Hello Everyone,
I just passed both levels in back to back sittings (with solid passes) and whilst I’m thrilled I thought I’d share some of my experiences in a few posts. I hope you find them useful (hopefully…).
In summary, I bought the CAIA book, read it once, bought a premium kaplan package which included classes, bought the Q bank and smashed through c.80% of the qs, did all the kaplan mocks, the official mock, all the CAIA handbook questions and read through the definitions.
It sounds like overkill but tbh it took 4 months pre exam of solid studying. This meant I rarely had a day off and studied before and after work most days. Did I need to do this much? Probably not… but i couldnt afford to spend another 4 months preparing for it so I went all in!
Here is my PERSONAL ratings of the aforementioned studying materials:
CAIA book 3/10. Save yourself the time and buy a good study guide which covers all the objectives anyway with better examples…
Q bank 6/10. Great for as you are going along but repetitive and I didnt find it a good reflection of the exam.
Kaplan lecture series 7/10 brilliant for covering content and providing structure but I only used this for planning study time and covering key concepts.
Kaplan mocks 7/10 great to simulate time conditions and boost my morale but wasnt comparative to the exam.
Official mock 9/10 no explaination needed just do it. Honestly I scored worse on this than what I can assume from the exam.
CAIA handbook qs 10/10. These were the most effective and extensive material I used in the last few weeks. Can easily smash out 3-5 chapters in a day.
I’ll follow up with some tips on how to tackle the CRITs, ethics and exam prep if anyone is keen.
Happy studying!