How can I prepare for the CFA exam?

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All related (48) Recommended

Puneet Agarwal
Finance is my passion. Passed CFA level 3 and FRM Part 2 · Upvoted by Sagar Soni, CFA level 2
from Chartered Financial Analysts (2016) and Anshita Agarwal, MBA Finance, S. P. Jain Institute
of Management and Research (2020) · 4y

Related How can I smartly prepare for the CFA?

Short Answer- “MS Excel Smart Plan”.

Long Answer- Let me lay it down for you in detail, what I did. And trust me it was very
successful, as I passed all three levels in first attempt with more than decent performance.

Background- I studied for CFA, along with a regular 9 to 6 Job. My weekly work off was
Saturday and Sunday. Also I had completed MBA in Finance, before attempting Level 1.

1. First step- Decide on your study materials. My suggestion, the material by CFA
institute is the best and covers everything. I didn’t require any other external
materials, except for few additional question banks that I used few days before
the exam.

2. Second- Briefly review the index of all the study sessions and the readings in each
of the books. Make a note of few details like, no of readings, no of study sessions,
average pages per reading, reading with the highest and lowest pages.

3. Third- Open an MS Excel sheet, create a very detailed blue print of your study
schedule. Below is a snip of my excel file followed by details.
 Every day till the exam day is to be planned before even starting to study.

Mark all non-study days. I don’t study on Saturday’s and Sunday in the initial
days. So I mark them red i.e., no study planned days. Like wise, mark all the
festivals or any specific day that you can foresee as a non-study day.

Count the no of expected study days.

Now for each level, I plan to study around 300 hours, so if my study days are
say 100, I know 3 Hours per day is my minimum allocation. I also know that my
maximum hours that I can study on any day is 7 Hours (study planned on holidays
and weekends). So I allocate 3 hours on study weekday i.e. when I have to work
and plan to study, 5 hours on initial non-work study days and 7 Hours on non-
work study days closer to exam.

I used to plan my study schedule around 120 days before exam. All levels have
have 50 to 60 readings (Chapters), On average each reading has 70 pages. So I
plan to complete one reading every day, only if any reading has significantly more
than 70 pages, I allocate either one or two extra days. So plan is to cover all the
core material 30 days before exam. Next 10 days for review and last 20 days for
solving CFA and other model papers and question bank.

Now while planning you need to be very detailed, mark the reading no against
each date. I follow the CFA index exactly , i.e., reading 1 will be covered first,
reading 2 second and so on.

At the end of every reading, there are 10 to 40 questions. So I make provision in

my excel file to enter these details, like no of question correct, count of incorrect
answers, time taken to complete all the questions. This info is very very important
during your final exam prep. I will explain in detail later.

So after the plan is ready, I know exactly the no of study days, study hours, course
of study and review time. Basically everything is mapped out in an Excel sheet.

Now all’s left, is to do what is planned.

Now you might ask me, did I always exactly followed the plan. The answer is No. In almost
all days I was mostly behind the plan or sometimes ahead of the plan. Then what help did
the plan do? I knew exactly on every day how much course I was behind, so tried to either
speedup or study an hour extra than planned for next few days or convert a earlier planned
non-study as study day. I knew exactly how to cover those planned study days were I
could not study due to last minute changes. I even tracked what I actually studied against
each plan day. I knew when I am ahead of the plan, so I would spend more time on harder
subjects than planned. I knew when I could afford a unplanned day off and when I could
not. So it really helped in maintaining
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Second most important thing. I kept a track of all the questions that I attempted during
these 100 days. So towards the end, I knew exactly which reading I had to redo. On which
questions I was taking more time and I had to re-work. This helped a lot on exam day, I
developed a habit of not spending more than 2 minutes per question and finished my
exams well before time, with ample time to review and calmly re-work those initially
skipped questions. I used to solve 3500 to 4000 questions per level with an accuracy of
85 to 90%. Every day, I gathered more and more statistical data regarding my study. While
doing the model papers, I tracked timings and score, not only on a model paper level but
would rigorously spend additional time identifying every question’s reading no, then collate
the data on excel to focus on pain areas and build more detail analysis.

At the very end i.e., two days before exam and on exam day, I used to not study at all. Not
because of overconfidence but because of factual confidence. My confidence re-enforced
every time I looked at my stats in that excel file.

So I believe, planning of study schedule in MS Excel is the smart way to prepare for CFA.
31.5K views · View upvotes · View 3 shares

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Related How do you best practice for the CFA® exam?

