CFA Level I: Final Lap to Your Examination

So you made a decision to become a CFA® charterholder, registered for the CFA Level I exams, and have prepared thus far. Well done!  

Now, remember, CFA Level I is only the first of three battles which you have to wage to get to your goal: the CFA charter. As part of your battle prep, I presume you’ve read the required texts at least once. That said, you’re now in the home stretch as far as this level is concerned, and based on my experience, there are a few matters that you need to face or address to be battle-ready in this closing stage. These are your strategy, discipline and focus, and confidence.

Strategy

First and foremost, this battle is a test of speed, understanding, and accuracy. So developing a clear strategy is important, especially at this crucial junction, because this is not the time to “read amiss.” Eight weeks to my L1 exams, I re-reviewed the weightings of all the topics (I did this first before I began my preparations and to determine my SWOT) and prioritized my study pathway.

I decided to focus on reviewing summaries of the following topic areas, as they accounted for over 70% of the CFA L1 content: FRA, Ethics, Equity, Economics, Fixed Income, Quants, and Corporate Finance. It’s important to note that this strategy aligned with my strengths, and everyone should do what best suits them—always play to your strengths! If I were to take the exam this year, I would still have the same strategy.

During the first four weeks of my review, I always tried several practice questions while I was studying to ensure I really understood what I was reading. If I didn’t get a question right, I would repeat the entire section—not immediately, though. I would wait until I had covered other sections so that I didn’t have memorized responses in my head making me think I knew what I was doing when I didn’t, really.

The next four weeks were spent doing mock questions, full-length practice exams, and, of course, some more review. I re-did tests again and again. It didn’t matter to me if I had scored well in certain areas; the question was, why did I get that answer right? Throughout the process, I kept doing practice questions. I took no chances, and before I knew it, formulae were just streaming from my brain like reflex each time I tried a new test!

Remember, you may copy someone else’s strategy, but you should make it work for you and you alone! Adjust it if necessary, choose a different subject selection if you feel it will work, but overall, my recommendation at this stage is to have a strategy because I think it will make life easier for you.

Discipline and Focus

At the time I wrote my L1 exams, my wife was pregnant and I had a full-time job and other personal commitments. While I was preparing, I had to turn down many “free” offers to go out with friends and family, as well as other enticing events. It was painful, but I knew what I wanted to achieve. Discipline is a key ingredient for anyone who wants to get through all three levels of what is, arguably, the most difficult financial examination in the world today.

As they say, eyes on the prize! You have to be focused to ensure that you don’t get sidetracked away from your pre-determined strategy, as this is a very important aspect of the whole process. While preparing, I often visited popular online forums to get “inspiration,” but the truth is, you come across different people who have different styles and ways of preparing or reading. Please, please, and please again—unless you have decided that the strategy you have defined doesn’t seem feasible to you, don’t get shaken or moved.

A few people I know got sidetracked by what others were saying about certain topics (I was almost a casualty myself). But I knew I had already determined my strengths and weaknesses, so I just followed my strategy and it worked for me.

I chose to focus those subjects because they played to my strengths. How? In L1, we need to memorize a lot of formulae and equations (especially with Equities and FRA)—something I’m quite familiar with. In addition, as part of my economics degree, I had encountered business analysis, so FRA and Corporate Finance were not really strange terrain for me.

We all have different backgrounds, so your areas of familiarity will likely be different. That’s why you must understand your own strengths and figure out how best to use them. You’ll probably choose a different set of topics to focus on. So at this point, the most important thing is to choose your strategy and then have the focus to stick with it.

Confidence

The final tool I believe you should have in your battle prep kit is confidence. It is the glue that holds together all that we have previously discussed, and it is necessary during preparation and execution.

The preparation stage is what we’ve been talking about so far. You have developed a strategy and you are disciplined and focused on that strategy. Now you need to be confident that your strategy will work. Remember, your responses are being weighted using an Angoff method and everyone is preparing in their own way (tutorials, online, self preparation, etc.). If, however, you are not confident in your determined strategy, change it quickly! Better to find out before the exam, when something can be done about it, than after.

You guessed it: the execution stage is the exam day itself. June 3 is the big day—it’s what you’ve prepared for all this time. It is therefore imperative that you work on your calm and comportment, and that you’re confident in yourself.

So how did I choose to follow this route? I took advice from other people who passed or failed each level of the CFA exams to understand what they did (whether right or wrong). Using their input, I created my own methods.

Note that this strategy worked for me at all levels (I – III) as I soaked up the experience of others like a sponge and learned from them. I recommend that you find what works for you quickly!

My father once told me that experience is the best teacher—but wise people learn from other people’s experiences. Bear this in mind as you prepare!
 

About the Author

Ikenna “Ike” Amadi, CFA, is a petroleum economist, commercial analyst, investor, and blogger. He enjoys writing educational pieces on personal finance and investment matters on his blog at www.yourinvestmentanalyst.com.