How To Prepare For The CFA® Exam?

CFA® exams are one of the most challenging and prestigious exams in the investment profession. The question papers are constructed in such a way that only students with thorough preparation and conceptual clarity will be able to crack it. Candidates should not have a notion that the CFA® Exam can only be cracked if you have at least six months to a year’s time to prepare. Students with quick grasping power, good understanding of the concepts and most importantly, a right strategy in place have been able to crack the exam in a short span of time (say a month or two) as well.

A very common and understandable question among students is ‘how to prepare for the CFA® Exam’. There have been numerous analyses trying to find out the average number of hours required to adequately prepare the candidate for the CFA® exam. Some of these studies have come up with a certain number of hours in order to crack the exam. Though these figures are average, I personally do not believe in this number game and the theories underlying them as I feel that each student has his/her way of studying that varies based on their differing mental abilities, academic backgrounds and differing  levels of conceptual understanding.

Thus, in my views, rather than focussing on the number of hours to study, students should focus on making a roadmap (we have provided a strategic study-plan below) to crack the CFA® exam keeping in mind the curriculum (Read our article on CFA® study material) and the amount of practice (question solving) required to adequately prepare them for the CFA® exam.

To help students have a clear understanding of the kind of preparation required for the CFA® Exam, I am suggesting the following things that every CFA® candidate should target to finish:

• 3-4 readings of the curriculum from SchweserNotesTM (one of the most widely used supplementary books) or using the CFA® Program Curriculum books (Most Preferred material) or any other study material student finds adequate (Read our article on CFA® Study Material for more details)
• At least 10-12 full three hours Mock Tests 
• As many practice questions as possible (questions in CFA® Program Curriculum books are one o f the best!)

Keeping this in mind, the candidate should start preparing well in advance and should approach the CFA® Exam with a strategy in place. Here is one of the suggested strategies of mine that can help candidates make a thorough study-plan (for more expert advice, you can call us at 9158991901 or mail us at info@itsconcepts.com)

1. CHAPTER- WISE INSTRUCTIONS - Read the chapter from SchweserNotesTM (read our article on the ‘The right study-material to refer for the CFA® Exams for more details), solve all the questions at the end of each chapter. Just after you finish reading each chapter, solve all examples (given in between the chapters) and questions (at the back of each chapter) from the CFA® Program Curriculum books. Important points:
   
   

   • Point to be highlighted is that no matter what books you use to read, there is absolutely no substitute to the examples and questions in CFA® Program Curriculum

   • Also, since there are lots of questions that you will find tricky, keep on bookmarking them. Since candidates will not have enough time to solve all examples and questions again and again, they should solve these tricky questions while revising

   • As and when you finish reading a chapter, start creating a list of all formulae that you came across in that chapter. Keep updating this list as and when you finish reading one chapter. By the time you will be done with the entire curriculum reading, you will have a formulae sheet that can then be revised every day.

   • Alternatively, you can buy these formula sheet provided by many institutes (including ours, Its CONCEPTSTM)

2. SUBJECT-WISE INSTRUCTIONS - Once you finish a subject, start taking tests using Schweser Practice Volumes on those subjects. Use only one of the volumes for taking subject-wise tests. The other volume should be used to take full course mock exams after you complete all subjects.
   
   

   • This time you should attempt these questions as proper tests keeping time in check

   • Your target should be to increase your speed with accuracy with each test

   • Again, keep on highlighting all the important questions that can later be looked at again while revising

   Overall Objective is: By the time you have finished your first reading of the entire curriculum, you should have finished the following (at least a month before the exam date):

   • All questions in the SchweserNotesTM
   • All examples and questions in the CFA® Program Curriculum Volumes
   • Finished one Schweser Practice Volume
   • A detailed formulae sheet must be ready

3. FULL CURRICULUM INSTRUCTIONS – Having finished reading of the entire curriculum, student needs to simultaneously do three things: 1) Strategize; 2) Revise; and 3) Take Mock Tests.  Following are the detailed instructions that can help students achieve the above mentioned three-fold tasks:

• STRATEGIZE – You should have at least a month’s time to be able to revise and be fully prepared for the exam

1. You need to invest your time judiciously and for that you need to have a plan in place as to how and when should you revise and take tests.
2. You need to continuously keep a tap on time as you have lots of things to do in a very short span of time.

• REVISION PLAN – You should have ideally done three revisions before the exam.

• First Revision should start at least a month before the exam date. Start revising the subjects by reading them again from the books. It should take you half the time it took you originally. While revising, go through all the tricky questions that you had highlighted before.

• Second Revision should start at least twenty days before the exam. This revision again should take almost half the time of first revision. Revise tough subjects before.   

• Final Revision should start at least 8 days before the exam date. For a detailed day by day plan for the final revision in the last week (for more details, read our article on ‘Last minute preparation tips for the CFA® Exam’

• FORMULAE REVISION-Revise all the formulae every day till the exam day using the sheet you prepared. They should become a part of your DNA by the time you take your exam. 

• MOCK TESTS –You have the following mock tests available to give you adequate practice (in order of hierarchy):
  
• Mock Tests and Practice tests provided by the CFA® Institute to all candidates (as part of fee paid by the candidates available online). You cannot afford to ignore these mock tests.

• Schweser Practice Volume (as discussed above - the one you have not solved yet)
• If possible, arrange for at least five to six full six hours mock tests to give you enough practice
• There are many coaching institutes (including ours, Its CONCEPTSTM)  in the market that sell test series
• Your exam is of six hours, so for practice, take some tests for full six hours. Ideally, take three hour exam every day till the last week of the exam (I don’t suggest taking any mock test in the last week, explained below). Also, I don’t suggest taking many six hours exams because six hours exam need at least three hours for the candidate to check and analyze their mistakes. You lose an entire day and that adds to your stress.
• Most important learning is from the mistakes you make in these mock tests. The entire purpose of taking mock tests is that you are able to detect and correct your mistakes before the final exam. Do spend time in checking your papers and analyze both the correct and incorrect answers. Sometimes, you might get the correct answer but from a wrong methodology. Avoid developing false confidence. You should become your best critique.
• Take your last test a week before the exam. Multiple reasons:

• In case you score poorly, you might panic and it might work against you
• You might exhaust yourself
• Also, you lose precious time if you keep taking tests in the last week    

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To know more about us and read on more CFA® Exam related topics, visit our website www.itsconcepts.com

1. The CFA® Program
2. CFA® Study Material
3. Approved calculators for the CFA® Exams
4. What to expect from a CFA® Crash Course
5. Last Minute Preparation Tips to help crack the CFA® Exam