query regarding CFA L1 regarding, sufficient, knowledge

Spongebob

Hello everyone,
I've just hopped on CFA track still in shell, exploring various things in this matter. I've few questions regarding CFA preparation.

I'm non-finance guy seeking to expand my knowledge through CFA, been out of college for 8 years. Keeping that in mind and rigoursness of CFA along with short time span, what would you suggest is best for a guy like me to learn the most of the material but not at the stake of failing the exam.

Are official CFA books sufficient enough? Or must I go for Schweser etc prep notes? Should I buy the recommended text books like Analysis of Derivatives, Quantitative methods for investment analysis etc?
I met a professor during a seminar he said the prep company notes and cfa official books have good content but its broken in pieces just to help students learn exam related stuff, this one really bothers me. What other experts here have to say? Your input is highly appreciated.

And last but not the least ... how good a person must be at mathematics in order to understand formulae and reasoning behind them for CFA. Should I really know limits, derivatives, integeration calculus etc?

Thanks,
SN

LokiDog2

1) i hate the CFAI books because they are too big and too dense, there is no way I could read all those books and remember/learn anything
2) you don't need to know anything about limits, integration, etc.

JRossSter

I agree with tmjones2. I started off studying exclusively from the CFAI texts in my quest for a complete understanding of the materials. After I was done with my first reading I realized that I wasnt retaining much even though I was practicing quite a bit.

I went with Elan in late March and I am very satisfied with them.

There is no need to buy the recommended text books, and you really don't need to know any limits/integration.

JGovender

If you don't have a PHd in Physics and mathematics- expect to fail.

Bluetick1010

Hey,

I graduated with a history degree and have been working in the finance field for a few years now. The underlying math isn't that hard. It's definitely worth picking up the BA Prof Plus calc and cruising the forums to find out all the applicable calculations. I spent a good chunk of time memorizing the formulas when I started but it wasn't practical from a time perspective.

The Secret sauce notes have been useful in reviewing but you'll want to delve into the problems and keep practicing them. Don't forget to take advantage of the free online mock. It's available to all active candidates. Also, the mock exam was good practice. It's close to the real format and costs $99 in most places. One word of caution, I think a lot of us found the Boston Mock exam deceptively easy. There was a significant score difference between that and my online exam. Perhaps it was an abiration but I'll only know that after I get to the real exam.

Best of luck to you. It's definitely an uphill battle with this background but consistent studying and reviewal should help you succeed.

Regards,

Peter

ogoluwa

Thanks everyone for good reply.

@nickfaulkner mate if you can't give good replies, keep negative ones with you besides doesn't affect me ;-)

@beatthecfa : sorry, I'll take care.

Thanks once again to everyone and best of luck to you as well.

amqata

According to me,.Institute books are the best ones to study from .. The matter is excellent especially for non finance ppl..

Benjiko

cfa_student29 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> According to me,.Institute books are the best ones
> to study from .. The matter is excellent
> especially for non finance ppl..


I agree. I'm a non financial student but an 'Engineering' stud. Except 'Economics' I've read the CFA books for all other topics. I found Schweser videos very very good for 'Economics'. They really saved a lot of time esp since Econ has 16 Readings but only 10% of the marks.

The content in Equity,FI,Quant,FRA,PM,CorpFin are really great in the CFA books. It'll do more good than harm if you read the CFA books. I totally recommend it. If your aim is just to pass the exam then I'd suggest you go for Elan/Schweser but reading the CFA books gives you that extra special feeling that you've learnt all the stuff.

PS: Dont forget to do the EOC Q's.