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My Top 10 CFA Level 1 Tips

Another CFA Level 1 exam is approaching. I’m not sitting this exam, but I have spent more time studying for the CFA Level 1 exam than most anyone else you care to champion. I eventually passed, but I didn’t enjoy the journey. I also blogged, probably too much.

CFA Level 1 Study Materials

It may be too little too late for a lot of CFA Candidates but here are my hard won tips to succeeding at the Level 1 exam.

In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy.

  • Start early and don’t stop studying until the eve of the exam.
The hours of folly are measur’d by the clock, but of wisdom: no clock can measure.
  • 300 hours is just an estimate, some people can pass the exam studying less, some people will have to study considerably more.
The eagle never lost so much time. As when he submitted to learn of the crow.
  • Spend a disproportionate amount of time on the material you find the hardest.
You never know what is enough unless you know what is more than enough.
  • Practice, practice, practice! Keep collecting and doing practice problems. Not only do you need to get the questions correct, but you must do so in under 90 seconds approximately 200 times on one particular Saturday.
No bird soars too high. If he soars with his own wings.
He who desires but acts not, breeds pestilence.
  • Don’t rely just on third party material or stuff you downloaded online.
Improvement makes strait roads, but the crooked roads without Improvement, are roads of Genius.
  • Keep practicing the ‘easy’ sections too but on exam day start with the material you find most difficult, in case you run short on time.
If others had not been foolish, we should be so.
  • Ethics isn’t window dressing, more Candidates have failed the exam because of a poor performance in the Ethics section than say the Alternative Investments section.
A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees.
  • Economics is only 10% of the exam but 1/6th of the official reading material, make sure your personal study plan reflects your strengths, weaknesses, and the actual exam weights.
If the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise.
  • If you fail it isn’t the end of the world, you can rewrite. Hopefully you’ll learn from your mistakes.

The quotations are all taken from the Marriage of Heaven and Hell by William Blake.

Related posts:

  1. CFA Level 1 Problem Set
  2. CFA Level 1 Study Materials
  3. FREE CFA Level 1 Study Materials
  4. CFA Study Materials

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  • Hend F. A.

    Hi,

    How do you go about making cue cards?
    I’m taking the exam in June 2013, just started studying.

    Thanks

  • http://www.muschamp.ca/ Muskie

    There are apps, they are also known as “flash cards”. I made mine by hand with index or recipe cards I bought at Staples or some other office supply place. I put formulas, definitions, along with hints and tips on them. I slowly refined my collection over a long period of time. Adding and removing cards as necessary. I think some 3rd party company makes flash cards or a cheat sheet. I strongly prefer cards, they are good for quizzing yourself. I went over and over them right up to the night of the exam. Then after my last exam I typed them up.

    http://cfacuecards.wordpress.com

    By making them yourself you can tailor them to your strengths and weaknesses. I had a lot of weaknesses it turns out. Eventually I made special cue cards just to help me solve certain questions that kept appearing in practice problems. I reviewed these most every night I often carried them with me in a little box pictured above, so I could review them if I had time. They are portable and don’t require a calculator or even a desk and chair to study. I studied them in bed, on the bus, in cafes etc. etc.

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