My Decade-Long Journey To Five Million

As I’ve so shamelessly advertised a few days ago, I passed CFA Level 1 Exam with pretty good result (all sections > 70%). Now, a lot of people got this kind of result as well. Just look at the AnalystForum’s June 2009 Level 1 result thread. Some of them are probably a lot smarter than me and I wouldn’t be surprised if they did it just by studying for 4 weeks or something.

Studying, studying, studying...

Not me. I got my result because I prepared well. I’m not some bright young man with a lot of time to dedicate 4 weeks to cram L1 material into my head. I have a full-time job that requires me to work until late at night during weekdays–sometimes even weekends. I need to balance my study sessions with my family life although my wife is very kind and understanding about the whole thing.

When I began my L1 preparation, I went through a period of trial and error for a few months. In January 2009, though, I settled on a strategy that has proven itself to be helpful in getting the result that I desired.

Obviously, between January and June 2009, a lot of things happened. So I’d like to share what happened during that 6-month gap in this post. I hope it’ll be of some use to level 1 candidates reading this.

Exam Preparation Tips (6 months – 1 month before the exam)

1. Start as early as you can. You’d be surprised by the number of smart people who think that this is just something like a school exam that you can pass by cramming for a few days. Sure, there are candidates out there who studied only for 2 weeks and passed the exam, but you are not one of them. Trust me on this. It’s a bit like the lottery winners. You know they exist, but you’re not one of them. Start as early as you can.
2. Realize that you can be a really smart person and still fail this. I know quite a number of really smart people who failed this. They are so used to cramming, because it worked for them in school thanks to all that brain power. Well… no such thing for CFA exams. Especially if you don’t have the finance background!
3. Make a plan. Without a plan, you don’t know if you’re behind, on track, or ahead. Seriously, make a plan. Any plan with specific target dates would be better than no plan at all. Again, you’ll be surprised at the number of smart people who don’t plan at all for this exam.
4. Make your plan iterative. Meaning, don’t create your schedule such that 14 days before the exam you just finished reading the whole material for the first time. Retention is the key here. You need to target to finish reading the whole material once at least 2-3 months before the exam. Then go for the next round of reading. I went through the whole material twice.
5. Put some buffer in your plan. Be aggressive with your plan and do not delay anything until the last minute. Because something will happen along the way. You may fall sick. You may need to work on a project that requires you to be in the office 24×7 for a few months. You may break up with your (girl|boy)friend and as the result you can’t concentrate on your study for a month. Etc., etc., etc. Plan for the unexpected and put some buffer in your plan.
6. Solve, solve, and re-solve a lot of practice questions. I did thousands of practice questions from Schweser QBank. I use them for 2 specific purposes. The first one is to have a review of the whole material regularly. The second one is to gauge your mastery of a topic before moving on to the next one.
7. Get some kind of notes. A number of people write their own notes. I started writing one myself too. I quickly found that–for me at least–it was a huge waste of time. I ended up buying Schweser Notes and center my study around those notes. I’ve heard that this strategy doesn’t really work for L2, but meh, this is L1. It worked beautifully for me.
8. Most importantly, be consistent. Pace yourself.  I think one single thing that helps me the most is that I managed to maintain a roughly consistent level of studying throughout. It’s better to study 1 hour per day for 7 days than to study 7 hours on a Sunday. Don’t burn out too soon!
9. Take leave before the exam. Preferably one week or more. It really helps in getting you to the exam mindset and forgets everything else. Obviously you need to let your boss know early about this kind of thing!
10. Practice with your calculator. NPV, IRR, cash flow, mean, standard deviation, variance… these need to be your second nature. And make sure that you get the right type of calculator! You’d think that for an exam like this, people would take the time to make sure they get the right type… well… no. Some idiots still bring the wrong calculator for the exam. Don’t be one of them.

Before The Exam (1 month – 1 week before the exam)

1. Start taking the mock exams. I can’t emphasize enough the importance of taking CFA mock exams. I suggest taking both mock exams 2 weeks before the actual exam to identify your weak points. Patch those weak points ASAP.
2. Check your ticket when it is available. Do this early. Make sure that your name there match the name that is listed on your ID. Make sure that you’ve got the right exam center.
3. Get into exam mode. At this point, you shouldn’t really have any material left to cover. You should be just working on re-inforcing what you’ve learned and applying them in solving the questions.
4. Review Ethics every 2-3 days. You’ll be happy that you did. Memorize the Code of Ethics.

The Last Week (1 week – 1 day before the exam)

Gears of War!

Most of the things here are easy stuff that a lot of people forget anyway!

1. Buy a new calculator battery, and change it 2 days before the exam. Why 2 days? So that if for some reason your calculator gets screwed up while you’re changing the battery, you can still buy another one.
2. Buy TWO HB pencils. Sharpen them and use them just a bit to get the right sharpness.
3. Buy an eraser. If you’re like me, you will make mistakes. Get a good eraser that will erase mistakes cleanly.
4. Buy a pencil sharpener. A number of dudes asked to borrow my pencil sharpener. Apparently they only brought one pencil with them, and they were broken. Duh!
5. Make you you know the way to the exam center! Don’t find everything out at the last minute.
6. Get some good sleep the day before. You don’t even need to try hard to sleep. Just lie down and read something light. Hopefully then you’ll doze off and sleep. But realize that, even if you don’t sleep well, the excitement of the exam day tomorrow will help you to go through it anyway. I slept at 2AM, woke up at 6AM, and I went through the exam just fine.
7. Figure out what you should wear in advance if possible. I went for the exam in a thin T-shirt and three-quarters because I didn’t want to get bothered by Singapore heat during the exam! Well… I should’ve brought a jacket. It was freakin freezing cold in there! The air conditioners were working in full blast!
8. Try to arrange for lunch if possible. My friends had told me way in advance that I should arrange for lunch beforehand. Well, I didn’t do it. Big mistake. The exam place was so packed that the only lunch I got was a smalll piece of bread from 7/11 (that was pretty much the only piece left I think). That, and a can of coffee. Hardly an ideal lunch. By the time the exam was finished I was exhausted, hungry, and cold. Don’t be an idiot like me. Arrange for lunch.

Exam Day

1. Bring your: passport, watch, CFA exam ticket, 2 HB pencils, 1 approved calculator, 1 eraser, 1 pencil sharpener, lunch. I don’t know about you, but I’m not the type who leaves my handphone unattended along with thousands of other bags. So I didn’t carry my handphone on that day. It’s your call.
2. Read the instructions carefully, and remember that proctors got POWERS that day. You’ve spent all those weeks/months so that you can pass. Pay attention and obey the proctors and you’ll be fine.
3. Be calm, don’t care about others. I saw more than a few people went out with more than one hour to spare. Not me. I stayed till the very end verifying my answers. What I’m suggesting here is: just stick to your own style and don’t get affected by what others do.

I’ll see you all at CFA Email Study Group! A bunch of us passed Level 1 in June, so drop by and ask questions if you like. If you’re going for L2 i 2010, please join us in preparing too!

August 6th, 2009 | Category: CFA, Level 1 | Subscribe to comments | Leave a comment | Trackback URL