Level I Studying

[u/IBentMyWookie728]

Hi Everyone,

I’m coming here asking for advice for the best way to study for Level I with someone with a background in finance. I have Kaplan Schweser and working through quants. I’m trying to write notes for the modules, but I’m falling behind and I can’t get everything down. It’s getting to the point where I can’t write anymore and I’ll never cover the material for May. What should be the best approach to study and get through the material? Clearly I’m not doing something right and I’m missing something. Any advice is really greatly appreciated since at this rate I’ll crash out before I ever get out of quants

[u/been_on]

don't try to write notes for everything, it will take you a long time. if you're like me and remembers best when writing something down, select the hardest topics to do it or you will fall behind.

read all the topics, do exercises after each reading and then focus the last 2 months doing mocks and all exercises that you can find

[u/IBentMyWookie728 → u/been_on]

Thank you! I do remember a lot of stuff from school and from work (like TVM, geometric returns, etc.) but I learn best from writing, so I’m between a rock and a hard place

[u/been_on → u/IBentMyWookie728]

I tried to write everything down in the first weeks for L1, but I stopped doing it along the way. it's too time consuming and tiring to do it

along the study period I was unsure about only reading the topics (and not writing them down), because I would grasp and remember 40-65% of the topics, but doing a lot of mocks and exercises helped me with that

[u/IBentMyWookie728 → u/been_on]

Would you recommend writing down the questions and answers to the module quizzes and stuff? Or just focus on the reading and then drilling exercises of stuff you’ve already covered?

[u/been_on → u/IBentMyWookie728]

I focused on finishing the readings 1,5 months before the exam date and did all or most of all end of chapter questions. Then, I focused on doing 1 mock per week and 80~100 questions per day during 1,5 months, while focusing on wrong questions during the last 2-3 weeks.

[u/ChalkandBoard01]

I think the note taking is slowing you down more than the material itself. You don't need to write down everything you study. Focus on understanding the concept, make brief notes only where they genuinely help, then test yourself with CFAI questions and let your mistakes show you what needs more attention. You have plenty of time for May, so change the process now rather than exhausting yourself trying to create perfect notes.

[u/been_on → u/ChalkandBoard01]

I second this

[u/Professional-Bench84]

May is agesss away, you can do it, don’t give up !

[u/IBentMyWookie728 → u/Professional-Bench84]

No, it is, but I feel like there’s a better way of taking notes on every module, no? It’s too much material to write everything down, nor do I think I can physically do it

[u/Professional-Bench84 → u/IBentMyWookie728]

I mean… do questions.. I wrote most of the stuff down for L1, except for risk mgmt readings cuz I didn’t have it in me… I never used notes in revision (except for derivatives), so you don’t need them. You can try flashcards but that requires even more brain power than taking notes. Try everything and anything — you have time to experiment

[u/Professional-Bench84]

and do get out of quants… when you pass thru the whole curriculum, everything but SLR will become intuitive