Am i getting in over my head? already, weekend, getting, schedule, together

toocfatoo

Hi all- first post to the forum- just signed up for the cfa L1 on January 21st. already purcahsed the Stalla review books, and cfai has managed to internationally ship (to hong kong) their books to me already.

i've just put together a 5 hr/weekend day and 2hr/weeknight schedule together - i allotted hours based on the % per subject, and now see that i have ZERO free time on weeknights and very little on weekends....total first read/study time is 330 hours, and then 2 weeks to re-read, with a final 2 weeks of review on problem areas.

i'm pretty sure i've got the ethics down pat- though i'm a little nervous since some questions will want me to infer deeper, while others wont....quant looks hairy, but hopefully the 40 hours of study i'm allotting should help- i'm guessing it may be better to hire a tutor for this part since i work better on quant problems by repeating the questions and going through the motions.

i'm sure i'll have a million other questions going forward, but just wanted to say hi- and ask generally if i have enough time to study (which is probably hard to answer).

i'm also wondering which calc to get- i've not used RPN much, though i know how it works. looks to me as the TI might be easier to use and not complicate matters while i'm taking the exam.

(sorry for being a newbie!)

Maddin

thanks for the replies.

my background is econ major, and currently work in finance too, though i don't use much of the quant work shown in the cfa books, and i don't recall much of my college education!

ended up buying the ba ii plus- mainly because it was the only one readily availible at the local 'bestbuy' type store in honkers.

one thing i noticed tonight- on end of review questions - i'd get anywhere from 50 to 100% correct- assuming i should def. re-review the lower scoring sections.

something that would be nice is a section by section test to see how well one knows the section...i didn't see that in my stalla review items thought it maybe on the passmaster disc they've provided?!?!

pogo

hi there and welcome. best advice I could suggest is, don't put too much emphasis on the reading through stage, and you can never put too much emphasis on the importance of practice quesitons!!

Being familiar with the type of questions and feeling like you've had plenty of practice is absolutely essential on the day. Like others said, I would say cut down your second read time and increase practice quesitons time to at least 4 weeks!

And definately do the mock/sample exams provided by CFAI, they're a good guide.

Most importantly, good luck! ;-)

Siddimaula

Do the schweser practice exams. Focus on that. not qbank.

MythosHF

Read a 'reading', then solve questions for that reading. Focus on weak areas, but not too much. Better grab all the low hanging fruit coz a right answer is a right answer doesnt matter if the question is easy or hard.

ajpheif16

You sound like you have a good plan and yes you will have no life. I think the Q bank was good but as stated above the schweser practice exams are better (probably the hardest) any question that CFAI puts out is good stuff. You can sort the Q bank on only med and hard questions that will help.

Just remember the amount of actual calculations has been dropping you need to understand the concepts and how to apply them more than the physical calculations.

In FRA spend allot of time memorizing and understanding the impact on ratios by changing anything for example, lease types, LIFO vs FIFO, Accelerated vs Straight line dep.

dcfox83

I think you need about 900 hours for your experience level...................