I start studying for Dec L1 tomorrow starting, position, everyone, studying, accounting

Bad5shah

Not leaving myself as much time as I would have liked, but I plan to put in 2 hours after work each day and a good deal of time on weekends. I will be using the Elan Ultimate Prep Package. Anyone else just start/not started studying for L1 yet? I just graduated with a Finance degree in May and did extremely well in all of my finance/econ/stats/accounting classes and am working in fixed income now so I think I should be in a good starting position.

Good luck everyone!

evolsteevol

Good luck to you! I just started studying about a week ago (and no background in finance)...I think we'll have enough time to be well prepared. You have an undergrad in finance, so I'm sure a lot of the info will be review.

lc26mizzou

I just started my studying 2 weeks ago for the December exam. I also graduated in may with a minor in finance. I've found that even after studying finance for 4 years it's going to take a solid and consistent effort to retain all the material for the exam. Quant is a good place to start. Good luck!

leadcfa

BryGuy,

Good luck to you and studies. I have schweser prep, but thinking about using more of Elan once I'm done with schweser, probably the mock exams and practice questions. Using schweser/elan, then CFAI to work out any issues/problems. My biggest weakness is probably Econ, its just been too long since I've studied these curves. Long Run vs Short Run demand and supply curves and which way they go, prob my biggest weakness on this entire exam.

Londonrocks

@Jason

My study materials took a day to process and two days transit time. I live in the Northeast, US. In the meantime, you should really lay out your planned schedule and set study goals for each week. Having everything organized and ready for when the curriculum arrives will help reduce the stress you feel once you see the size of the it.

Benjiko

Graduated in may with finance and am registered for December. Have had the books for a month but just got serious about reading them. Im going to give the CFAI material a shot first for about the next month, if im not kicking ass ill probably buy elan or something of the sort.
This is my first attempt at Level 1 and i have high hopes seeing as i have been studying much of this material for the last 4 years.

Matori

Hey Good Luck Everyone.

I signed up last night for the CFA in December. I graduated in May 2010 with my master's degree in economics. I have minimal experience in finance, but I am excited to learn! I have a fairly solid understanding of Math and Economics so I hope that helps.

I plan on doing an intensive 16 week study session starting this week, however I am waiting on my study material. (does anyone know how long it takes for them to mail it to you? I am currently located in the NJ/NY area.) I know online you can print the first chapter so I will begin that way.

My study plan is going to be; read the CFAI material chapter by chapter, followed by a review of the "Schweser Video Classes." (16 in total) making my whole study session 16 weeks. Followed by a remained of 2 weeks or so review. I currently work an average of 40 hours a week so I believe I should be able to maintain this workload.

This is my first attempt at the CFA exam so if anyone has any suggestions / words of inspiration please feel free to share.

Jason

smartpants

JDiegelmann Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> @Jason

> In
> the meantime, you should really lay out your
> planned schedule and set study goals for each
> week. Having everything organized and ready for
> when the curriculum arrives will help reduce the
> stress you feel once you see the size of the it.

+ 1

My CFAI books took about a week to arrive (1 day to process, then shipped to Toronto).

kmf229

I have just started studying for Dec L1, I am using Elan and starting with Econ.

Finance undergrad.

Siddimaula

Ski2Much Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Im going to give the CFAI material a shot first for about the
> next month, if im not kicking ass ill probably buy
> elan or something of the sort.
> i have high hopes seeing as i have been studying much of
> this material for the last 4 years.

I've studied much of this material in my underdrad as well; the biggest frustration/change for me is that the CFAI treatment of individual topics is much more dense/detailed than any of my course texts dealing with the same material.

At this point, it's difficult to assess whether that extra detail is really necessary or just overly-descriptive.