CFA level 1 exam December 2015
Good luck to all of those taking level 1 tomorrow. Thought I'd make a thread for people who have taken CFA exams who could maybe offer tips for those taking the exam tomorrow. I probably won't be taking level 1 for 2-3 years but I will be studying for it extra early. I think I could probably find some free material online. I wish they had December test dates for level 2 and 3 so people could finish earlier but oh well.
Good luck everyone. You're finished with the hard part. All you have to do is show up tomorrow and put the studying to good use.
So what happened here......
How was the CFA when you took it? (I'm assuming you did given you're in AM)
it was a massacre
Glad it's over. Had a raging headache after.
Not too bad. Exam was very similar to official mocks, not at all similar to schweser end of chapter questions. Very few computational questions, and you could often just eyeball an answer. Very conceptual and a lot of "trivia". Exam could be passed without a calculator. Audio notes were helpful. Don't need to memorize a lot of formulas or ratios.
I'm taking it in June-- could you expand on which formuals you should memorize, and which were just asked in conceptual ways?
What I did was take my first few mocks with the formula sheets. Whenever I needed to look up a formula I put a check mark next to it. I ended up only checking off maybe 10 formulas. I didn't put a check mark if I happened to remember the formula off the top of my head though.
Ethics rules bar disclosure of particular topics, so all references below are to non-official mock exams.
If you took out a pad of paper right now and wrote down what you thought were the most important 10-20 finance formulas, I would bet you would have "the list" if there is such a thing.
It is a difficult exam, I don't want to give you the wrong idea. I took 2 weeks off work to study and was putting in 10+hour days (in addition to prior studying) so it was all fairly fresh in my mind and in general I would say I am a strong test taker.
My point was just that you are better off memorizing different IFRS vs GAAP treatments, or the different types of durations than memorizing the formula sheets. Even for the FI section it would be about equally valuable to memorize the ways in which various instruments are quoted/traded as the formulas to actually value them.
When you start taking mocks you will see what it is like. My biggest advice is to move through the material as quickly as possible. Don't spend much time doing practice problems, just blast through the material. Make sure to note page numbers on your notes so you can go back to the material when your notes are insufficient.
One thing that really helped me was using different colors to distinguish IFRS vs GAAP. I used a pink pen or highlighter for IFRS and green for GAAP. I would always write the IFRS rule first, then GAAP. That really helped it stick in my mind. There was one question about capitalizing R&D costs and I just remember having an image in my mind of "pink" somewhere on my notecard about the topic. That was enough to answer the question correctly.
Ea deserunt cum qui error modi. Non dignissimos tenetur quasi autem. Nostrum autem voluptatem accusantium. Accusamus iusto natus maxime eligendi in.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...