ayaz_mahmud369

Now that we all have our exam results back I feel I can offer some solid advice to future LVL 1'ers.

To OP's questions:
1. That's about right. May vary depending on how much you know and how intensive each single hour of study is for you.

2. The End of Chapter Questions alone make it worth it. You are forced to buy the books anyways when you register IIRC.

3. I used Elan for the readings -- their materials hit just about all the good stuff you need to know in clearer language than some of the other providers that I've sampled. You should check the erratum though because this past semester they made some pretty significant errors in the original printing of the text.

4. (1) Use flashcards to memorize factual sorts of things, (2) do a lot of mock exams that both the CFAI provide and from 3rd party providers; do all the end of chapter questions from the CFA curriculum several times, (3) make sure you bring something that'll help you fall asleep the night before because I wasn't able to get any sleep that night on account of anxiety, (4) bring some caffeine pills (nodoze perhaps) to the exam (this only works well if you don't have caffeine often).

The CFA website has several hints and suggestions for preparing and taking the exam and I thought those were helpful. You should look at those.