The Five P's, or some variation of the P's, are undoubtedly familiar to you. For example,
"Proper preparation prevents poor performance" goes something like this.

Practice with Active Learning

If you've ever participated in a competitive sport, you're fully aware that how you practice
affects how you perform. This is especially true for professional and Olympic athletes, who
devote countless hours to perfecting their skills to perform near-superhuman physical
feats. Any strenuous exercise, including the CFA
Continue Exam, follows the same principles. This
Reading
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Guzman Safon
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Studied at CFA Institute · Author has 1.9K answers and 5.1M answer views · 7y

Related What is the best strategy to pass a CFA exam?

Reposted from another question:

The key is time and practice!

The sooner you start studying, the better. If you are taking the program, with a full time
job, as I do, you probably have to study during the nights and weekends. Start early (at
MINIMUM 4 months in advance, preferably more than 6 months).

Make a study plan and respect it.

You should finish the program, at least, one month before the exam date so you have
plenty of time to the second point: practice!!

It is not enough to make a few exercises, you need "real exam experience".
Continue Reading
If you buy Schweser's materials you'll have 6 exams. You shou

Akshay Sirsalewala
706 13 18
CA | Cleared CFA Level 3 | Cleared FRM Level 2 · Upvoted by Eshita Singh, Candidate CFA Level
1, Chartered Financial Analysts (2019) and Venkatesh Sharma, CFA level 2 from Chartered
Financial Analysts (2018)Author has 188 answers and 8.3M answer views · 4y

Related What is the best way to prepare for CFA level 1?

I have been receiving various queries regarding CFA Level 1. Here is my way -

Before starting studies for any exam, the best way to go about it is by making a plan. If you
fail to plan, you plan to fail.

TIME REQUIRED

As per the CFA Candidate Survey, 2017; on an average, a candidate spent 300 hours to
prepare for CFA level 1.
Add to that Arif Irfanullah lectures of ~100 hours

Total hours required - 400 hours

Even if you assume, you are a weak student, add 20% time more - nothing more than
480 hours is required!!

Continue Reading

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Anuj
PGDM in Finance, Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar (Graduated 2019) · Oct 6

I have passed my CFA Level 1 exam in August 2022. I think i can guide you properly. I am a
working professional so i have time constraints but still i managed to pass my exam. We
need two things
1) Good material ( Kalpan Books, Lectures of Deepak Sir and CFA Website question
bank)
2) Right Guidance and Support : Deepak Goyal Sir ( RBei Classes )

Lets Start

First of all i want to say that don't take CFA exam loosely. Its really hard to crack exam, you
need to devote 350 hours of your time to study
Continue and prepare before you appear for CFA
Reading
exam. I took approximately 5 months to complete my preparatio

Tom Rosser
173 13 5
Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) · Updated 4y ·

Related Study Strategies: How do I clear CFA level 1,2,3?

Carefully.

After spending time getting thru all three levels and the work review process to receive the
charter, I want to answer this without regurgitating what the CFAI suggests (which is the
majority of what other answers to this question actually offer.) Once I had passed all 3
exams and with some time now to reflect, here is what I believe was critically important for
me… regarding approach:
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CFA; 2017 MBA at University of Chicago · Updated 3y

Related What is the main difference between CFA level 1 and CFA level 2?
The CFA level 1 is basically an overview of undergraduate business school concepts. Stats
101 and 102, Econ 101 and 102, basic finance and accounting, etc. It weeds out the weak -
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level of innate intelligence or strong work ethic. It is a memorization exercise at heart.

Level II is a whole different animal. It is much more specialized content around investing.
The topic titles might be the same, but the learnings
Continue Reading and approach are much more
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Harsh Deshpande, CFA

16
Studied at Chartered Financial Analysts (CFA) · Author has 97 answers and 153.6K answer
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Related How hard is it to get a CFA?

It is hard because it requires time commitment. If you are working full time, then you will
have to take time away from your family and friends and forget about social life.

There is a lot to cover for each level of the exam and you will definitely have to do at least
5–10 practice exams in exam like conditions.

Good luck.

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Blair Carey
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Related What is the best strategy to pass a CFA exam?

It's simple... there are two components to the CFA Exam Success... Learning
Outcomes and Test taking.

1. Read everything at least twice and take meticulous notes.. no matter what study
material you choose to use. Now you've got the learning outcomes down cold.
2. Take as many timed mock tests or exams as you can... this will ensure that you can
impart your knowledge from above into a 3 hour timed event. If you can't do this, then
you're just wasting everyone's time.

It's that simple.

Best of luck to you.

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