I'm finishing my MBA at a Top 20 business school in about four weeks, and am looking for my next academic pursuit. Are there any CFAs here willing to spend a few minutes with me talking about the CFA exam, how they prepared, and the available resources?


TIA

Shweser study guides. Old exams.

I made a ton of notecards and used those a lot.

I'd say 200 hours minimum prep for each level.

I finished mine 10(?) years ago, so I'm sure some things have changed.

I passed all three using only the provided materials. The material can be difficult, but you can learn it as long as you put in the time. The biggest challenge for me was staying focused. I did June all three times, and started studying in January. It's hard to study 10-15 hours per week after working a full time job, so keep that in mind. I did a couple of hours per night M-Th and four to six hours on the weekends. If you have a spouse make sure they are as committed to finishing as you are. It's a big time commitment, and there will be times where they will want to do something when you'll have to study.

Thanks for highlighting Shweser. Looks like a great resource. Are there any media publications or podcasts y'all would recommend to help shorten the learning curve around financial lingo?

Do you have a job lined up for after you finish your MBA? Is CFA a valuable or required certification for what you want to do or will be doing? CFA is highly respected, but it is a ton of work. I'd want to make sure I was getting a return on the time and effort you are about to invest (unless you're crazy and just doing this for fun).

I used Schweser and thought it worked well for all three levels. I had a similar approach to one mentioned already. Started after the new year for June exams. ~2.0 hours M-TH and several hours on the weekend. Weekday work was done at home.

I went to the Rice University library the second it opened Saturday mornings. The quiet environment away from the distractions of home was great, and I could knock out several hours and still have most of my weekend.

My general process was as follows:

• Read all provided materials a section at a time and take notes
• Answer all Schweser/CFA provided practice questions for the section and grade with answer sets
• Review section as needed based on grades
• Rinse and repeat
• Took off work week prior to test
• Retyped all of my notes and a standalone document of key formulas
• Take all Schweser provided mock exams
• Take CFA provided mock exams (I think they make 1 or 2 past exams available near the test date)
• Review sections as needed between mock exams based on grades
• Day before test spent at the library doing light review, eat well, get to bed early
• Day of eat healthy breakfast, get there early, bring extra sharpened pencils, don't forget your calculators/ID, have someone bring you a healthy lunch so you can eat/decompress in the car rather than having to go off site

Make sure you get an approved calculator immediately and use it for every practice question you ever do. Set it to at least 4 decimal places (I used 6) and get used to writing down interim calculations to multi-step problems with this many decimal places.

You can get wrong answers if you get lazy and round interim calcs. Buy two calculators and bring both on test day. They are cheap, and you don't want to be trying to change a dead battery the day of the test.

Study extra on the ethics sections. They seem straightforward, but these sections trip people up. You will be pissed if you fail because of the ethics score.

Unless you're a freak, you've got to put in the time. Slow and steady dedication definitely wins this race, but you don't have to be perfect either. I felt good once I was getting 80% on the mock exams and doing targeted review between. I was probably over prepared and passed by a wide margin, but that is much better than the alternative of failing and feeling like I wasted 6 months of my life. Put in as much time as you can given your work/life situation. Good luck!

2 calculators! This man knows what he's talking about.

I sat for level 1 with a single calculator. And when the exam started I realized that if mine died, I would happily pay someone $500 for theirs! Compared to that, a backup with super cheap insurance...that I never needed.

I passed L1 with about 80 hours of studying. I tried the same thing for L2 and it left my body in the street.

The material provided by the institute isn't bad, but i would highly recommend getting Schweser Notes or something similar. The most efficient way to study and prepare for the exam is just do practice problems and that's the advantage of getting Schweser. I finished mine off about 5 years ago now.

I meticulously planned and logged my study time. I spent anywhere between 200-240 on each exam. Of that, I'd say I spent 130-170 hours on each exam doing practice exams and problems.

It's a lot of work but if you plan it isn't like 'I can't have a life amount of work either'. For all 3 I stuck to my schedule and never fell more than 25 hours ahead or behind schedule. I took vacations during all of them too and got good ratings at work and spent plenty of time still with my (at the time) toddler daughter and I finished it off first try on a Dec, June, June exam cycle. Give yourself 5 months to prep for each one and the work is manageable... I would never advocate however anyone pursue this without either an academic or a bit of work experience in finance, investment, or accounting.

Thanks for all the great info!

