Study Plan Advice??? starting, schedule, everyone, something, like

RobertA

Hi all,

I am starting a Msc in Finance in a few weeks. It is a CFA partner course covering around 70-80% of the CFA curriculum. I plan to sit Level 1 in June 2012.

I have 6 exams in Dec and 6 more in mid April with a dissertation due in Aug.

Could anyone who has done something like this suggest how i should go about incorporating CFA study and exam prep into that schedule without hurting my Msc results. I have also bought the elan ultimate prep notes.

Thanks in advance everyone

BC_MBA_student

I had the same route with Master of Finance covering essentiall the entire CFA curriculum...

My suggestion, don't worry about level 1 at all....in the program, you'll likely cover the majority of it and come April or so you can start to focus more on the curriculum...

With the program, level 1 will be a refresher and everything should still be relatively fresh in your head.

If you study hard during the Msc, you won't need to study for level 1 much...I put in about 75 hours for level 1 and did fine.

RepoToronto

Thanks for the reply BuySide.

Ooooh that seems a little risky to me, I dont think the course touches Ethics. In that 75 hrs, did you just do questions or how was your time broken down. Also what was your undergrad in (Finance???) , mine was economics.

Is starting in January a bad idea?

Also the fact i have the elan guide , would you recommend not using the CFAI books at all?

Did you use a Prep provider???

PalacioHill

Well depends how rigorous your program is...Starting in January is great for those who work full-time...but you're going to be spending the next year studying all the topics anyway?!

Ethics is 15%...personally, I spent maybe 5 hours total with Ethics on both level 1 AND 2....and scored >70.....but I feel as though I was just really lucky because most people get bombed by ethics even when they study this topic continuously...so, i don't recommend what i did.

I did mathematical economics in my undergrad...the MFin program covered all of level 1 and 2 perfectly...

Starting in January could be a good idea if you just slowly read over all the material while studying for your courses in the MSC program....

honestly, level 1 is very easy IF you have a good background...considering you're spending the next 8 months taking all the courses relevant in CFA curriculum, how could you get any better preparation??

don't compare yourself to a regular person studying CFA...you will be almost fully prepared without even touching any material. Just need to have an intense prep before the exam for a month or 2

I would NOT recommend CFAI books given you'll have a great background. Remembering, you're doing msc in finance....

I didn't do any questions, just reviewed schweser material and formulas...i read over the practice problems though.

anyway many people wil tell you otherwise, but if you are smart (and have great grades in uni) , chances are you will find level 1 very achievable given you study hard in the MSC program this year. It would be a bad idea to sacrifice your grades/networking in your program just for level 1 lol.....

cv4cfa

thanks again for such a comprehensive answer. I suppose I just want it all to go well first time. But as you said the CFA is repeatable and the Msc isnt, but i will be studying hard for the Msc , so hopefully that will be enough to get me throught the CFA Lv 1 too.

cv4cfa

Thanks MBAGlover,

I reckon i will hit the books during the december break. I just dont want to taken any chances really. Would you advise to read the books in order and to fully read the CFAI books before going near the Prep provider's material?

Would a sensible strategy be, to do the EOC qn's after the first read through or how would you recommend I solidify my understanding after each reading.

thanks again

Windjam

Hey Chave,

Why don't you take the advice I gave you?

Unless you are a poor student, your Msc in Finance should (considering you said it's a program that covers the majority of the CFA curriculum) prepare you fully for level 1 except for Ethics which is only 15%....

During your courses (read your syllabus) you will cover all the topics in MUCH greater detail than CFA and will ultimately realize how easy level 1 is compared to your program..unless your program is garbage.

my real advice, take it or leave it, is to stop worrying about level 1 and concentrate FULLY on your masters program. Level 1, and 2, knowledge will come over the course of the next several months in your program.....level 2 will obviously require much much more studying, but level 1 is just a recap of undergrad material anyway (and your program will cover most of it)....so seriously, don't worry about level 1 lol...worry about it come march or something if you doubt your abilities to do well in an exam.

stalkey

chave Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Thanks MBAGlover,
>
> I reckon i will hit the books during the december
> break. I just dont want to taken any chances
> really. Would you advise to read the books in
> order and to fully read the CFAI books before
> going near the Prep provider's material?
>
> Would a sensible strategy be, to do the EOC qn's
> after the first read through or how would you
> recommend I solidify my understanding after each
> reading.
>
> thanks again

I'm a huge fan of doing the readings in order since you're going to do a comprehensive review after finishing all of the reading anyway. A lot of people disagree with me on this since Ethics needs to be fresh in your mind for the exam, but I think that doing the readings in order is the best.

Also -- do the questions at the end of the readings after finishing the reading for that section. If you wait until the end, you'll have 9million questions to do, and frankly they won't get done. The questions are awesome because they test your ability to apply what you've just read, which is the most important part since you'll be expected to do the same on the exam.

bbtomato

I agree with BuySide, your first priority should be your classes, ace those first, and just piggyback off that knowledge for the CFA LI. Be sure to study ethics though.

bcp901

Thank you all for your input, your advice has helped a lot.

Best of luck to you all at your endevours!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at Tuesday, September 13, 2011 at 07:13PM by chave.