There may be different motivation for you on why you want to
clear CFA Level 1 exam. So I would directly jump to the strategy that I
implemented to clear the exam. It’s important to understand both - why determined
candidates fail and why do they pass? This blog is dedicated to my friend
Vinicius Torres from Brazil and other friends who want to be a CFA Charterholder.
Strategy: How to
increase probability of failure?
1. Leave a few topics and rely on your luck.
2. Complete reading curriculum 5 days before exam leaving 3-4 days only for practice of mock test and questions.
3. Ignore formulae.
4. Practice less than 1000 practice questions.
5. Focus on number of hours spent in preparation rather than topics and related questions completed.
6. Focus on marks in mock test than identifying weak areas for revision.
1. Leave a few topics and rely on your luck.
2. Complete reading curriculum 5 days before exam leaving 3-4 days only for practice of mock test and questions.
3. Ignore formulae.
4. Practice less than 1000 practice questions.
5. Focus on number of hours spent in preparation rather than topics and related questions completed.
6. Focus on marks in mock test than identifying weak areas for revision.
Strategy: How to
increase probability of success?
1. Discipline matters. Have a plan to complete reading curriculum and practice questions at least 15 days before exam. Stick to plan religiously.
2. Be authentic to yourself about what you mean by 'complete'. For me completing one LOS meant reading it, practice questions about it and if not confident than again read and practice.
3. Take out time every day to get away from books and all electronic items and just recall and think about what you have read. This will help content to settle down in memory and may cause more insights to occur. I used my 2.5 hours bus travel time for this, even while shopping at grocery store I used to recall what I read. Fill up any time you can. This approach was extremely helpful for me.
4. Take good care of your health. For consistency health is required. Level 1 is just an iota of your potential, you are going to experience tougher challenges.
5. Formulas are important. Be able to recall and apply them. Practicing questions will help.
6. Ask yourself if concept of topic is clear before and after practice questions. If answer is no anytime, it's better to read it again and practice questions again. I also used to read topic again if I got more than 20% questions wrong.
7. Beware of over confidence. Do not skip practice questions for any topic just because you think concept is clear, especially for ethics and FRA.
8. Have your calculator with you always that you are going to use in exam. Practice questions using this calculator where ever applicable.
9. Practice sufficient questions and mock tests. I practiced approximately 3500 questions and 3 mock tests including one mock test available with curriculum.
10. Know that CFA Level 1 exam is not as difficult as it appears. All it needs is clarity of concepts. This exam is extremely well designed to ensure fairness and genuineness.
11. Read all email notifications from CFA Institute carefully.
1. Discipline matters. Have a plan to complete reading curriculum and practice questions at least 15 days before exam. Stick to plan religiously.
2. Be authentic to yourself about what you mean by 'complete'. For me completing one LOS meant reading it, practice questions about it and if not confident than again read and practice.
3. Take out time every day to get away from books and all electronic items and just recall and think about what you have read. This will help content to settle down in memory and may cause more insights to occur. I used my 2.5 hours bus travel time for this, even while shopping at grocery store I used to recall what I read. Fill up any time you can. This approach was extremely helpful for me.
4. Take good care of your health. For consistency health is required. Level 1 is just an iota of your potential, you are going to experience tougher challenges.
5. Formulas are important. Be able to recall and apply them. Practicing questions will help.
6. Ask yourself if concept of topic is clear before and after practice questions. If answer is no anytime, it's better to read it again and practice questions again. I also used to read topic again if I got more than 20% questions wrong.
7. Beware of over confidence. Do not skip practice questions for any topic just because you think concept is clear, especially for ethics and FRA.
8. Have your calculator with you always that you are going to use in exam. Practice questions using this calculator where ever applicable.
9. Practice sufficient questions and mock tests. I practiced approximately 3500 questions and 3 mock tests including one mock test available with curriculum.
10. Know that CFA Level 1 exam is not as difficult as it appears. All it needs is clarity of concepts. This exam is extremely well designed to ensure fairness and genuineness.
11. Read all email notifications from CFA Institute carefully.
Conclusion: Remember that clearing exam is always about how
clear your concepts are and not about how many hours you have given in
preparation. If this is tough then it is rewarding too. This blog is about
clearing exam so we will not discuss rewards here. If there are only 2 months
left for your exam and you are mid-way of studies or not yet started - do not
give up. You may have to take a month or two off from your all other activities
like - office, socializing, TV, facebook, whatsapp, party etc. However, you
will get sense of accomplishment when you will clear exam. If you feel upset or
demotivated while preparation you may do what I did -
1.
Acknowledge that
you feel being upset – getting upset is not a bad thing – who do you think will
get upset – a student who expected 40% marks and got 45% or who expected 90%
marks and got 85%?
2.
Ask yourself – What’s my commitment? – You see,
higher the commitment, more will be the upsets. Hence feeling sad is actually
good.
3.
Answer for yourself – what can I do for my
commitment right now in this moment. You will always get an answer – whether you
are travelling or taking bath or lying on a bed or doing anything else.
4.
Take action immediately. Only action causes
imagination to reality. You imagine being CFA Charterholder and your actions
aligned to your imagination will cause it in reality soon.
Last but not the least, once you are determined to clear
level 1 exam you are going to find out your own ways and most of the times
better ways than I found. I trust you; All the best!
Do share with me how your exam was and the journey, the
preparation, at baibhav.bajpai@gmail.com
About me: I am 30 years old software testing professional with 8+ years of experience in software testing and zero experience in Investment banking. I want to be a CFA Charter holder in an attempt to improve my understanding systematically of how money works and if feasible make a career in Investment banking. I failed in level 1 exam in December 2014 and passed in June 2015. So I've experienced both sides and have shared the same with you. For CFA Level 1 exam my strengths were - determination; and weakness were - lack of knowledge and exposure to jargon of investment banking, slow reading speed - takes more than 15 minutes to read one page of Schweser notes, lack of time - need to spend 12 hours at office on average and 2.5 hours travel time every day, lack of memory's retention power.
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