CFA Prep

Even before my cfa prep there were a few things that I had already done. 

1. I did 2 NCFM courses.  

2. I learned about Markets and 3 fin statements in Zerodha varsity(free). 

If you have a little knowledge it will help but it's not really mandatory, you can directly jump into CFA too.  

My sources for preparation: 1. CFA curriculum 2. Schweser books 3. Mark Meldrum Youtube channel (Mostly I followed him for my prep strategy). 4. Google :P 

My preparation: I started my prep in May 2019 and completed the whole syllabus in around 3-4 months except maybe 15-20% which I felt tough or boring. It was more like more like going through the entire syllabus and practicing questions. It's important to complete the syllabus. (After that I spent more time on CAT and less time on CFA)  

After CAT, I completed the leftover syllabus and revised everything. Took a few mocks. Finally gave the exam on Dec 7, 2019. 

A few important points: 

1. Complete the whole syllabus first. (If you find something boring or tough just move on and come back after syllabus completion) 

2. Solving questions after reading a topic is very important. So reading and practicing must be done simultaneously. 

3. Take mocks only before the exam like 2 weeks before. 6-7 mocks are more than enough usually. 

4. CFA books are really big. Schweser books are compact. Depending on the topic I used these books. Sometimes you have to read from CFA books as you may not fully understand the topic in Schweser notes. Sometimes CFA materials could be just too much. So Schweser can be enough here.  

5. Make notes but don't write everything. (Mark suggested and I followed here) 

Where do I start? 

1. Have both CFA and Schweser books ready. 

2. Order of studying these books: I followed Mark's advice, I suggest you do the same. 

3. Solve End of chapter questions (EOC) after completing every reading. 

About CFA: 

1. There are 10 Chapters in CFA i.e. Ethics, Quant, Economics, FRA, Cor fin, Equity, Portfolio management, Fixed income, derivatives, Alt investments. Each chapter will have a few sessions. Total sessions are 19. Each session will have a few readings. The total readings are 58. 

2. Each chapter has fixed weightage in the actual CFA exam. See the break up in the website. 

3. It's a 6-hour exam divided into 3 hr exams of two. 

4. The passing score is usually 65-70% of the maximum marks. There is no individual chapter cutoff. 

5. It's an MCQ exam with 3 options. No negatives.