If you’re planning to take the CFA exam, it’s important to consider taking courses to ensure you’re as prepared as possible. With several choices in the test-prep landscape, it’s necessary to consider your learning style, budget, and time constraints. It’s also important to note that these are all subject to change during the journey to passing the exams. The following table summarizes how to best allocate your study time for the various CFA exam topics, if you were to give yourself about 323 hours and four months to study. Use this table as a benchmark and customize your study routine to suit your circumstances. Allow four weeks prior to the exam date to review questions and have practice sessions, while also setting aside at least one day to simulate exam conditions at home.

If a question asks for one advantage or two reasons, provide no more than the number of advantages or reasons requested. Only the first advantage and the first two reasons that you provide will be graded. If you are uncertain, you must use your judgment as to the advantage and the reasons that you think most strongly and directly support your answer. If appropriate, state any assumptions that support your approach to solving the problem. Assume the question is addressing a generally accepted concept or principle. Do not assume that questions are designed to trick candidates or test arcane exceptions.

MEANS TO EXECUTE YOUR STUDY SCHEDULE

This afternoon session is generally simpler than the morning session. It is based on the standard format followed in Level I and II of CFA, where item set questions are based on any one or a combination of the topics. There is a greater focus on Ethics and GIPS in the afternoon session, and there could be two items set on ethics and 1 item set on GIPS. This https://1investing.in/ session also has 180 points and a 180 minutes duration, which can help with time management. It is very clear that the CFA program is probably going to be one the most demanding thing you have ever done. Too many people take these exams too lightly, but here we are talking about a six-hour exam with two hundred and forty ABC questions from 10 chapters.

It shows that a rather limited number of candidates complete the exam, and you have to make a concerted effort to make it through and earn the coveted CFA Charter. However, at the moment, we are focusing on CFA Part I, but the same holds good for Part I as well. It is only that the level of difficulty keeps rising with each CFA level. This subject covers the code of ethics, professional standards, and Global Investment Professional Standards as a larger part of the ethics aspect applicable to the financial industry. It is one of the most important areas of study in CFA as the certification program is dedicated to promoting universal professional ethics. It is evident in subject weightage, where ethics is one area that receives relative weightage in all 3 CFA Levels.

t: Quantitative Methods (1st part, 8-12% exam weight)

However, this section gains increasing significance in Level II and Level III of CFA as the focus shifts to applying available knowledge for efficient portfolio management. Students can look forward to earning CFA charter holders after fulfilling work experience requirements to become competent financial professionals with globally-acknowledged credentials. You must keep in mind that these essay-type questions are composed of multiple parts, and you have to organize an answer in a template after studying them carefully. To help you pass CFA Level 3 in your first attempt, I have created this comprehensive CFA Level 3 guide. We will cover the syllabus, study plan/tips, pass rates, and results to get you started.

CFA Level 1 Study TipsThe CFA exam is regarded as one of the most difficult to crack. Your preparation, time management, and sequence plays will all play an important role in your journey. Here essay type does not mean that you have to reproduce a 2000+ word answer. You should provide pinpointed responses instead of writing essays. Avoid showing off knowledge of other CFA areas and focus on the question at hand, as it won’t help you score better and only take up extra time. It has 180 points equal to the number of minutes for this morning session.

And, please read this session at least thrice as questions on this section are expected. Behavioral FinanceBehavioral finance refers to the study focusing on explaining the influence of psychology in the decision-making process of investors. It explains the occurrence of irrational decision-making in the financial market when it is expected to be a manifestation of rational decisions and an efficient market. Also, make sure that you have time to revise ethics sessions at least twice. Having cleared CFA Level 1 and CFA Level 2, it is obvious that you are confident.

One important thing I did was that I kept updating my study schedule . This really helped me budget my days, and keep track of what I was taking too long to do, or should spend more time on. Quick iteration on the study plan was key to dealing with such a tight time constraint. Study notes, practice questions and mock exams for CFA level 1 and 2 exam.

• No points are awarded for general knowledge that is not responsive to the question.
• Two 2.25-hour sessions with an optional break in between are advised, to reflect the conditions of the new computer exam.
• I’m not sure what went wrong for you but if you have any issues in getting your planner please just contact me at
• While the platform offers flexibility, the scheduler also sets weekly goals to keep you on track.

