Sunday, December 21, 2008

CFA Level 1 Exam Resources

This post is for some of the resources that I believe will equip a CFA level 1 student to face the examination.

Schweser’s Secret Sauce® In fact, I recommend that one begins and ends the study preparations using the Secret Sauce. Schweser's Secret Sauce contains the essence of Schweser's Study Notes of 5 volumes summarized into one short (about 200 Pages) book. This will give you a perspective of what to study before you begin the studying and also help in quick revision on the day before the exams. Very importantly, it deals with tips and tricks to actually tackle the examination.

Schweser Study Notes: Schweser Study Notes are amongs the most popular prep providers for CFA. Level 1 Prep is good, neither too elaborate nor too succint. The interesting part is The Notes appear to 'talk' to you and helps you remember concepts using mnemonics and other tricks.

Schweser Question Papers: Part of the Schweser Study notes pacakge, the two-book set of mock tests attempt to simulate test question with a similar degree of "toughness". If taken under test-like timed conditions, this is a good surrogate for the feel of the exams. Be sure to check your score and review all the questions you got it wrong. It will also help to review the questions you go Right !

Schweser CD: If you are the kind who use a computer extensively and cannot bother with physical books, the CD is just right for you. The CD contains the study material. Also, it contains a test generator that can generate umpteen tests from its inexhaustible question bank. (Admittedly, that was hyperbole, but the CD does contain lots of questions).

Sen Finance Videos Did not use this much myself, but if you do not have a finance background, and would like to use a video assistance, this can help. THe best part is all the videos are FREE !

CFA Institute Study Material: The Curriculum Study sessions provided by the CFA Institute are comprehensive, in that, one is assured that there can possibly be no questions in the examination outside the scope of the material, but the material can tend to be too textbookish and disjointed, causing drowsiness in the short-term and disinterest in the long-term. However, these are free along with registration and selective sessions are available online for download here.

There are more resources- some paid and some free. If you know of some that you have used and found useful, please comment here. ( Even if you have not found something useful, please comment) It might help someone.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Hello i'm want to take CFA exam level on the next june any suggest ?

Pavan N Rao said...

Hi Darkvader !
what do you need a suggestion on ?

Books, hours of Study ?

What is your background ?

Unknown said...

Hi...i am a bba student ...will be enrolling for cfa level 1 dec 2009 . Hv heard a lot of shwiser notes... R they enough to study..if yes where can i get them?? And for how much? Sm body told me they are worth 15000 and one of my frnd said in mumbai he got them for 1500 only so coud u guide me a bit on dat ...and cud u tell me hw much study time is required for dat ??
regards aakash

Pavan N Rao said...

Time taken to study Schweser notes is subjective on your background. Very Aggresive estimates - A chartered accountant will take 100 hours maybe, a BCom Graduate 150 hours, an Engineer may be take 250 hours. Of course, this can vary very much on individual ability and background

financecoach said...

The CFA program consists of three levels of examinations, and candidates must complete all three levels within four years to earn the CFA designation. The CFA examinations are offered twice per year, in June and December.