CFA Level 1 is not that difficult that everyone thinks it is. This is a professional exam and tests your understanding of concepts.
How to prepare?
As you have not mentioned what is your educational background, I suppose you are from a non-finance background. First of all, you need to order Kalpan Schweser practice material as you cannot prepare from Institute practice material because it is very exhaustive.
CFA Level 1 curriculum is divided into 10 major subjects and all the subjects are equally important. One major mistake most candidates make here is that they start doing selective studying. It is very important that you do not skip any chapters from any of the subjects because there is no guarantee of what will be asked in the exam.
You can follow below order of study
- Quants
- Financial Reporting
- Corporate Finance
- Ethics
- Economics
- Portfolio management
- Fixed Income
- Derivatives
- Alternate Investment
- Equity
Just to add, Ethics is the most confusing and difficult part to crack in the exam. It needs a good amount of practice to score well in exams.
Subjects like Quants, Financial Reporting, Fixed Income & Derivatives contains lot of numerical problems therefore it is important you do good amount of practice on them.
Whenever you try to attempt questions,try to time yourself as some students face time crunch during the exam
Exam Format
- Exam is conducted in 2 sessions: Morning & Evening (both are 3 hrs each) on the same day.
- Generally there will be 120 Multiple Choice Question with 3 options among to choose.
- No negative marking for wrong answer.
- It is a pencil & paper based exam.
Things to do a week before exams
This is a very important time for your preparation. As mentioned, in exams you could be tested on various numerical or concepts, therefore your understanding needs to be well on concepts.
You should not focus on solving numerical during this time instead you should try revising and brushing your learning.
Last and most important
CFA Institute releases 2 Mock Papers just 15–20 days before the exam and generally your exam pattern and question will be framed around it. Therefore, It is highly recommended that you go through and attempt (if time permits) the mock paper at least once.
Good Luck for exams.