That's what I'd be saying if I were sitting the exam in June. This is the time where the majority of people are sitting their CFA exam's at some level. Good luck to all of you and I wish you the best for the upcoming weeks.
Luckily I've got a lot longer because I haven't been studying much recently. I find it hard to believe I can finish 4 study sessions by the end of June. I think I will aim to complete 2 and revise my schedule after my university exams...
195 days until the level 1 exam.
Sorry, I haven't written in this blog for a while. It could be because I've been really busy studying for the exam. Sadly that's not the case. The only study I've done this week is finishing reading 1 for study session 2. It's pretty bad, but I've been bogged down by university work. Hopefully when the exams are over I can put alot of energy into the exam. I still want to finish when I originally planned to so I will have to work a bit harder I think. Let's see how it goes..
Reading 1 primarily teaches the time value of money. Since this is one of the fundamentals of finance, I think it's a good area to start. Of course it was all revision to me. I used the examples to learn to use the calculator. It's not so hard to use. I only hope I don't forget how to do it on paper because I think it's important to be able to do it like that. It shows you understand the concepts better.
I learnt a new formula I hadn't come across. It was the growth rate formula:
g= (FVN/PV)1/N - 1
You use this formula to find the interest rate if you're given the present and future values with a number of years between them. It's quite handy and although I can use my calculator now, I'm sure I'll keep this in mind. Can you believe in finance 251 they told us if we don't have a finance calculator, the way to find the interest rate was guess and check!? After seeing this formula I can't..
198 days until the level 1 exam.
Today I studied for 2 1/2 hours. I'm now up to date with this weeks schedule and made up another hour from last week. I'm only one hour behind now.
I also finished the first study session! :) I think I can catch up and finish study session 2 in 1 1/2 weeks. The start of quantitative analysis is about the time value of money. Since I know most of this already I will probably go through it much quicker than I did with the ethics.
I will let you know how it goes. I'm happy with my efforts so far.
207 days until the level 1 exam.
I bought the calculator today. I thought it would be a good idea to buy it early so I can get as much practice with it as I can. I decided to get the Texas Instruments BA II Professional.
(I'm on a roll with the pictures!)
I chose this over the HP model because I had the HP10B in the past and learning how to use it was a pain. I spent an hour or so how to do the IRR (or something like that) and that's the only purpose I've needed it. For all other calculations I stuck to the good old trusty casio.
From past experience, learning how to use these calculators can be a challenge. I've found a guide that teaches you the basics of both the HP & TI calculators. I haven't read it properly yet, but sign up and check it out. It's free so it's worth it.
On a side note I only studied 1/2 an hour today when I was meant to do 2 hours. I will make it up during the week though. The good news is I finished reading 2 on the standards of professional conduct and did the questions at the end. I got 29/29 so I pleased with that. I just have to go over it every once in a while so I don't forget it.
208 days until the level 1 exam.
Well last week's goal of 8 hours study was met by abysmal failure. I ended up studying only 4 1/2 hours total. Good the good news is I made up 1 1/2 hours today. I have (almost) finished reading 2 and I will finish it by the end of tonight.
The sudden burst in enthusiasm is largely brought by the fact I got the curriculum today!! It's massive..6 books totalling 2763 pages! 7.8kgs. That is huge..
They were very nice to throw in some postcards you can send to your friends so they know why you can't do stuff with them...It was also pretty quick arriving, it took a total of 5 days.
Wish me luck...
209 days until the level 1 exam.
Well, I studied for over an hour and a half today, but I still haven't caught up on Tuesday's study. Since I've scheduled 2 1/2 hours for tomorrow's study, it's going to be hard to make up the extra hour I've fallen behind on. It's going to be a busy day tomorrow with soccer as well.
Some good news though, the curriculum has been shipped. Apparently it only takes a week or so for it to arrive. I can't wait..or can I? It's 16 pounds which is about 8kgs. That's alot of reading..
210 days until the level 1 exam.
I didn't do any study today, but I thought I would mention an interesting point I studied the other day. In the standards of professional conduct, standard III(a) is concerned with loyalty, prudence and care, and how these must be exercised when dealing with your clients. One of the conflicts which may arise are "soft dollars." Soft dollars are costs which are hidden in transaction fees, so the secondary item is never itemised. An example is when an investment manager pays brokerage for the acquisition of shares, he may also want a report from the broker. Instead of paying for the report separately, the manager pays a 'little extra' for the brokerage and gets the report with it.
The conflict which may arise is the client paying for the brokerage may not benefit from the report. If the manager pays more for the brokerage without a corresponding benefit to the client, he violates the standard. Of course, if the report is purchased for the client's benefit, he is not violating the standard, but he should disclose this purchase to the client.
Have I got this right? Or do I need to go over it more? I should probably do some questions, but I'm saving them for the end of the week.
213 days until the level 1 exam.
I actually did no study yesterday. Mainly because I was too tired when I got home from university. I made up 1 hour today, but now I'm actually worried about the amount of time I've set aside from each topic.
As I said before, the CFAI recommends 10-15 hours a week learning one study session. Today I was surfing the net and found a guide to passing the level 1 exam. Based on a 300 hour study schedule, it suggests spending 45 hours studying ethical and professional standards! Wow, that's alot more than 15..
I can understand it though...With the study this week (2 hours), and study before then (about 10 hours), I've gone through 65 of the 167 pages of the first study session which covers all the ethical and professional standards. Realistically, it would probably take 45 hours to go through all of it and do questions. However, at the moment I cannot increase my study time for the CFA exam because of the assignments due for university. I will continue along for the meantime and pump up the number of study hours at the end of June.
Other points of interest in the guide were the pass rates for the level exams. In 2004 they were 34% for level 1, 32% for level 2, and 64% for level 3. I'm sure the pass rates are very similar today. It goes to show you cannot breeze through this. To be safe, you need to get 70% or over to ensure a pass (no one who's got over that has failed). It's also a good indicator that people who pass the CFA exams 'know their stuff,' and clients can reliably trust them to act in a competent, ethical manner. Do you agree?
Financial statement analysis and corporate finance makes up 28% of the exam which makes them important topics. Ethical and professional standards make up 15% of the exam but are featured in all 3 exams, so it's important to learn it well now.
There's alot more useful information in the guide, so if you're sitting the exam in June or December, it's definitely worth a read. How are your studies going? Did you spend that many hours on each topic? Or substantially less? Let me know, and good luck with your studies.
214 days until the level 1 exam.
