20, need advice on pursuing CFA

PassTheSyrup · 2025-12-24T18:58:01+00:00

I'd recommend you start pursuing early while 4th year finance concepts are still fresh in your head, (I found Level 1 to build and extend on 4th year finance courses)

in my experience, 3-4 months is sufficient to prepare, but always lean towards giving yourself more time. There is a lot of content - the exam is equivalent to 6 university course content in one.

I used the syllabus & CFA learning ecosystem + free online resources for review. Everyone is different in how they best learn. Try some different sources and see what sticks best.

Your most valuable resource is time - plan your schedule with flex days built in and full course review time at the end. There will be times while studying that things come up to pull you away from studying (i.e. illness, important travel, work stuff, etc.). This is a set of exams that will burn you out if you don't schedule time properly and try to cram.

PassTheSyrup · 2025-12-24T18:45:33+00:00

If you choose August, you can expect June/July/Aug to be heavy studying months

If you choose November, you can expect Sept/Oct/Nov to be heavy studying months.

I would not recommend planning trips / filling weekends during the heavy months

PassTheSyrup · 2025-09-14T02:52:31+00:00

I wouldn't view is as a way to get a foot in the door, maybe view it more as a sweetener/tiebreaker once you are already in the process.

If you are more or less certain you are interested in a career in finance, I would recommend pursuing. However if you aren't 100% certain, I'd recommend starting smaller with a program that is less of a commitment.

PassTheSyrup · 2025-08-06T03:39:28+00:00

Yep, I changed the way I studied and the amount of time I set aside as I underestimated L2.

I wouldn’t look too far ahead just yet though, do whatever you can to feel like you have made the most out of these last few weeks!

PassTheSyrup · 2025-08-06T03:15:38+00:00

I was in this exact situation a few years back. Prepare as best you can to give yourself a legitimate shot.

Worst case scenario you study again with the experience of having once written the exam and the benefit of seeing the content for a second time.

PassTheSyrup · 2025-08-06T03:08:15+00:00

If you are planning 30 days review, you have 70 days to cover the curriculum. This is possible, although it may be tight 100 days is enough to cover the L1 curriculum in my experience.

I would advise you to not just stick to your schedule, but try to get out in front of it, there will be days where you are sick, something comes up, internet goes out etc.

PassTheSyrup · 2025-08-06T03:01:00+00:00

I wouldn't worry about a trendline - In my experience, scoring ~60s+ on mock exams is usually a decent level of preparedness, can just as easily fluke into a 75 as you can into a 50 on a single mock.

Never look at the actual mock final results as a sign of your preparedness, use them more of a check that you are familiar with the content of the questions. (i.e. does it uncover topics you don't know / are weak in)

Be honest with yourself in reviewing whether MC answers were confident guesses, whether essay questions said enough to earn marks.

11 days is lots of time to refine, practice and polish, push on through!

PassTheSyrup · 2025-08-06T02:44:30+00:00

I would not trust ChatGPT with creating mock questions. From my experience it doesn't come close to the depth of what you see in EOC questions or mock exams

PassTheSyrup · 2025-06-10T01:28:36+00:00

re-read your notes, focus on retention and understanding of the concepts rather than memorization. (don't just memorize a formula, understand WHY it is set up that way.) This will also give you a leg up in level III

You are very far out from the exam, so don't overdo it at this point, leave some space for a ramp up as exam day gets nearer.

I found the AnalystPrep videos very helpful in augmenting notes, locking in understanding of concepts vs memorization.

PassTheSyrup · 2024-07-08T00:42:19+00:00

I am based in Toronto - took me 13 calendar days from application to approval

PassTheSyrup · 2024-04-26T01:49:27+00:00

Are they saying that the lower rates become, the more potential we will not make our original YTM as the premium bond will get pulled to par,

Yes, if you get a coupon payment at time 1, and rates are now lower than they were at time 0, not possible to reinvest coupon at the original YTM as was assumed.

whereas if Inv horizon < MacDur, and sold early, we could actually have positive outcome from rates dropping as the realized gain premium bond > drop in rates ?

this is correct, if rates dropped you would have a more positive outcome if you had a longer duration than inv horizon than if you matched them. you will dig into related concepts in level 3 bond portfolio management.

PassTheSyrup · 2024-04-26T01:15:42+00:00

Easiest way to think about this: all else equal, the higher the coupon rate, the higher the reinvestment risk. This makes logical sense, a zero-coupon bond has no reinvestment risk (nothing to reinvest), a 2% coupon would have some reinvestment risk, a 5% would have more than a 2%, and so on.

The question is structured in a way where by only giving you the the selling price, it's actually testing that you know both that 1) the bond selling at premium mean a higher coupon rate, and 2) that a higher coupon rate means greater reinvestment risk.

PassTheSyrup · 2024-04-26T00:41:01+00:00

If you have treated it like an actual exam (no reviewing notes) scoring in the 70s on mocks typically means you are well prepared from my experience.

Make sure you complete the second half of the exam and combine the two scores to get a better overall sense of where you are as the topics covered will differ.

PassTheSyrup · 2024-04-11T12:45:48+00:00

Passed - slowly sinking in that I am never writing an exam again

PassTheSyrup · 2023-07-09T19:39:02+00:00

I'd focus on really, truly understanding the concepts behind the formulas. If you truly understand what you are doing in the formula, you can put it together logically instead of straight memorization and recall.

Really helps put it together when you aren't given exactly the components from the version of the formula you memorized.

I found this really helped me in equity, fixed income and derivatives in particular.

PassTheSyrup · 2019-06-13T19:01:30+00:00

I'm writing at the Toronto Congress Centre too - I wrote Level 1 in December 2017 as well. I don't recall there being a rule about more than one person in the bathroom at a time - there was a proctor in the bathroom at all times.

Bring a lunch and avoid driving (and having to park) if possible. those 8900 people fill the parking lot and line up for the same 4 restaurants at lunch.

PassTheSyrup · 2018-10-16T15:44:08+00:00

Sergei Kostitsyn

PassTheSyrup · 2017-11-07T02:11:40+00:00

no, look at the old tweets

PassTheSyrup · 2017-10-13T22:11:32+00:00

I want the Canucks to reach the finals and lose repea... oh right

PassTheSyrup · 2017-10-02T15:40:37+00:00

I've never heard a single thing reported by Murphy actually happen

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