Just Ordered June ’14 CFA1 Schweser Notes, Secretly Freaking Out

Yes you will! With a good study plan that you stick to. No worries! There are quite a few Dec Level 1’s here hearing about their results on 28th Jan, and if they pass, they are gunning for June Level 2 as well – which is worse because of the sheer amount of material for Level 2. If they can do it, so can you!

@DextTheCFA no problem, you are welcome.
In my case the funniest part is, I will never get the charter no matter how brilliantly I perform. But frankly, I dont want the charter because I like working in technology and wont throw away all the experience I have gathered in so many years.

But passing level 1 and 2 would help me gather good level of knowledge and hopefully would become a differentiator in my favour.

So again, best of luck to you and wish it for me too 🙂

No probs @DextTheCFA! That’s what this community is about 🙂

@DextTheCFA yeah trust me we all freak out. If there was an award for the freakiest freak of the year I would surely win hands down. So relax a little. You still have time. I always think that the few months we have before the exams, use em to study. We always have time after the exam. you know those months right before the results, they are specifically designed to promote maximum freakage. So yeah just get yourself into study mode, and do your best. And good luck from my end!

@DextTheCFA @CFAcharterwannabe

I have a slightly different take about starting with ethics.

After spending almost a week (i.e. 6 evenings) on it, I scored only 55% in the end of session test. I felt so disheartened and humiliated that I wasted next 4 days in re-reading again but then I had lost my confidence by then.

So now after wasting critical 1 week, I have just started quants – with TVM, and I feel good. Getting my hands on new calculator is refreshing (can recall my days in engineering). Doing even simple maths problems is so good. I am really looking forward to reading 2 – advanced topics.

Looking back, I think I should have done QA first.

So I suggest – start with ethics but if you dont like it in first couple of hour, jump straight to Quants. You will know first reading, so just skim through it and jump on reading 2. Enjoy doing math.

After finishing QA you can jump back to Ethics and finish in less than week because then you will be gunning got FSA and Eco.

@Dextthecfa don’t worry man, I just started too. I’m a slow reader and have almost no time outside of work so you’re definitely not the worst prepared.
Just keep at it – you’ll get there.

@DextTheCFA I just finished my second live class with Schweser in NYC and our professor has us going through the SS going out of order; we’re doing Quant first, then Portfolio Mgmt, several weeks on FRA, then Corporate Finance, then Fixed Income and Equity in the same week, Derivatives/Alternative Investments in the same week, with Econ and Ethics in the last week.

He’s doing it in this order because of how he thinks the curriculum and LOSs relate to each other. I’m not totally sold on how he’s under-weighting Econ since it’s 10% of the exam, but considering the number of LOSs I can see where he’s coming from.

He recommends skimming Ethics starting in week 1 and doing a little bit every week alongside the rest of the curriculum, and a second pass-through the week before the exam.

Last Fall I had to cover a lot of the material for an in-house exam my employer administers to those of us who wish to be sponsored for the exam, so I can definitely see the advantages of approaching the curriculum out of order.

Good luck!

@umbereen: hey I really appreciate mentioning about how your prof is mixing up the topics. I was thinking I should try mix and match but I was confused how I should do it. So your answer is a great help to me. But I was wondering why you never mentioned financial analysis?!

@DextTheCFA yeah the time management is one of my biggest issues too. My brain is seriously messed up sticking with schedules. Like if I try to follow a schedule I actually go slower and then I start panicking. I think everyone has their own pace they have to work at. Maybe I have the luxury to choose my pace cos I am a full time student (not by choice obviously). But the one thing that I always try to remember is not to spend too much time on the theory and not to ignore the questions that are at the end of each topic. I always try to leave the last month and half or a full month for practising questions. Even if you are having problems remembering a topic, doing the questions on that area will actually help that concept to stay in your mind. So rather than spending excessive time on the theory itself, I would actually do questions on that area. But that doesn’t mean I am saying don’t spend time on the theory.

So, to bring an end to my ramblings, yeah we all have our own pace and some of us work better with schedules and some don’t. When you start studying for something new, your initial pace is always extremely slow and frustrating. After a couple of weeks you are going to notice that it gets easier to move faster cos your brain starts to absorb and retain stuff better so you end up being on schedule. So basically this is the start only.Your speed will get better with time. yeah that was a really long an twisted way to say this. I am just going to go get a cup of coffee 😀

@DextTheCFA I started Level 2 in Feb 13, a week or so after I got my results in Jan 13. It shouldn’t be a problem if you are really committed to it. I studied every evening on weekdays and full day on weekends for 4 months. It tiring but definitely doable!

It should be fine @dexthecfa. But hit the books hard now!

You are not so far behind. But instead I would say you are so far ahead of few of us in terms of background.

I am an engineering graduate working in investment bank as IT consultant. I don’t have any formal finance or commerce background. And I started couple of weeks back and progress had been frustrating to say the least, while in full time job and 14 years after college.

And now look at you – young, recent finance graduate with elective in derivatives and good grades. This puts you in very good position compared to others.

So stop any negative thoughts and only look at the positive side.

Good luck mate !!!

@DextTheCFA trust me when I say this that as far as freaking out is concerned you are not alone. There’s a whole bunch of people out here who will agree with me on that. Plus as @shreeneewas said you Have a solid background in finance. Dude I did ‘A’ levels in sciences. I had no idea that something like finance existed even lol so just let yeah I am glad you are getting used to the books. Relax a little and just concentrate on the studying for now and let me know how your session with ethics goes 😀

P.S. don’t forget to switch on the coffee maker before starting ethics. You are really going to need it lol

@CFAcharterwannabe do you mean Financial Statement Analysis? If so, that’s what I am referring to when I say FRA