CFA Level 1 – My Experience and Preparation Tips.

I gave CFA (US AIMR) in Dec 08 and after giving the paper I was looking for forums for comments from the exam takers. Strangely, I couldn’t find a single active fourm about the exam. I am not sure why was it so. Probably because CFA Institute has a strict policy of not discussing CFA Examination in Public Forums.

Anyways, this post is about the my CFA Level 1 experience and Prepration Tips. It all started with my desire to become a Equity Analyst tracking the markets and analyzing Industries. The first step towards gaining credibility in the market was working for CFA certification.

I enrolled 6 months before the exam date and received 6 bulky books from CFA institute. This took around 2 weeks    after my enrollment. I was suppose to rigerously study those books but in the middle of my preparation I lost track (Personal problems is always a good excuse, you know) and it happened that I couldn’t study at all for 3 months.

When I realised that I had to work hard it was too late. I mean, the material by CFA Institute was not the right thing to prepare from in the last couple of months. Neither could I roll back because there was no refund of fees ( You Know, CFA is a costly hobby, it costs 1078 dollars for level 1).

Fortunately, a good friend of mine told me to give a shot with schweser notes. These notes are supposed to be concise , to the point and formulated crak the paper, espically for late starters like me. I started referring to the notes and realized that my friend was quiet correrct. Still, I had just 1.5-2 months left and I was not able to devote more than 2 hours for prepration. My friend advised me to get basic understanding of the subjects (Financial Statement Analysis, Corporate Finance, Alternative Investments etc) and start working on mock papers (Subject Wise) because the more questions you practice the better it is.

That was the MasterShot. My friend send me 24 subject wise Mock Tests. I dont know where he got them from but that was really really helpful. I prepared using the Mock tests and I felt quite comfortable as the exam approched. I have attached the link for 24 Mock Papers and you can have a look at them as well( I am not sure if I am a violating any CopyRight Act, if I am, I will have to remove the link  soon).

Then came the Doomsday, The day of CFA Exam, 2 papers , 3 hours each .

Fortunately, I was in London for the exam . I guess all Fund Mangers and Investment Bankers are born in London. Why? Because around 6000 candidates appeared for the exam, I think the highest in any CFA center.

It was quite difficult for me to concentrate for 6 hours but at the end of it, I finally cleared the Paper.The bad thing is that One has to wait for 2 months to see the result.

Anyways, Still I am not sure of how to enter Investment Management Industry. God knows, where is the right place for me and how to approch for a Analyst role in this industry. Well, Hope is the only word that keeps the world running….and I too, believe in that word.

Anyways, another informative article on this subject with useful links can be found here.