CFA Level 1: How To Prepare & Pass CFA In 18 Months

To become a CFA candidate, you must enroll in CFA Program and register for the Level I exam. In order to enroll you must meet all of the qualifications listed below. We have provided helpful information below to guide you through the enrollment process and to keep you on track for registration.

• If you find that you’re somewhere in the middle, and neither distance learning nor classroom learning is quite right for you, try blended learning.
• Hi- I took L1 with 3 months of studying while working and did only the practice problems from Schweser.
• As of 2022, the Level I exam is now offered in February, May, August, and November, the Level II exam in February and August, and the Level III exam in May and November.
• I’m not preparing for the CFA, but your advices about learning are really good, beyond this specific exams.

A Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA®) charter is a designation given to those who have completed the CFA® Program and completed acceptable work experience requirements. That comes down to about 15 hours per week, especially since you’re likely working full time while studying. Both the CFA and the MBA are valuable to financial professionals looking to develop their expertise, bolster their reputation, and advance their careers. Financial professionals who work as money managers and registered investment advisors are especially keen to get a CFA. If you're enrolling in the program to jump-start a stalling career, you may want to look at other reasons your career is not moving forward first.

Work Experience Requirements

Kaplan Schweser and AnalystPrep are the two most popular CFA review courses. The CFA Institute provides comprehensive reading materials, known as the CFAI textbook, as part of the package. There are 240 questions equally divided into a morning session and an afternoon session . If the application is approved, you will receive an official acceptance by email together with the admission ticket within 2-3 days. If you don’t hear from them after 3 days, contact CFA Institute by email. This page is dedicated to finance professionals who aspire to become a CFA charter holder.

Once you've considered the time required to pass the levels, you must next look at the professional requirements needed. Before a candidate can become a CFA, they must have accrued 36 months of acceptable work experience. Fortunately, the CFA Institute's definition of acceptable experience is fairly broad, encompassing such areas as trading, economics, and corporate finance. The application process for CFA 2023 will require candidates to complete various stages like registration, form filling, uploading documents, and payment of the fees. It is an online process that needs the candidate to enter all the valid information and details.

One-Time Enrollment Fee

The details of the CFA Eligibility Criteria 2023 are given below. You will also have to pay the registration fee each time you sit for the exam. Successful Level I candidates spend more than 300 hours preparing for the exam on average. Passing the CFA Level I exam, which has around a 40% pass rate over the past years, requires following a solid study plan. The Level I exam consists of 180 multiple choice questions, split between two 135-minute sessions . Don’t forget to earmark the last 4-6 weeks before your exams for doing practice papers, ideally under timed conditions.

There are a number of financial fields in which having the charter is a substantial plus. As the investment industry continues to become more competitive and more commoditized, it will become almost imperative for any credible investment manager to earn the charter. You may see your salary increase after you've become a CFA or you may surpass other applicants who don't have this designation when competing for a new job.

The payment of the application fees is an important part of the CFA 2023 application process. The candidate will not be considered a CFA Charterholder unless you have four years of work experience. The candidates are allowed to appear for all three levels of the CFA exam without having any work experience. Take advantage of our membership application resources to help you apply and become a CFA Institute member.

CFA is an international-wide examination, CFA 2023 exam in India will be conducted in Banglore, Kolkata, Mumbai, and New Delhi. The institute will assign centres to candidates taking into account their requested exam location based on availability. Only the candidates who meet the eligibility criteria can apply for the CFA examination. Hence, applicants should check the eligibility criteria beforehand.

The CFA Test Levels and Time

We will contact you by email or phone with any questions about your application. Once all application reviews are completed, you will receive an email letting you know your application review is complete. Regular members can add and switch societies without going through the society application process. This can be done during the renewal process and from the Manage Your Membership page.

Exam registration fee of US$700-1,200 depending how early you register. There has been a change in trend of historical pass rates since 2021, so it is best to refer to our CFA pass rates article for more details. Earning the CFA charter requires a commitment to learning and excellence. CFA Institute can help you realize your ambitions to join the global CFA charterholder community with a variety of resources.

