calculator. Know how to use the function keys!
- One of the hardest things about the exam is not the material itself but the breadth of the material. Try to spend 2-3 hours a week reviewing what you’ve learned to date. Otherwise, you might find that you had Ethics, Quant, Econ, etc down cold in August / September but can’t remember a thing by November, or at least not well enough to get through a timed exam. Flipping through notes that you can read on a portable device when you have downtime (like when you’re commuting) is a good way to review without having to carve out a block of time from your schedule. Some candidates also swear by flashcards they’ve made for themselves.
Good luck!