I’m sure you could imagine how well you’d remember something after not seeing it for 3 or 4 months. By bringing up those topics repeatedly, it keeps that material fresh in your memory. It even makes it stronger because the more times you see something, the easier it is to remember it in the future. Wiley Efficient Learning offers layers of packages that increase in price by how many materials you need. The standalone self-study course costs around $645 and notably includes questions and two mock exams. For about $995, you can get instruction in a live-on-line or video format, as well as the right to email questions to an instructor, flashcards, and other goodies.

CFA Level I Exam Details

I packed up all my belongings and checked out of the Airbnb, making sure my “exam day kit” was ready – exam ticket, passport, writing materials etc. I packed my food separately in an easily accessible backpack compartment to avoid any spilling or leakage (Murphy’s law!). I started watching videos of lower weighted topics that previously, I had barely watched or skipped altogether. I continued supplementing with Schweser Notes if I really didn’t understand something. If I still didn’t quite understand a topic after the video, I would look up the corresponding section in Schweser Notes .

Just keep in mind that your goal is to pass the entire exam, not ace one specific section. The former, I call general planning strategy and the later – detailed tactics.

If you fill out your details in the form at the end of this article, a planner will be created and emailed to you. I’m not sure what went wrong for you but if you have any issues in getting your planner please just contact me at These were what I had originally purchased for the June 2020 exam and will continue to use for the Feb 2021 exam. As you enter your mock exam scores, these are auto-benchmarked to show you if you are scoring well against historical candidates performance.

At this point I had a decent understanding of Quant, but only the minimal “first pass” of the other topics. I’d spent much time on FRA, but the sheer amount of content made it seem like I barely remembered anything. The first 2.5 weeks I focused on doing a “first pass” of the content. This meant skimming a lot of it, but I was determined to have exposure to all topics. This was so when I did questions, even if I lacked depth of understanding, I could identify sections and areas to improve on. Are complex financial instruments, and this section deals with them specifically, including the fundamentals of futures, forwards, options, swaps, and hedging techniques usually employed.

The best thing that I did was allocating 3 weeks to doing mock exams, given that I only had 6 weeks. Starting with the calculator early, and timing myself, helped mimic exam day and accelerate my preparation. I took the Chartered Financial Analyst Level 1 exam right out of university, cfa study plan in the summer before I started grad school. During my preparation, I often fell behind schedule, and felt that I’d never finish on time. However, with the following strategies, I passed on my first try! If you are in the same situation with a tight time constraint, don’t worry!

Although Salt Solutions doesn’t have a proven track record yet, the user-friendly and thoughtfully designed software looks promising, particularly for those tired of staring at textbooks. Passing all three CFA exams isn’t easy, and Salt Solutions may be a good option for those struggling to buckle down and focus. To sit for the CFA Level I exam, you will first have to pay a one-time $350 enrollment fee into the program. Each exam then costs $1,200 (or $900 for early-bird registration).

CFA EXAM TOPICS DIFFICULTY

If yes, you change the color of the reading from grey to green in your Study Planner. If not, you are advised to repeat the 5 steps to nail your study content. It’s a topic you cannot skip, since it has relatively high topic weight given the number of reading. Now we will look at the block of Asset Classes readings, which I recommend starting with Fixed Income first (LM 1-6). If you haven’t already, try using the adaptive plan in the Learning Ecosystem. The tool is intended to assess your current knowledge and help you focus on your weak areas.

The test itself is not just measuring how well you know the material, but how well you can answer questions about that material. You should be spending lots of your preparation time doing that activity specifically to make sure you are as comfortable as possible when you get to exam day. Many candidates try to put off doing practice problems until they feel they know a subject area pretty well, but you should be jumping into the problems much earlier. There will definitely be questions on the exam that you don’t feel confident about, and you’ll want to make sure you are able to keep going when you encounter that through practice. If you set up your personalized level 1 study plan in April, you’ll get around 300 study hours divided into roughly 4 months.

Most of the questions could be related to the valuation and analysis of companies. There is a special focus on commodities, so it would be helpful for participants to have an in-depth awareness of concepts related to trading in commodities. There could be seven or eight conceptually-oriented questions from this section, some of them specifically related to commodities.