As others have indicated, if you put in the time, the CFA is relatively easily achieved. Where it gets difficult is when the rest of life gets in the way. IMO, if you have 2+ of the following, the CFA program can be a serious strain once you get to level II:

• significant other that is not fully onboard
• kids
• 50+ hour workweek
• can't/won't study at work
• long commute (where you drive/can't study)
• deep commitment to vacations/living life

When in the program, I had young kids, long commute and long work week. Given the demands, I used a weekly review course to keep myself on track. It obviously cost a little more, but I felt I couldn't afford to get behind.

For level II and III, I also took a 3 day crash course through Mark Lefebvre. I don't know that those were necessary, but I happily traded a little more money to ensure I didn't put my family through another study cycle. I fully endorse his program, and would not personally be concerned about his falling out with Creighton.
Level I is pretty easy, was nothing more than a capstone type finance class (undergraduate level). While easy, it is critical to truly learn the material at level I, not simply study enough to pass. Other levels build off the material. Level II is probably most difficult for those weak in financial accounting or math. I didn't have a deep accounting background, so this was where I had to pour in a lot of extra hours (and ultimately decided to use Mark). Level III was fairly easy for me as a wealth manager, as I combine disciplines every day. Those that had a narrow role at work (i.e. a bond trader) seemed to generally struggle a lot at level III.

Before I started each level, I read/worked through a calculator manual/tutorial geared toward the program. I think this was one of the best decision I made and the time easily paid for itself multiple times at each level.

I always kept a "secret sauce" formula sheet with me. Reviewing that regularly helped keep material fresh. That was critical given there will be sections you don't review for a couple of months or more while going through the primary readings.
Don't forget to eat right and exercise. Weakening your immune system and getting sick is very counterproductive to studying.

One final tip... at every exam someone near me had a box of 20 or so pencils they had to sharpen right before the test started. Don't be that guy/gal.

All good info, so no need to really add anything above. I'm sure I broke ethics by buying second hand books off eBay, but I was a broke new grad at the time.

I don't think I've seen the reason behind the task other than "next academic challenge". Would highly advise figuring out why you want to pursue and how this will help in the future. It's a lot of work that may go to waste if you don't plan.

Old Buffalo said:

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All good info, so no need to really add anything above. I'm sure I broke ethics by buying second hand books off eBay, but I was a broke new grad at the time.

I don't think I've seen the reason behind the task other than "next academic challenge". Would highly advise figuring out why you want to pursue and how this will help in the future. It's a lot of work that may go to waste if you don't plan.

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Great question and I've intentionally avoided answering previously because I didn't want to derail the thread topic. A lot of quality info was posted so now seems like a better time.

I was fortunate during fall recruiting, and I'm starting Big 4 M&A consulting in August. The career path after manager/senior manager starts converging with sales, which I'm skeptical I want to do. My preliminary hypothesis is that I want to transition to a buy-side or sell-side diligence role at a PE firm or bank. Leveraging a CFA could drive my quantitative abilities home for future positions considering I don't have a finance background.

Calling it a "professional pursuit" would have been more accurate. I'm in the early phases of establishing my exit from consulting, and my research pointed to a CFA being beneficial towards my hypothesis. The B&I board has a lot of bright folks so I thought it would be a good resource to understand the realities of the CFA process. If I decide to pursue a CFA, I won't start dumping time into it for about 12 months. I didn't do much career planning early in my career, so being purposeful now.

Hope that answers the questions about why.

PM and we can discuss further. Don't want to derail the thread but we're similar careers and can discuss more in depth.

Passed all levels the first time through

* Level 1 - Schweser, and Qbank
* Level 2 - very difficult, use the CFAI material.
* Level 3 - I would look into LevelUp Bootcamp and his videos, I honestly think it was a lifesaver on constructed response/CFAI material.

Secondary comments. If you are married, have kids, and/or have a job prepare for a few years of lacking some social life. I am glad I finished it when the kids were young (before sports, etc.). I can say that most people think Lvl2 is the most difficult (I think it is in terms of the step up from Lvl over Lvl), but Lvl3 is nothing to disregard. The structured response is a nice curveball, and I do not think you can finesse the last level.

For each chapter:
1) Read through the chapter, and make sure you understand the concepts
2) Go back and memorize every numbered formula. Make a note card for each numbered formula. Put the name / use of the formula on the front, and the formula on the back. Keep reading through them until you have the formulas memorized.
3) Do every practice question in the CFAI prep materials.