Last updated on October 13th, 2022 at 06:22 am
Before we tackle that question, let’s perhaps try and understand why you failed in your first attempt. Did you do everything you could? Here are some of the main reasons why people fail.
- They don’t study hard enough - Increase the study hours – Everyone knows you need 300 hours to study for the level 1 CFA. The CFA institute recommends you put in a minimum of 300 hours of study. You think you studied hard enough but you probably didn’t. When they mean 300 hours, they mean every minute of that is spent studying. In a two-hour study period, most people take half an hour to sink into the material and a lot of time spent on social media. Most people increase study time to 400 hours. If you take our CFA course, we provide you an additional 120 hours of study, which ensures that you put in the time.
- What was your exam strategy? – The pass score for the CFA is 70%. There are varieties of exam strategies, which one did you follow? For instance, did you make sure you answered all the questions you knew to be absolutely correct? For instance if you focus on answering 50% of the questions you have built a foundation for a good score.
- What materials did you rely upon? You cannot just depend on CFA material. This is why it’s important to do course like the Imarticus CFA course where we give you study material that builds upon the material you receive from CFA. The CFA books can be overwhelming in the information they provide. Secondary sources will help distill the key learning’s so that you know the fundamentals and don’t lose sight of the forest for the trees.
- What topics did you focus upon? Pay attention to all topics but make sure you study ethics – not last minute, and put in extra work in fixed income and portfolio management, traditionally the areas most people falter on.
- What was your study plan? This is especially important if you are working. How do you actually intend to get in 5 hours of uninterrupted study? Did you let your boss know that you couldn’t be put on any special projects? This means chalking out the next 6 months to the hour if you will and keep a 30% time buffer so that you compensate for that last minute emergency which means you lose out on study time.
- Did you get enough sleep? Sleep is one of the main reasons why people fail. They attempt the exam with a tired mind. And sleep deficiency adds up. So a good nights sleep before the exam is not sufficient. This is when your study plan comes into play. Your study plan has to allow for rest over and above any other extra curricular activities. So chuck the social media, the tv and anything else. Sleep and study.
- Did you practice enough? Most people buckle under the time pressure during the test. You do fine at home, at the perfect temperature, without the added pressure of delivering. You have to work under exam pressure. This is why the Imarticus CFA program is so popular. We give you 3 mock online tests and a 3000 sample question bank. But the most important is a actual simulated classroom test following exam conditions. This is key to understanding your weak areas.
For more details on the Imarticus Learning CFA program, visit https://imarticus.org/financial-analysis-prodegree/ or call us on 0226149595
