I reckon somewhere between 350 - 400 hours. The week before the exam probably totaled 120ish hours.
Focus one thing at a time! you’re in no rush passing the CFA exams if you’re still in school.
It’s better to do at least ONE thing well than failing to do both!
Best of luck!
Spent about 600 hours, or most likely more than that. Accounting background. Didn’t really keep track but one thing is for sure; many weekends have been entirely burnt and my social life is non-existent.
Many people are likely to understate their hours of study, to appear smarter or more efficient if they pass, or to console themselves on the lesser number of hours put in, if they fail.
Nobody wants to admit they spent more than 600 hours and still fail (hopefully not, in my case).
Hi All,
I started my studies in mid march and I am with a marketing background… I registered on the last day for level 1… I studied on an average 3 hours everyday which roughly translates into around 200 hours max… Not sure where I stand when I look at above comments… fingers crossed 
May I ask when did you start studying for your exam?
I am trying to comprehend 600 hours of studying… i mean, if you have a full time job or going to school full time, i don’t think you can commit 600 hours to CFA unless you start studying in September (for June exam).
And this is level 1 as well… i can only imagine how many hours you would put in for level 2 and 3! :-S
Just curious.
500 Hours … and I feel like my odds of passing are 50/50
My background is in Applied Economics. Accounting is my chief deficiency. If I fail, I will probably give Level 1 one more honest attempt. For the most part, I enjoyed working through the curriculum. My advice to any new candidate would be to study as much as you can reasonably tolerate (and then a little more).
Started in late January. I squeezed in close to 2 to 3 hours everyday after work, and put in about 12 hours or more every Sat and Sun, reading, making notes or practising random questions. Works out to be ard that amount of time of 600 hrs. Took a week off work in the last week of May running up to the exam and did a few mock exams. Hated the feeling of re-taking exams, so I pretty much gave all I could, and a bit more. Never been so crazy in my life before.
I was suffering from near burn-out and had a nauseating feeling in my last week, you know something like you have studied so much you just feel like completing the exam and getting it over.
Well, I wouldnt know about L2 and L3, let’s wait for L1 results in 19 days time first.
There is such thing as “over-studying”, and i’m not judging, everyone has their own study techniques, whatever works for you is fine. I think once you have some experience you will be able to find the best way to study for CFA, perhaps in L2 you will be able to do it more efficiently.
NANA
Revisiting as promised - the matrix isn’t pretty but I passed. Again, I’m not suggesting that 30 hours is the right answer for anyone else, but I sure am glad I didn’t throw another 270 hours at it . I mean, that is a lot of hours. I can’t help but think that some of these folks posting >70% scores in all sections in the results thread could have gotten some of their lives back.
3 weeks X 12 hours a day basically…
Shut off all phone, communication.
Pee in a bottle and only took time off to take a shower and take a dump.
pizza daily . I studied till whatever i see on computer screen is blurry…Then i go to bed… Wake up, study…
Think there were days I did not brush my teeth.
HAHA. Seriously. If you do this, when you take the test, it will be a joke to you. I finish both part in about 1 hour 20 min each and took the rest of the time going over the test again 2-3 times.
Guess it will be the same for level 2 and 3.
MUST have very supporting GF who can leave you alone and not bitch why you are not buying her the latest LV bag.
It’s not about how many hours it’s about how HARD you study…
thats what I did. YES thats true… Be in the zone when you study… Be Selfish…
Around 300 hrs
Approximately, I studied around 250 hours, 240 to be even more precise … and, as I said in the other thread, the “study organization” sc*ewed me … I used Stalla mobile app planer - it planned the wrong things, and it wasn’t thourogh and detailed enough … at the end of May, I discovered the TimePrep app … it’s intuitive, it’s got the Schweser materials that I actually use … BUT, it was too late and I couldn’t switch then …
So, the amount of time is not an issue - the technique and time organization always is!
I studied around 300+ hours, first attempt. Result was 4 topics > 70%, 6 topics 51%-70%, passed. It must have been very close to not passing. No non-CFA Institute testing materials used, finance major from a crapy state school (CSU system), not Asian, <1 year related work experience.
I barely passed with 110-120 hours put in. I only covered maybe 80-85% of the material, I ended up skipping most of the econ section and statistics in Quantitative. I used CFAI books for most of my reading, and did about 100 questions from qbank. Scored below 50% in corporate finance and fixed income.
Educational background, I went to an ivy majoring in engineering. Most of the material in the curriculum I had already had prior exposure to, but it was still a challenge relearning it. Most of my studying came 3 weeks before the exam, I ended up using all my vacation days to prepare for this.
If I had to redo my study plan for level 1 I definately would have tried to manage my time better and put in more hours.
about 60-80 hours
Can you please participate in this short survey?
http://cfatutor.me/2013/07/23/results-are-out-congratulations-to-38-of-level-i-and-43-of-level-ii/
with the CFA books? maybe 25 hours?
my undergrad covered everything and if you get honours in a april graduation you should remember it enough to pass easily in june