Is The Expensive CFA Study Material a Necessity?

We all received the enormous box of books with the CFA curriculum. And just looking at the books one might wonder how they will study so much and thus start looking into alternatives. There are many sources available some offer packages with video presentations of lessons, question banks and their own shortened version of the curriculum. The prices differ ranging from a few hundred to several thousand dollars.

But the question is this necessary?

NO!

Study the original material that is provided

The materials that CFA institute provides are excellent. They have all the material that you need with a lot of case studies and questions that help you further understand the material.

Many learning providers simply re-write the curriculum and say it’s easier but to ace the CFA exams you need to study it in their language. In order to pass the CFA exams you need to become fluent in it, otherwise you will stall in level 2 or latest in level 3, when it becomes really difficult.

Many learning providers say there’s not enough time to cover the original material well they are wrong. The CFA level 1 exam preparations are meant to be very time consuming so you can take up to a year to completely prepare yourself. Taking a shortcut when reading the material will not work.

It’s okay to speed up here

You can speed things up in the revision process. While you are studying make short notes of every chapter so you can revise, definitely take advantage of a study solution when reviewing the material, as these are inexpensive and worth it. They cost the price of half a dinner, and take a very unique approach at reviewing the curriculum. AnalystPrep is a very good option.

Another useful thing is to get together with other CFA candidates once you have read the original material and have reviewed it. But don’t do this too early, as you can’t learn together, only review. Once you’re at the point where you solve practice exams is ideal to access a study group. This can also be just one other student.