L1 Equivalent to? surprise, learning, experience, background

whew1110

Guys I come from an engineering background so had absolutely no exposure to material covered under L1. And thus it's no surprise that when I was going through the material, I felt it was a 100% learning experience.

What would people coming with Finance, MBA, Accounting, etc. background say about this? Did you learn a lot of new stuff? Would you also mind sharing the country where you had your program?

invic

As a practicing CPA and an investment advisor with substantial experience in several key areas of the curriculum, I can tell you that it didn't come easy for me. Sure, accounting (FRA) was much easier than it would have been, but I still had to struggle through econ, fixed income, quantitative analysis, equity valuation and derivatives.

The people with the strongest advantage, IMO, were those coming right out of college with degrees in corporate finance, statistics and accounting. I have a fair amount of real world experience, but my years to academia are long behind me.

I'm in the US.

- Robert

koba

I come from an Engineering background and I am currently doing my MBA. IMO L1 material covers most of the stuff one would learn in the core MBA courses. However, the material goes a little bit more in depth compared to what you learn in MBA. Remember MBA makes you take a view of things (Finance in particular) from a high level. CFA makes you go into the depths. I felt FSA and Econ were a little tougher compared to what I learnt in the MBA program. Quant was a breeze as I also have an engineering background. I took my L1 in Dec and I have taken a look at L2 material. L2 IMO will place most of the people in the same level playing field.

If you have only the engineering background, you will need a lot of time for FSA, Derivatives and Econ for sure. Ethics of course is a breeze only for lawyers

pacmandefense

I earned a BA in Econ and an MBA in Finance before sitting for L1 this past Dec. I also have almost 7 years of banking experience. The answer to your question depends on the depth/breadth of the curriculum of the college you attend.

For example, in my MBA we didn't cover more than the basics of Interest Rate Swaps. We also didn't take a deep dive on financial statements beyond all the typical ratios (dupont, liquidity, leverage, etc..).

With the L1 CFA books, you go deep on Inventory, Long Term Assets, US GAAP vs IFRS, etc etc. In my MBA we spent zero time discussing US GAAP vs IFRS or any of those other topics. In college, you also don't discuss Ethics at all.

So if I had to estimate, I would say that I was familiar with at least 60% of the material going into studying.

I'm sure there are other people whose MBA covered more than mine....

hope this helps.

T

Daniel1985

I am currently in my final undergraduate engineering year, will be graduating this april, taking the cfa level 1 this june. I have covered asset classes and half of FRA so far. It doesnt look difficult(yet) but the volume of the entire curriculum is massive. I think I have learned a lot of new stuff but there is still a long way to go before I can feel prepared for the exam. Schweser Qbank has been great.

What do you guys think about econ on the level 1? Is it harder than the other sections?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at Sunday, January 3, 2010 at 01:41AM by AlphaBoy.

btcapital

I took Finance in university in Toronto, Canada and everything I read in Level 1 was a review. But you have to understand that most of the Finance programs in North American Universities are now designed to prepare students for the CFA

studyn

beyiyi Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I took Finance in university in Toronto, Canada
> and everything I read in Level 1 was a review. But
> you have to understand that most of the Finance
> programs in North American Universities are now
> designed to prepare students for the CFA

I dont think that finance Ugrad programs are designed as a lead in for the CFA. I do think that L1 is a review of almost everything a finance Ugrad teaches you.

For me, CFA taught me new things in Econ, Options, Derivative and Acctg. However, i learned more in Equities and FI in Ugrad.

__________

"good personality ... or he was known as Lt. Mandingo during his army days."