Am I screwed for the CFA?

Focus on FR&A, Ethics, FI, then the rest. I skipped Econ, Schwesser does a good job condensing ethics into like 55 pages (I read through it twice a week to make sure Ethics is locked in).

If you plan on covering everything then I'd recommend 6 - 8 hours a day to hit 300ish hours. If you plan to skip stuff / just focus on the aforementioned then still like 4 - 6 hours a day.

I personally only read through everything once (aside from ethics which I repeated) and then from there on just did a lot of practice.

I know a few people who were Math / Econ / Finance majors that passed with 150-200hrs. Only you can know for sure though. Good luck

Given the lack of time, I suggest you to focus on exercises. Study only the core topics of each book and then do a lot of exercises, spending like 70% of time spent on CFA doing them

I just registered for 6/19 and what I've heard is it's all about giving yourself enough time to just practice leading up to exam day.

You can definitely make it in time if you apply yourself. I don't think you necessarily need 300 hours for Level 1 if you have background in finance, but you do need to use all the free time you will have until December. As said previously focus on FI , FR&A, Equities, Ethics. You can probably skip derivatives. Read quickly through Schweser just to cover basic concepts and then just start doing exercises/practice tests.

Take a mock and see where you stand. Should help point out the specific sections you need work on more than others. Basically create a triage list for yourself.

I would strongly recommend looking up Mark Meldrum's videos on youtube. He was a lifesaver for me for L1 & L2. He does a really good job of pointing out what is important and is likely to be tested on.

Also grind out all of the CFAI questions online and the blue box Qs from the books and as many practice exams as you can get your hands on.

I'd just like to say another thank you to everyone who has responded - I really was not sure that this post would garner many if any responses, and it was written when I was considering just packing it all in as an expensive mistake. However all of the advice and motivation has done wonders for my confidence and approach, and everyone here is a real credit to Wall Street Oasis.

I'll do my best to thank you all the best way I can - by passing!

Thanks. RM

RiverMarket:

...although I know that these do not compare at all to people studying for the CFA whilst working full time!

DING! DING! DING! DING! We have a winner!

If you just treat studying for the CFA as your full time job for a few weeks you will be fine. Ultimately it's about finding the discipline to actually get the work done. When I sat level one I spent 8 hours a day studying for 3 weeks (6 days out of 7) and I managed to pass, and I'd say I probably had about the same knowledge going into it as you do now. That's 144 hours, so about half the recommended time. You can add on a few more hours to that figure with your existing knowledge and you're then starting to get well towards the 300 hours recommendation. Study efficiently by focusing on past papers and questions, and use the Schweser secret sauce book to revise from, and you probably don't need anywhere near 300.

The discipline was the hardest part for me, particularly coming from a university environment where I would typically have done close to 0 hours of study/work each week on average. You will need to be meticulous... planning the time you wake up, planning lunch and other breaks etc. etc. Don't have distractions like your phone anywhere near you as they will steal many hours of the course of a week.

If I were you I would consider going home for a few weeks so you are out of the uni environment. You can have meals cooked for you. You wont be as tempted to go out boozing. You can confine yourself to a nice study (maybe?) rather than a student bedroom.

Make sure you relax in the evenings after doing the X hours you set yourself. Going from doing very little study/work to intensive studying for 3 weeks can really start to grind you down by the end and rest really does become important. You'd be surprised how quickly you can burn out if you aren't used to it.

I would also suggest Modafinil.

Yes you can do it, but it'll be hard. Your audit and economics existence will be very helpful though.

Nobody is ever screwed for the CFA. You only need about 70% to pass. If you don't study the ideal amount, you could easily still pass. They just make failure more painful by offering the test only 1x a year, which scares everyone into thinking they're "screwed" if they don't get 80% on the practice tests. Just do what you can and give it a shot, it's not that hard.