June 2014 test. No background at all. Advice for preparation

You’re welcome! keep us posted on your progress @cassieguo1987 – we’re here if you need any help/advice 🙂

Question bank (qbank) are usually purchased additionally from prep providers, you need much more practice than what’s provided by CFAI itself – check out our reviews & offers section for good discounts for 300H readers.

To address people with @, just put the alias “@” symbol before you type the person’s username. Like @cassieguo1987. It’s that easy!

Don’t worry too much about not having the financial background and working experience. As long as you’re willing to put the effort in you should be fine.

Always try to understand the concept and not just blindly memorising them. Don’t ignore any topics just because it’s only a small fraction of the %, you’ll be tested again on the next level.
Lastly, don’t forget to practice lots of mock papers.

I am in the same boat as you , no exp. giving dec 2013 level 1 exams. I am using analyst notes preparation material . Totally based on LOS and really good.

Lastly, don’t forget to practice lots of mock papers.

+1000000

Hi, @jaz0020 –
I am kind of halfway in finance. I am on the personal side of financial advisement, but have no institutional background. So for me this is pretty new stuff, except for what I took in college 20+ years ago. (Thus it is all new).

I started by getting a general idea of what info I need to learn via the videos from test prep providers and their qbanks.

If you have an iPhone, just type in CFA on the app store. You’ll be shocked at how much is available.

One thing though, some of the firms’ qbanks *ONLY* work on PCs. So, make sure before you buy anythign you have what is needed to run it. Check your hardware specs and the type of system you have.

I have an old nettop Acer Aspire Revo… it is my qbank machine, “Schweser video home theater” and every online book I could find. I was lucky to stil have it as I was planning to sell it on eBay, but then I noted Schweser qbank ONLY works on PCs.

Well, it’s 1:34am…. I just finished doing more studying and resetting my study schedule.

Off to bed to get up in 5 hours.

g’night all!

I came here to say pretty much exactly what Sophie said…. it’s determination and discipline, not background knowledge that is the most important factor. Good luck and you can always find more help here!

Hello @cassieguo1987, welcome to 300HC 🙂 No problem, many candidates think that just because they don’t have background in finance implies it’ll be harder, in fact it’s sometimes an advantage as our studies have shown that candidates with no background in finance tend to do better than candidates who had previous education background in finance (both with no finance work experience).

We have a LOT of resources here on 300Hours in terms of preparation tips. But the first thing I’d advise is to go is to create a study plan, and here’s a good guide to doing that.