Competitions

CAT Prep

Upskill

Placements

MBA Co'26

RTI Response

Rankings

Score Vs. %ile

Salaries

Campus Tour

How To Clear CFA Level 1 - Preparation Tips For CFA Level 1

Sep 14, 2018 | 4 minutes |

Join InsideIIM GOLD

Webinars & Workshops

Compare B-Schools

Free CAT Course

Take Free Mock Tests

Upskill With AltUni

CAT Study Planner

Final 18 Days to CAT 2024 Test-28

Participants: 11

Final 19 Days to CAT 2024 Test-26

Participants: 154

Final 20 Days to CAT 2024 Test-26

Participants: 183

Final 21 Days to CAT 2024 Test-25

Participants: 147

Final 22 Days to CAT 2024 Test-24

Participants: 167

Final 23 Days to CAT 2024 Test-23

Participants: 105

Final 24 Days to CAT 2024 Test-22

Participants: 157

Final 25 Days to CAT 2024 Test-21

Participants: 146

Final 26 Days to CAT 2024 Test-20

Participants: 197

Final 27 Days to CAT 2024 Test-19

Participants: 171

Final 28 Days to CAT 2024 Test-18

Participants: 169

Final 29 Days to CAT 2024 Test-17

Participants: 176

Final 30 Days to CAT 2024 Test-16

Participants: 195

Final 31 Days to CAT 2024 Test-15

Participants: 185

Final 32 Days to CAT 2024 Test-14

Participants: 194

Final 33 Days to CAT 2024 Test-13

Participants: 195

Final 34 Days to CAT 2024 Test-12

Participants: 228

CAT 2017 VARC SLOT- 2

Participants: 313

CAT 2017 DILR SLOT- 2

Participants: 156

CAT 2017 VARC SLOT- 1

Participants: 301

CAT 2017 DILR SLOT- 1

Participants: 106

CAT 2017 QUANT SLOT 1

Participants: 152

CAT 2017 QUANT SLOT 2

Participants: 69

CAT 2018 QUANT SLOT 2

Participants: 67

CAT 2018 QUANT SLOT 1

Participants: 108

CAT 2018 DILR SLOT- 2

Participants: 58

CAT 2018 DILR SLOT- 1

Participants: 84

CAT 2018 VARC SLOT- 2

Participants: 203

CAT 2018 VARC SLOT- 1

Participants: 298

Final 35 Days to CAT 2024 Test-11

Participants: 156

The Chartered Financial Analyst programme is a professional course offered by the US-based CFA Institute. The programme aims to grant ‘CFA charter’ to investment and financial professionals to help them further their career goals. A candidate who successfully completes the programme is declared ‘CFA charterholder’. To become a CFA charter holder, one needs to pass all 3 levels of the CFA examination and have at least 4 years of relevant work experience. To be eligible for the CFA level 1 exam, you should hold an international passport and either be in the final year of your undergraduate studies or possess four years of work experience or a combination of work experience and education that totals at least four years.

cfa-level-1-tips-prepare-cfa-90-percentiler

The CFA level 1 exam is held twice a year (June and December) while level 2 and level 3 exams are held just once a year in June. The pass percentage for CFA level I June attempt was 43%. I took the CFA level 1 exam in June 2018 and scored over 90thpercentile overall and over 70% in 9 out of 10 subjects.

How much time to prepare for CFA level 1 exam

The CFA Institute recommends 300 hours of study for clearing the CFA level 1 exam. However, the number of hours you need to put into also depends on your prior knowledge. Since I had graduated in Commerce with specialization in finance, I had studied a large chunk of the coursework in college itself and thus started studying from February onwards for June 2018 attempt. If you don’t have absolutely any background in finance, I would recommend you to start as early as possible and finish your syllabus at least a month prior to the exam so that you can devote enough time to solve mock exams and do practice questions.

How to study for the CFA level 1 exam

A lot of people prefer to start their preparation with Quantitative Methods as a lot of concepts used in Quantitative methods overlap with what you will learn in Equity, Corporate finance etc. I would suggest you start with FRA early as there is a lot of syllabus and rules that you need to memorize. Revision and practising questions from different sources should be a key part of your preparation. I would suggest you do Ethics towards the end as it involves memorization of different rules and cases.

As you go through your preparation, I would suggest you maintain a formula notebook to note down all the formulas in one place and practice them every day since there are a lot of formulas that need to be memorized.

Resources used

As soon as you register for the exams, you get a free Ebook from the CFA Institute. While the CBOK is great to understand concepts properly, it contains a lot of information that isn’t very important from the exam point of view. I used the Kaplan Schweser notes to understand the concepts and used the CBOK to solve the end of chapter questions. I also watched Mark Meldrum’s videos and Arid Irfanullah’s summary videos to understand concepts.

Mock exams

The CFA Institute will give you 3 mock exams which I would suggest you solve towards the end of your preparation in timed conditions. I also solved the 6 practised tests by Schweser and went through previous years CFA mock exams. Mock exams are a very important part of preparation since they prepare you to sit for a 6-hour long exam and acquaint you with the type of questions asked in the exam.

The journey towards becoming a CFA charterholder is a marathon, not a sprint. Same applies to the CFA level 1 preparation. Remember to start early, keep revising and practising and maintain a cool head during your exam. If you do all these things, nothing will stop you from acing your level I exam!

You may also like to read: 7 Surprising Certifications To Add Lakhs To Your Salary