Hello,I would like to congratulate all of you have chosen to sit for the CFA level 1 as it is a very tough and challenging journey. I have a question regarding notes, I use them as my main source of study, after I finish the reading i solve the questions for the particular reading, then I go to Qbank solve the whole questions of the same reading, after that I solve CFAI EOC’s. But I find it quite disapointing like for example today at reading 34 ( Corporate Finance ) I scored 88% with end of chapter questions, 80% Qbank, 60% CFAI. I dont know how could this possibly happen since lots of people I know passed by only using notes. Can anyone help or advice please??
HelloI passed dec12 level 1 using only notes. But plenty of mocks.However, if you can and have some money to spend, you can supplement this by adding as many PRACTICE EXAMS as you can get especially in the last month of prep. Questions for Level 1 are more plug-the-number kinda thing, and not too conceptual, whereas CFAI are more conceptual.You should try buying mock exams from other providers (i bought Elan’s mocks, my friend bought Finquiz mocks on top of 2 volume of practice exams–6 mocks) So we familiarize ourself with different styles of questions.’s more number-crunching style, while Elan’s questions, in my opinion, were more conceptual. I have no idea how Finquiz are.I ended up doing eight sets of 6-hour mocks from /elan/CFAI, I didn’t do any CFAI eoc as i was too lazy to start so only started studying in mid september and finished my first pass in early nov. (reading on steroid!) i was running out of time. My friend ended up doing 7 mocks from /finquiz/CFAI. Both of us passed.
Sep 12, 2017 Yes free information is always available on the internet. You can have a look at CFA oriented forums such as 300hours and analystforum.com. However, if you want useful information, condensed, updated and relevant then you will need to buy the late.
I decided not to buy qbank/practice questions because: 1. Expensive (prefer buying mocks from Elan) and, 2. I was REALLY Running out of time.Assess your weakness and patch the weak areas after each mocks (read your summary, read CFAI summary, understand the formula etc).
I passed with quant and portfolio management in mid 51-70 range, and the rest 8 subjects above 70%.But, if i were have to redo it again, i will read my starting 4 months in advance and practice CFAI eoc, scrapping EOC as they are too easy. After first pass, do first mock, assess your weakness, reread whole again with more focus on your BIG ITEMS weak areas do qbank/practice questions for weak big areas, then do mock again. Over and over and over until running out of mocks.So yes you can pass solely by reading notes. Hope this can calm your worry a bit.