CFA CFA Level 1 Formulas.. level 1

Formulas.. level 1

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      so I’m on the verge of signing up, but the formulas are making me nervous.. I looked up formula sheets – the elan guide has one which is 70 PAGES!!
      do you really memorise all of these?? can someone give me an indication of how many you do have to know by memory? does the calculator do it for you? thankyou!

    • Zee Tan
      Keymaster
        • CFA Charterholder
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        @marylondon – it’s not really about memorising the forumlae but understanding the concepts behind it. Once you go through the syllabus the list of formulae will not look as daunting. 🙂

        We have also curated the best topical discussions in Level I here in the forum – you can find it here: https://300hours.com/f/cfa/level-1/t/cfa-level-i-topic-picks/

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        thank you all so much!! did anyone see the article yesterday on eFinancialCareers http://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/146875/how-old-is-too-old-to-be-bothered-with-the-cfa/
        I’m over 30 ;(

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        Yup fear not @Marylondon – you will know them by heart later on given the sheer amount of understanding and practice questions you go through 🙂 Plus we’ll be here as always if you’ve any questions

      • mattyc
        Participant
          • CFA Charterholder
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          Many formulas will be substituted by getting better acquainted with your calculator.

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          I have to agree with @Zee also there are some formulas that are used multiple times and some that are more “nice to know” and it is more important to understand the underlying concept. Also in the LOS breakdown it specifies that you need to know how to calculate using some formulas and in other cases just be able to understand the formula.

        • microeconomist
          Participant
            • Undecided
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            @marylondon I did fret over the amount of formulas in the beginning, but have found that a good number of them are intuitive and recurring. Also, me and 12c are becoming besties.

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            @Marylondon, age shouldn’t be a barrier! One of our members @dctomm is 50 and has considered taking it even!

          • Snippy
            Participant
              • CFA Level 2
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              Which makes 20 the new 10? How about that, I feel really young now.

            • Dr_Pain28
              Participant
                • CFA Level 2
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                There are a substantial amount of formulas, but they will make more sense as you study and put the various formulas in various groups (stats, fixed income, derivatives etc.) Just make a formula quick reference sheet by writing important formulas down as you study and then as you do the EOC questions and review you can see which formulas are crucial to memorize and understand that are needed for computation. And as @sarah said earlier, there are several formulas you need to understand only conceptually (i.e when you would use it and what it tells you) so you don’t need to memorize every single one of them.

              • Dr_Pain28
                Participant
                  • CFA Level 2
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                  @MaryLondon That is an interesting article,although I can’t really comment because I’m still a student. There were however several people in my university prep class that took it, and even at the exam there were a lot of over 30 people there taking level 1. The article seemed to me to have a negative bias when they were quoting the ex-analyst. But from my research and talking to charter holders, they all strongly endorsed getting the charter and the benefits it would give you. It it was easy everyone would have it.

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                  nah I’m 21 forever!

                • psh33942
                  Participant
                    • CFA Level 1
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                    I’m 44 and starting. Go for it Mary!!!!

                  • Zee Tan
                    Keymaster
                      • CFA Charterholder
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                      One of our members @dctomm is 50 and has considered taking it even!

                      Stop advertising ages @sophie….

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                      30 is the new 20.

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                      I have to say, most of the formulas have similar form. For example, the SFRatio and sharp ratio. And a lot of formulas could be derived from a very basic formula (I call it the mother formula). But the formula sheet list the mother and the daughters together so it looks scary.

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