CFA (Charter Financial Analyst) Certification is one of the most sought-after courses in the finance domain. The certification exam is conducted by the CFA Institute twice a year and in an entirely online manner. The certification is divided into 3 Levels and requires a minimum of 3-year work experience to gain the charter. The curriculum of CFA charter is considered to be one of the most advanced and in line with the market needs of the time. The curriculum is considered to be equivalent to any MBA degree from a top university. A top Ivy league university famously said on their website that their flagship MBA Finance course has more than 60 percent similarity with that of the CFA curriculum.

Prepare yourself best for CFA

Know the Exam Well

It is a very fundamental and essential step to understand the basics of the examination before sitting for it. What are the topics, what is their individual weightage and what are the resources available in the market which can improve your performance in the examination. As this examination is completely online, candidates should start practicing more and more in the online arrangement.

It is very important to note that for all the levels of the examination of CFA, a very basic but important need is the Financial Calculator. A candidate should know perfectly how to use the financial calculator in the best way before sitting for the exam. By using the calculator in an optimal way, one can reduce the calculation time to a large extent.

Time Management

CFA charter examination comprises a very large number of topics and in good depth. So, to complete the whole syllabus and one cycle of revision, one person on average takes 300 study hours for each level.

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Time should be managed in accordance with the weightage topics countians in examination and as per your knowledge level in the subject. Candidates preparing for the certification with their job find it very difficult to give long dedicated study hours, so they can divide their week in a manner in which they do reading during the weekdays and practice during the weekends. Minimum of 18 hours per week is necessary during the last 4 month. Candidates can assign 1-2 hours to study during working days and 5-6 hour during non- working days.

Practice is the key

CFA is an application based examination. The type of questions asked in the CFA examination means to examine the candidate on the basis of their conceptual clarity. The candidates do not require to remember theory, they just have to learn the meaning out of it and know how to apply the theory.

So, most of the important questions during the examination are conceptual. One should do a good amount of practicing before giving the actual examination, to know how to solve the paper prior and in the best manner.

Although the CFA curriculum contains a good number of questions, most of the successful CFA candidates have also solved questions from other resources. It is essential as you can do a diverse set of solving questions and improve your conceptual clarity. There are many good adaptive practice packages available in the market which tell you the areas of your needed improvement.

Kaplan Schweser Notes

These notes are the second most popular resource only after the official CFA material, to be used for CFA examination.  But there are many misconceptions among the candidates regarding these notes which must be clarified to them one by one:

1. These notes are a smaller version of actual CFA resources. Not much depth is covered in these notes. Hence, they give you a basic understanding of the topic, not a complete knowledge about it.  Because of which you can just pass the exam on the basis of these notes.

2. These notes can get you passing marks till the first 2 levels only as after that deep understanding is a must in Level 3.

3. These notes are good for theory only, and do not cover the practical relevance of the topics. 

Hence, if your aim is to build your understanding and not just getting the certification, don’t just rely on these notes. Although you can use them as revision material.

Don’t get obsessed with Math

For the entire CFA examination, you aren’t required to be a mathematics genius, you just need to have the basic mathematical knowledge. The main focus of this exam is on the concepts you know rather than knowing how much mathematics you know. To make things simpler, you always will have a financial calculator available at your disposal.

Choose your material wisely

Many of the candidates make this mistake of not choosing the right material for their preparation. The reason for this is the abundance of resources available on the internet. So before starting your preparation, one should search for the best option as per their study style. Contentiously changing the material is very discouraging and breaks the flow of topics, so everyone should prevent themselves from going through this phase.

The same logic goes with the classes. Many students start taking coaching but after some time realise that the standard of teaching is not good there. Then they change their coaching. This all can waste a lot of your time and money and a lot of your morale boosting, hence students should stick to the one from the very beginning.

How will success seize you after CFA?

Everyone aspires to be successful but only a few meet their aspirations. Once a person becomes successful in any of the domains, be it business, sport or professionally, everyone gets mesmerised with the bright light of their success but not many understand the struggle behind it. When you take dedication to be your only path, even before your realisation, it’s success that seizes you. When someone aims to be successful, they put all their blood and sweat into it. Sacrificing with other aspects of life and forgetting about oneself becomes a norm. The thought of success starts controlling your mind and the aim of your life gets skewed to just attaining success.

If one becomes successful, their perception towards themselves completely changes and starts carrying a sense of pride with him. This led to a superiority complex among many successful people and they began to treat other people with less dignity. They may start considering other people inferior and start isolating themselves, which will leave them alone. And if one doesn’t become successful, they will start questioning themselves. Which can lead to self-doubt, low confidence level and depression.

So, in both the situations – achieving the success and not achieving the success, the person is seized by success.

(India CSR)