Well, it’s that time of year again. Thousands of hopeful first-time CFA candidates are busy hitting the books. For many, these last couple weeks of CFA Level 1 exam prep can be overwhelming. The sheer volume of curriculum is massive, and the number of formulas that need to be memorized is not trivial. All that being said, how should you wrap up your studying with only a few weeks to go?
Focus on What Matters
Wouldn’t it be great if you could finally understand how options or futures worked? The truth is, you don’t really need to in order to pass the exam. The derivatives section is only a small proportion of the exam (about 5%). And the options sections is a small proportion of the derivatives section. In the final weeks of your CFA Level 1 exam prep, stay focused on the most important content: those with the highest weightings. Financial Reporting and Analysis (FR&A), Ethics, and Quant make up 47% of the total exam. I ensure that my clients are maniacally focused on these sections in the final days leading up to the exam. You should still try to cover all of the other topics, but spend a considerable amount of time with these three sections in the final weeks.
Take a Practice Test
Yes, it will take you six hours but it’s worth it. This is one of the best things you can do for your CFA Level 1 exam prep. It’s critical that you get a sense of how it feels to go through six hours of dozens and dozens of questions. Time yourself to better understand how hard or how easy it will be to finish the exam. An important thing to remember is the following: some practice tests from companies such as Kaplan will be on a computer or using a booklet. The actual exam will be different. You will have to fill in bubbles on paper for each answer. This only takes a few seconds, but with 240 questions in total, these seconds can add up to minutes. Expect that the real exam might take you a few minutes longer than mock exams.
Track Your Progress
Lastly, with only a few weeks left of your CFA Level 1 exam prep, ensure that you track your practice question progress. What sections are giving you trouble? What topics within specific sections are giving you trouble? For questions where you need to guess, can you recognize at least one of the three multiple choice options? If you don’t already have it, Schweser’s Q-Bank is an amazing tool for tracking your progress. There are a myriad of practice questions and the application tracks your score by topic (within the larger sections). After reviewing the highest weighted areas of the exam, circle back to the topics that are giving you trouble and drill-down on them.
Don’t Leave Your CFA Level 1 Exam Prep to the Night Before
I have tutored many students on their way to taking the CFA exam. To this point, I have seen a range of candidates. Specifically, a range in terms of the amount of study time needed to pass. A small number of candidates may be able to pass with only a month of studying. This unique group typically has a significant background in finance, and is very good at test taking. The large majority of students take months to study in order to pass. The bottom line is that, even the most brilliant test takers need closer to a month to study. Give yourself adequate time, and maybe even consider taking a few days off from work before the exam, or book a CFA tutor.
Either way, you’re almost there! Keep going! When you get that email with a “Congratulations” at the beginning, you will be happy you pushed through these last couple weeks. Good luck!