Greetings MV!
For my 2 cents, you absolutely can do it. All of the information you need for the test is contained in the official materials you are given by the CFA Institute. Schweser does a decent job for Level 1 in my opinion.
I used Schweser for all three levels but in my opinion Schweser does an insufficient job on Level 3, so I added Chalk & Board - they are really great in my opinion. There are also Mark Meldrum and Bill Campbell whom you can look at for Level 2 and 3 also, like Chalk & Board.
The key on all 3 CFA exams, in my opinion, is to read completely through all the topic materials or watch the study videos before the last 4-6 weeks to your exam date. This requires discipline and don’t waste extra weeks getting bogged down. It doesn’t mean mastery, just get the readings done while also taking as many CFA multiple choice questions as you can on the CFA website after you finish a topic. Don’t waste extra time trying to master each topic before you move to the next one. Fun fact, you will likely not remember most of prior sections by the time you read the next section. At least for me it was like this. Remember - if in doubt take official CFA learning ecosystem questions over Schweser Qbank questions.
To pass the exam, make sure you dedicate the last 4-6 weeks to taking practice exams. If you take the 4 Schweser practice exams PLUS the 1-2 official mock exams on the CFA website you should be more than fine for Level 1. Do at least 3 mocks for Level 1 at minimum from Schweser, plus at least one official CFA mock on their website. The mocks will prepare you for the test questions sufficiently in my opinion. It is mostly simple formulas and all multiple choice. You just need to remember a bunch of stuff. Also - for Level 1 you will need to get familiar with your financial calculator. YouTube has all the videos you need for that. Most finance folks are in the same boat - people don’t typically use this calculator everything is done on spreadsheets in real life. So everyone needs to learn the calculator just like you are doing, we all start at the same level there.
For Level 2 same thing but I recommend 7-10 mock exams and I also recommend either Chalk & Board or a similar test provider in addition to Schweser. On Level 3 same as Level 2 but do AT LEAST 10 mocks including old CFA ones from prior 1-2 years. I did 12 for Level 3 starting in early April when my exam was May 27th. Without all those mocks I probably would have struggled more on Level 3 - a test I think I passed but am waiting on results for currently.
You can definitely do this. Prepare with the mindset to beat the test, do not approach it with the mindset of a typical college class where you are trying to become a jedi master. There is simply too much material, you just need to get the test generally organized in your mind and peak on game day. Mocks do this for you - particularly studying why you got things wrong when you make the inevitable mistakes.
Many folks do CFA as a career pivot with other backgrounds. And honestly the material is so broad that even finance folks don’t have a super advantage. It’s hard for everyone but totally doable and well worth it. You totally got this if you want it too.
The main challenge to the CFA is do you have the dedication to spend 2 or more years studying your butt off and taking numerous practice tests that take hours apiece, where you will be getting crushed and demoralised by the mock exams. I failed most all my mock exams but easily smoked levels 1 and 2 , and hopefully level 3 which I just took in May this year too. But it’s humbling and challenging to fail (in my case badly) most of the practice tests. The important thing is to plow through them and study why you got questions wrong. Then you will ace your exams. I took all 3 levels in my 40s with a family and work. My mind is likely less sharp than yours. I am no genius and my memory is far from photographic. On my exam results to date, I passed in the top 10%. If I can do it, you definitely can too. Just follow the time proven process I described above and don’t get emotional about it. Trust the process.
I pull this through.