3 month study plan for CFA Level 1:

If you are thinking of starting your CFA level 1 preparation with just 3 months in hand then here is a
quick guide for you:

1. Ditch the tuitions: If you are taking any tuitions or have subscribed to any video lecture classes
then you need to forget about it. At best you can use them to understand specific concepts that you
are not being able to understand.

I would highly encourage you to do self study at this point. It will save up a lot of your time and will
even make you realise that you never even needed tuitions in the first place.

2. Order of study:

i) Corporate Finance (Corporate Issuers) - ~6-7 days

ii) Equity - ~5-6 days
iii) Financial Reporting and Analysis (FRA) - 9 days
iv) Alternative Investments - ~3-4 days
v) Quants - ~4-5 days
vi) Portfolio Management - ~6 days
vii) Derivatives - ~3-4 days
viii) Fixed Income - ~5-6 days
ix) Economics - ~4-5 days

Take roughly 2/5th of the time allocated for every subject to read the Schweser material and the
remaining time to solve the questions.
For example, there are 5 days allotted for economics so spend ~2 days to read Schweser and the
remaining 3 days to solve CFA portal questions.

Its okay if you can't understand everything and it may even look like a herculean task to do it but
have faith in your ability!

3. Solving questions (the right way to do it!): If you feel that you don't have enough time to solve all
the questions then don't, try to solve ~70% of the questions. A lot of the questions will be repetitive,
SKIP THOSE.
After every question read the right answer that the portal displays. It will help you solidify your
concepts and is a really good form of revision!

4. Ethics: Notice how I didn't include ethics in the order of study section. Well that's because you
need to approach this subject differently. During the last 30 days start giving Ethics 30 minutes of
your time daily. Whether it is reading the material or solving questions and trust me you will be
sorted!

(However, try reading the material at least thrice before the exam!)

5. The FINAL month: Here, you need to start your second & last reading. Go through your Schweser
books and also memorize all equations by heart along the way. Also go through the questions that
you got wrong and see the answers for those (no need to check the ones you got right).
I won't lie to you, it is a mammoth task and requires quite a bit of self dedication but if I can clear the
exam in 2 months then so can you.
Pro tip: Try getting in at least 3.5 hours/day of study.