2024 CFA Level I Exam: CFA Discussion Topic: Experience

CFA Exams
Forums
General Forum
Topic: Experience - studying only from CFAI material

Author	Topic: Experience - studying only from CFAI material
kayser @2019-07-04 11:38:43	Background - I am engineer with minimal knowledge of economics, some exposure to quant and FI, and other topics equally unknown. I have worked for one year in Fixed Income operations department for one year. That is it. Study Material - I studied exclusively from CFAI material. Yes, I tried to read all those 3000+ pages on my own, without any third party help. I read all that material, solved EOCs at least twice and all blue boxes, also mostly twice. How was exam for me - I felt it was easy. The exam mostly touched basic concepts, when their was scope to really dig in and have some trick questions. AM was mostly straightforward, PM had some little tricks. With the kind of material we have to study and concepts we need to know and blue boxes we need to understand, questions were OK. Will I pass - NO. I may score more than 70 even may be 100 for 3-4 topics, between 50-70 for others, but I am not sure about ethics and econoics. I really do not think after putting so many many hours I will pass. Why? I spent so much time reading the material. I had less time to practice because reading text and revising used to tire me down. I tried to understand everything that was written. Economics took so much of my time, it was so difficult to understand, and in the end I am not sure whether I will even score in the range of 40-50. Revising that voluminous material in the end (even after taking notes was very time consuming). I regret solely studying from CFAI material. Depth of questions was OK, I would have been better off, studying third party material. Extra enthusiasm brought me down. What's next. I think I have studied hard enough, but I need to practice more. Any third party material should be sufficient , even those who will be studying for the first time. Don't waste time reading the verbose material. Third party material will help you devote time equally to all topics, without getting stressed. (This I am writing after reviewing AnalystNotes material vis-a vis CFAI material, this in case I fail and I have to re-appear.)

Author

Topic: Experience - studying only from CFAI material

kayser
@2019-07-04 11:38:43

Background - I am engineer with minimal knowledge of economics, some exposure to quant and FI, and other topics equally unknown. I have worked for one year in Fixed Income operations department for one year. That is it.

Study Material - I studied exclusively from CFAI material. Yes, I tried to read all those 3000+ pages on my own, without any third party help. I read all that material, solved EOCs at least twice and all blue boxes, also mostly twice.

How was exam for me - I felt it was easy. The exam mostly touched basic concepts, when their was scope to really dig in and have some trick questions. AM was mostly straightforward, PM had some little tricks. With the kind of material we have to study and concepts we need to know and blue boxes we need to understand, questions were OK.

Will I pass - NO.

I may score more than 70 even may be 100 for 3-4 topics, between 50-70 for others, but I am not sure about ethics and econoics. I really do not think after putting so many many hours I will pass.

Why?

I spent so much time reading the material. I had less time to practice because reading text and revising used to tire me down. I tried to understand everything that was written. Economics took so much of my time, it was so difficult to understand, and in the end I am not sure whether I will even score in the range of 40-50. Revising that voluminous material in the end (even after taking notes was very time consuming). I regret solely studying from CFAI material. Depth of questions was OK, I would have been better off, studying third party material. Extra enthusiasm brought me down.

What's next.

I think I have studied hard enough, but I need to practice more. Any third party material should be sufficient , even those who will be studying for the first time. Don't waste time reading the verbose material. Third party material will help you devote time equally to all topics, without getting stressed. (This I am writing after reviewing AnalystNotes material vis-a vis CFAI material, this in case I fail and I have to re-appear.)

CFA Discussion Topic: Experience - studying only from CFAI material

To post a new topic or reply to a topic, please log in or register for a free user account.

I was very pleased with your notes and question bank. I especially like the mock exams because it helped to pull everything together.

CFA Discussion Topic: Experience - studying only from CFAI material

Martin Rockenfeldt