CFA

Clauric

Mods - putting this here, but feel free to move somewhere else if more appropriate.

Basically, I have just signed up for the Level 1 CFA exams in June 2014. I was wondering if anybody else is currently studying for these exams, and how they are finding them?

Many thanks,

Clauric

Molly

Taking level 3 in December. Level 1 I found tricky, background is in IT. Level 2 was significantly more difficult. Level 3 is very different so far. Analyst forum is a decent enough resource. Schweser notes are extremely helpful

Clauric

Molly wrote: »

Taking level 3 in December. Level 1 I found tricky, background is in IT. Level 2 was significantly more difficult. Level 3 is very different so far. Analyst forum is a decent enough resource. Schweser notes are extremely helpful

My background is in finance, engineering and quantity surveying, so hopefully they shouldn't be too difficult. Only signed up for them today, and only given the texts a brief glance, so not really sure what to expect. Any suggestions?

Molly

Everyone is different but I found using the official books on a first pass, while making notes. Take a second pass using schweser while amending/appending to my notes. After that practice exams. Also I always did questions as I was going through the content.

I should add part of level 1 being difficult was I was so far removed from studying that it took a while to acclimatise .

I'm not really sure how engineering or quantity surveying will be of benefit. While my background was in IT I studied engineering and it was of no benefit to me. The numerical side of things is not exactly challenging its the sheer amount of content (think level 1 is about 3500 pages of content) and there are a few very important sections where you need to learn stuff off. Essentially I'm saying don't underestimate the test.

luapeffaat

Taking the Level 2's in June after just passing the level 1's. Given you seem to be determined to crack into the study now I think you should be fine to pass them if you maintain the workload until June, and in my opinion you are better off doing the June exam rather than the December one.

I would recommend you to get the SchweserNotes package, that really helped me. Cost me something like $350 but was well worth as summaries of the books once I had gone through them and the greater number of questions in them so you can test yourself. If you can pick up the physical books on DoneDeal, Adverts or Gumtree since online they make you pay for all this online stuff I never used.

Good luck

freeze4real

Where did you do your masters in finance ?

Clauric

luapeffaat wrote: »

Taking the Level 2's in June after just passing the level 1's. Given you seem to be determined to crack into the study now I think you should be fine to pass them if you maintain the workload until June, and in my opinion you are better off doing the June exam rather than the December one.

I would recommend you to get the SchweserNotes package, that really helped me. Cost me something like $350 but was well worth as summaries of the books once I had gone through them and the greater number of questions in them so you can test yourself. If you can pick up the physical books on DoneDeal, Adverts or Gumtree since online they make you pay for all this online stuff I never used.

Good luck

Is it possible to do the course without the Schweser Notes, and just used the CFA notes?

Static M.e.

Sounds like an interesting but very tough course. Wiki. Best of luck to you both.

Molly. Coming from your IT background how would you compare it difficultly wise, against some of the IT certs? Would it be worth doing the first levels if you just have an interest in investing or is it pretty hardcore (CCNP+ etc.) for those seeking an job as a financial analyst?

Molly

Clauric wrote: »

Is it possible to do the course without the Schweser Notes, and just used the CFA notes?

Most definitely. I wouldn't though. Something I forgot to mention to you in my previous posts is to get really familiar with your calculator. For the first exam I wasn't aware I could do DDM on my calculator and I was prone to stupid mistakes and cost myself a bit of time that would have been useful elsewhere.

Coming from your IT background how would you compare it difficultly wise, against some of the IT certs? Would it be worth doing the first levels if you just have an interest in investing or is it pretty hardcore (CCNP+ etc.) for those seeking an job as a financial analyst?

I'm in software so the closest I came to a cert in IT was SCJP and having studied the course, I just couldn't be bothered taking the exam. Having said that there was no comparison between them, but SCJP isn't exactly billed as being difficult anyway.

I don't think the courses are for those who are just interested in investing. They are far too broad for that. It's a huge time sink and that's half the difficulty. The average successful candidate is said to spend about 300 hours on studying for the first exam. The number of hours starts to increase as you progress.

If I wanted to learn about investing I'd just read a good book and take it from there.

Static M.e.

Thanks Molly, good answer. Best of luck with your level 3 exams.

luapeffaat

Molly wrote: »

Most definitely. I wouldn't though. Something I forgot to mention to you in my previous posts is to get really familiar with your calculator. For the first exam I wasn't aware I could do DDM on my calculator and I was prone to stupid mistakes and cost myself a bit of time that would have been useful elsewhere.



I'm in software so the closest I came to a cert in IT was SCJP and having studied the course, I just couldn't be bothered taking the exam. Having said that there was no comparison between them, but SCJP isn't exactly billed as being difficult anyway.

I don't think the courses are for those who are just interested in investing. They are far too broad for that. It's a huge time sink and that's half the difficulty. The average successful candidate is said to spend about 300 hours on studying for the first exam. The number of hours starts to increase as you progress.

If I wanted to learn about investing I'd just read a good book and take it from there.

Molly has it spot on. Can pass with original books but a lot of material.

duarte.f

did u buy any material?? like kaplan prep??