| Topic Name: |
Studying for the CFA |
| Message Name: |
nyif.com |
| Date Posted: |
02/20/2001 |
| In Reply To: |
I passed CFA Level 1 with flying colors while in my senior year of college. (GO BC! And thats Brooklyn College, not Boston!) I bought all the books, and took the Level 1 review course at NYSSA. (See NYSSA.org) Its too late to take a class now though, and maybe too late to even start studying. Be aware that there is a March 1 deadline for signing up for the test. I started studying in January, about 1 hours per weeknight, and 3-4 hours on Sunday. I did a lot of problems from the textbooks, and also the practice problems from the NYSSA review. Just some tips:
Know accounting/FSA up and down, its 25% of the test.
If you want to skip something, skip fixed income. It's a ton of work for 5% of the test.
Know those ethics, including all the silly details. It is not all common sense. In borderline scores, they use the ethics section to decide if you pass or fail.
If you have an MBA, you should have good knowledge of acctg/fin, but the CFA Level 1 has TONS of little details.
CFA is huge on the effects of accounting estimate/policy changes on Financial Statements, ESPECIALLY RATIOS!. They seem to love the current ratio, and debt-equity for some reason.
Learn how to use your calculator extremely well, and bring two.
Know entire concepts, not just how to answer particular questions.
With an MBA in finance, you could probably do it in 100 hours or even less, provided you have good knowledge of acctg/econ/equity/FI
Make flashcards - I read them on my commutes to work and school.
I overstudied, since I took plenty of accounting, econ, & finance courses. But, I earned top scores in all categories, and landed a job at a great buy-side shop. And no one recruits at Brooklyn College for finance jobs, only for retail brokers. I worked a shit ops job at MSDW for 4 months, (making 30 big ones a year!) and used my CFA results to get a much better job. My theory is CUNY+CFA=NYU level school. Harvard Business School here I come! |
| Message: |
I'm studying now and taking the New York Inst. of Finance class starting in two weeks. I've got the boooks and the
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