Considering CFA Level 1 - No undergraduate major in finance, major, accounting, background, advantage

Kingpin804

Hi,
I am contemplating doing the CFA Level 1 in June 2013, I have a few questions to ask of people who have completed CFA Level 1.  
1) I have a business degree but no accounting, finance or economics major - I am told it is a big advantage to have such a background - on the basis of the recommended 250+ hours of study, what amount of hours did people (without a similar background) put into passing their Level 1.  
2) I have read a few articles regarding people who are in high stress working environments and still managed to study for the CFA.  My present job requries me to work a very minimum of 50-55 hours per week.  For people in similar situations, how did you structure each week?
3) Social life / fitness.  I have a long term girlfriend and she understands that I need /want to look at the CFA in order to progress my career.  I also surf most weekends (in the early mornings) which keeps me fit, although makes me rather tired.  - What’s everyone’s secret to maintaining a healthy balance ensuring you don’t burn and get sick and get enough rest + dont’ drive your partner mad and put strain on your relationship? I am happy to completely give up any temptation of an occassional beer for 6 months, but lack of time with my partner and lack of time to stay fit and health definitely is of concern to me, how did you everyone find it?
4) I have heard that unofficially the rule of thumb is you need to be consistently hitting 70%+ as a very minimum in order to pass the level 1 exam, for those of you that passed, what scores were you hitting (on average) for you the mock exam and practice exams prior to the actual examination?
5) I have also heard that a lot of people who pass, spent 90% of their time using Schwieser notes and only refer to the actualy course material if they lack understanding.  Would the majority agree this is the best way?
I would appreciate all your thoughts
Cheers,
Sydneysider

random_walker47

My solution has been sacrafice late nights.  I wake up at 3 a.m. weekdays and study until work.  That leaves the afternoons open.  I also work out inbetween study sessions and bring the Secret Sauce into the gym with me – I get weird looks from people when they see me looking at pages with Call Payoff Diagrams and Normal Distrubition Curves lol