I would like to share my experience with passing CFA Level I because I did not proceed according to the generally recommended approach with study for a long time period (about six months before the exam) but rather intensively during a short time period about three weeks directly before the exam.
Maybe, this approach is not ideal and rather risky but I want to mention that it is possible way and you are able to pass the exam even if you are studing deeply during a short time period.
The main characteristics of my approach were:
study intensively during a short time period directly before the exam (3 weeks);
using Schweser Notes only;
start study the most important topics and well-known to me first (e.i. Economics, Ethics, Financial Reporting, Corporate Finance, Quantitative methods, Equity Investments, Fixes Income Investmetns, etc.)
test my knowledge after each section by test questions in Schweser Notes, rather than do tests with all topics together (CFA sample tests, mock test or Schweser Notes Test Book);
take regular breaks; and
never panic.
I have wrote my experience to my blog, so read it if you are interested about more details:
I have met a lot of people who are very afraid before the exam (especially their first attempt) that they are not able to pass the exam without beginning your study six months before the exam, study hundreds of hours, proceeding strictly according the schedule and passing all the mock and sample exams, still reviewing, etc. Simply, it generally says that you need a looooooooooooooooooooot of effort to pass which unnecessarily scares many candidates months before their exam.
My main goal is to appease these people and tell them that they are able to pass the exam with far less effort than they think.
Moreover, it is not an advice but telling of my experience.
I probably chose a bad way how to say it if there is so much critics.
Can you suggest the better way how to say it? Or do you think that this information is useless for anybody?
If so, I will delete this topic. I only tried to help other candidates.
IMO the advice given is not very helpful, however, I believe other people may find it helpful.
Considering it is not great advice, I’d expect the thread to sink, but I wouldn’t laugh at it. VapnoM had good intentions taking his time to write the blog entry and this thread.
BrightStar and Cipxi87, your comments are totally unnecessary and gratituous.
Thank you futureEAFI! Finally at least one person who is clever enough to catch and assess what I wanted to say.
Others contributors are relatively limited and narrowed in the way of their thinking and see only their approach as good which not something that I would expect from clever people.
Important thing, which many of you did not catch, is that the post here is only the introduction to the blog article, not stand-alone full description of my experience. Without reading the blog article, it is not usefull. Read the blog article firstly and then judge if my experience is worthless or not!
To oliverk120: Once more, I am telling them that the exam is not as much scary as it seems (not telling that it is easy) which is something what is good to mention to calm them and make them feel more comfortable before the exam. Second thing, this is not an advice but description of my experience from which anyone can take what he wants. May be nothing, may be something valuable for him. I would let the judgment to everybody.
To robertucla: Do you know me well to be able to judge that my modesty is false?! I don’t thing so. So, calm down man and be polite.
1/ I passed CFA Level I in June 2012 at a first attempt. I am not a native English speaker and have two and a half year experience in a Big4 company in the Valuation department. Based on my experience, I would recommend you following things which helped my to successfully pass the exam:
“Second thing, this is not an advice but description of my experience from which anyone can take what he wants.”
come on dude==> FYI i read your blog before commenting : anyway i’d better be spending that time studying. With that being said, this topic should not exist
Yes, there are some suggestions (in fact about 5 bullets) but the main body and the idea of the textis my experience with the exam. You are catching individual word rather than the whole article.
Nevertheless, thank you for your opinion. I am taking it. Unfortunately, you are one of those who is not able to take anything from my experience and lost your time. Sorry for that dude! As I said before, may be others will take something from it.
Let them space to judge it.
If you want to constructively contribute to the discussion, please suggest how to improve the blog article to be more useful for other readers. Criticism like yours is always the easiest way of expression but it is not the constructive one. Suggestions for improvement are the constructive way.
If the only way how you want to contribute is that this topic is useless anyway, I appreciate it, but I don’t agree.
There is very nice difference in the way of thinking in the last two comments. The difference between positively and negatively thinking people.
Majda.sd, thank you for you comment. It is a very nice example of positive way of thinking from open minded person.
iteracom, I have been thinking whether to react to such nonsense that you wrote. I decided that I will. First of all, you are miles out of the truth with the statement that I am trying to make people fail. I have passed the exam, so I have no motivation to force people to fail. It is also stupid and personally offensive statement against someone who you do not even know. This kind of statement would not say anyone polite and well-behaved. So, I would suggest you to think about your behavior. Second, you are misinterpreting what I said. I am not telling people that they should not study much or do not do the mock exam. I am telling them that they do not have to be scared to death if they have not done the mock exam or came through every single page of CFAI materials before the exam because there is still good chance to pass the exam if they understand main topics well, based on my own experience. Many people scaring candidates that there is almost no chance to pass the exam if they do not finish study a month before the exam, still reviewing, do mock and sample exams, understand every singel topic very well, etc., which is not true. Yes of course, it is always better to come though all study materials, understand everything very well, do all sample exams, reviewing and be prepared, but it is not absolutely necessary to pass the exam, so do not scare people. Unfortunately, your comment is direct opposite to the previous one. It is a clear example of negatively thinking person who see the devil even in positive things (my initiative, initial post here and my blog article were all meant absolutely positively). I wanted to share my experience. I regret people thinking this negative way like you iteracom because they could never be happy. Like Google says, don’t be evil!
You just passed level 1, which any CFA candidate that has finished the program will tell you is a joke. To give you some perspective, you are like a kid that just kissed a girl for the first time on the cheek and are now giving tips on how to be a player.
If you honestly think your "method " which includes: doing no mock exams and basically studying very little without any study planning is going to continue to work, then get ready for an a** raping as L2 and L3 will come at you with baseball bats.
I find no value at all here, in fact your method is far more likely to screw people over then give any help.
I rewrote the initial post because I realized that it is saying a different thing than I wanted. I wanted to share my experience with passing the Level I so that I adapted the initial post.
Hopefully now, It will be less provocative and more focused on the fact that the blog article is rather the description of my experience with the study and exam for those who are interested than the description of recommended approach to study.
