CFA without extra materials
Hi,
I’m planning to take the CFA Level 1 exam in November. As a student, my financial situation isn’t the best, and with the exam fee already over $1,000, I’m not particularly interested in purchasing additional courses like Kaplan to enhance my study.
Do you think it’s possible to pass the exam by studying only with the materials provided by the CFA Institute? I’m about to graduate with a BSc in Finance this fall, so I’m familiar with a lot of the content, and I have at least 300 hours available to study before the exam.
Any tips regarding the study process would be greatly appreciated!
This was years ago, but I passed level 1 and 2 without any extra materials. I actually think that it's the better option for completing the entire process. The CFAi materials are longer than most of the third-party materials, but IMO they're better at getting you to understand the concept instead of just knowing what you need to know in order to answer the question correctly. This extra knowledge sets you up better for the next level where they'll build on a lot of these concepts with the new material that they're going to introduce.
Also, over-study ethics. once you feel that you know it, study it again. The ethics questions are legitimately tough, which throws most people, since the ethics questions everywhere else are push-overs. It's also the only material that they test on in all three levels. If you have it down cold for level 1, then you can just skim it over to refresh yourself while studying for level 2 and 3.
I think this is the key for the difference. From talking to different people, it seems like you can get away with skipping certain sections if you are using additional materials. If you read the lengthier provided materials, you will study the full 300 hours. With additional materials, seems like some people can do it in 250 or a little less.
The CFA Institute materials are more than enough for level 1, especially if you are a finance student. The benefit of using other test material providers is that they condense the entire curriculum into more succinct readings and books, give you additional practice questions and mock exams, as well as offer different formats for studying (review videos, formula sheets etc). In my view, the issue with the CFA materials is that they are too dense and don't emphasize practice as much and are a bit open ended, and at times contain errors or poorly written questions - but this can be the case for any provider.
The materials are less important than the structure and format in which you study. I would read through the materials once, go back and review each section, then begin repping practice questions and mock exams until the test while reviewing weak areas. Nothing about the CFA materials they give you prevents you from doing that.
Get at least the Schweser Q bank for $250.
Best purchase I ever made! The actual CFA material is quite dry. Schweser is good but if it's expensive to you I totally understand; however, the Q Bank is a pretty quick/easy/fun way to study.
Agreed. Wanted to add in that you should buy all 6 mock exams. Currently studying for Level 3 and find their mock exams more similar to the actual test than the CFAI mocks which are generally much more difficult than the actual test
Just to add to this, you could spend 400 hours studying the material out of the CFAI books. The advantage to Schweser Q bank is that it immediately tells you what you did wrong and how to do it right. You don't have to flip back to look for the section you got wrong and research what the right answer is, which will probably take you 100 more hours aggregate over the whole curriculum, so it is saving you time which is money. Quick feedback is what you need and that is the main advantage to Q bank.
Absolutely. I did all 3 levels using only the materials provided and passed all on the first try. Really no particular formula. Read through all the material, did the problems and some tests at the end and that was it.
I used Kaplan for all three levels of the CFA Program and passed each one on my first try. I also scored in the 90th percentile for Levels I and II (Level III doesn’t show percentiles). My last exam was in 2021, the first year they switched to the computer-based format.
For Level III, I tried using the CFAI materials for Behavioral Finance, but it took forever to get through. That’s when I decided to go back to Kaplan.
I get that the official materials can give you a deeper understanding, but when you’re working full-time in banking and studying for these exams, you have to be smart about how you use your study time. Kaplan really helped me with that. Also, Kaplan mocks really helped me prepare for the exam day.
You don’t have to buy a brand new Kaplan package. I bought for level 1 but for the rest I got the books and mocks borrowed.
Just curious - why are you paying for the CFA exam and not your company?
This is the question, in my Master's program, every professor told us not to take the CFA level I right after graduation even though the material would be fresh. He said wait till a firm pays unless you don't have something lined up. Then, just study and crank it out with the program fresh in your mind. I took it a year later and passed on my second attempt. First attempt used Kaplan, 2nd attempt I didn't, but I found people through work that had study cards and questions and we studied together.
I think your professor isn't capable of expressing himself clearly. If the difference is a few weeks or a few months, then yes, wait and save the $1k by having the firm pay for it. If you have to wait years, just pay. It's cheap for the amount that it'll advance your career. Even more importantly: If you don't have anything decent lined up, jump on it right away and study hard. You need to differentiate yourself from all the other marginal candidates, and work towards your CFA charter will do that better than almost anything else.
I used the CFAI's material and the prep provider's materials. This was a long time ago but at the time, I used the prep provider materials mainly for extra practice questions.
The issue isn't CFAI materials being not enough. The issue is that they're too much. CFAI bogs you down in useless details so they can make their easy material seem hard. You need to consider the value of your time and also the fact that Kaplan prep materials are available for free or cheap. On ebay you can get either books or PDFs very cheaply. And probably some way to get them for free that I don't know about.
You must not have passed the ethics portion of the CFA exams.
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