Altogether, you should expect to spend several thousand dollars each time you attempt the exams. It should be noted that I have previously taken the CFA Level 1 exam and achieved a pass in the top 10% of sitting candidates. However, I have not sat either the level 2 or level 3 exams and am not a chartered financial analyst.

CFA Institute does not allow their prep providers to publish their pass rates. The steps below guide you through the application review process and answer frequently asked questions related to estimated timelines, application statuses, and prorated membership fees. When you apply to become a regular member of CFA Institute, you are required to apply to a local society. The information in your application will be reviewed by the local society you select. You can elect whether you want to join the society after your application is approved. Though voluntary for regular membership to CFA Institute, membership to a local society is your passport to a global network of investment professionals in your market.

CFA level III syllabus is mainly composed of topics on Wealth and Portfolio Management as well as producing Analytical methods to learn their application. The examination is conducted for 6 hours per day and 3 hours per session. CFA Admit Card 2023 is an important document about the candidate and the exam.

End-of-chapter questions will give you an overview of what areas are tested on the exam, so you can be more focused on these areas. Additionally, these questions will reveal the weaker areas that you must focus on to improve. The best strategy is to leave at least four months to finish all the reading material. Learn how hardware/software at the test centers may impact your exam-day experience. Exam questions referring to Financial Statement Analysis are based on International Financial Reporting Standards , unless otherwise specified. In addition to the current available windows, we will be adding more testing windows in 2021 for LII and LIII candidates.

According to the CFA Institute, successful candidates report that they spent on average about 323 hours in total preparing for the CFA exam. The CFA Institute, which administers the exam, suggests no less than 300 hours of study. Preparation for all three levels of the Chartered Financial Analyst exams requires a serious commitment to following a structured study plan. According to the CFA Institute, the average annual pass rate over the last 10 years for the CFA Level I exam has been 44%.

Ready to commit? Here’s ​your customized CFA fast track plan

This website is owned and operated by Luke Girling, a chartered Accountant in the UK and is held by LSG Websites Limited which can be found on the UK Companies House register here. This article has been written by Luke Girling, ACA – a qualified Accountant and personal finance enthusiast in the UK. To verify my ACA credentials – please search for my name at theICAEW member finder. To get in touch with questions or ideas for future posts, please comment below or contact mehere. However, distance learning is not a good fit if you struggle to get anything done on your own or if you find self-study challenging.

Each computer-based exam is 4.5 hours long completed over a morning and an afternoon. As a candidate you are responsible for booking the exam directly with CFA Institute. This is a simple process and only takes around 15 minutes to complete. Your membership application will also be reviewed by the society to which you applied.

We invite you to find a society near youand explore their requirements for affiliate membership. Our CFA Society® community works to raise professional standards, offer relevant professional learning programming, and advocate for local interests in more than 150 global markets. The applicant describes the types of independent analysis involved in this position. For each work description, explain your job duties and how they relate to investment decision-making.

They will run through each how long does it take to complete cfa area, providing advice and support on how to improve on your score for the real exam. If you choose to study via one of our online learning packages, you will have access to an online mock exam. Passing the CFA Program exams requires strong discipline and an extensive amount of studying. The three exams have traditionally been offered in June, with the exception ofLevel I, which could be taken in December as well. As of 2021, all levels of the CFA exam will be computer-based. The Level I CFA exam will also be offered four times per year on February, May, August, and November.

The table below summarizes the distribution of 323 hours of reading on the different exam topic areas. It’s often best to leave at least four months for readings and the last month for revision and practicing. If you read two hours per day on weekdays and eight hours on the weekends, then it will take about 17 weeks to complete all of the readings. This statistic indicates that only dedicated candidates are likely to pass the exam, so be prepared to make the necessary sacrifices and put in the required effort. And remember, passing Level I is only the first step to receiving a CFA Charter—there are two more rigorous exams to go.