Here are some exam guidelines for CFA from EduPristine.

Exam Marking Strategy

To increase your chances to pass the exam it is very important that you get more than 70% marks in the high weighted subjects namely FRA, Ethics, Fixed Income, Economics; Corporate Finance. The CFA Institute gives very high priority to Ethics so a more than 70% score can give you an edge.

Last Day Tips

·         Go through your revision Notes or Formula Charts, and Summarize Recordings

·         Don’t try to discuss new topics with friends. Instead, focus on the material that you have referred

·         Be calm on the last day before the exam. Don’t take too much stress on the last day by working late in the night. The exam is very long and requires stamina and energy. So on the last day take it easy. Revise the formulae; see a few questions (especially those in the mock test). But sleep for a comfortable duration so that you don’t feel tired on the D-Day.

Before the exam, check

·         Take your Financial Calculator

·         You have at least 4 pencils, 1 Eraser & 1 sharpener with you

·         You have the Exam Admission Ticket on clean, unused paper and Passport.

CFA Level I Exam Day Strategy

·         Morning Exam Time 9 am to 12pm: 120 questions are given subject wise i.e. 1.5 minutes for each question

·         Afternoon Time 2pm to 5pm: 120 questions are given subject wise i.e. 1.5 minutes for each question

·         Allocate time to questions and make sure that you maintain the pace. Don’t get stuck on a particular question and since all questions have equal weight, so give equal importance to all questions

·         Make sure that you mark the questions as soon as you do it. Don’t keep this till the last moment. There are few problems in keeping it till the end. What if you mark 1 of the questions not in the right manner? It would change the sequence of filling for all questions. Also, during the last 10-15 minutes, you have the maximum efficiency. So if you waste that time in marking, it reduces the overall attempt percentage by at least 3-4%. In short, keep marking the answers as soon as you have done it. Don’t wait for marking till the end

·         Submit your Test on Time, don’t get into an argument with the Invigilator (Proctor), he/she can report misbehavior to the CFA Institute and your Exam results can be delayed or canceled

·         Don’t get involved in cheating or copying from fellow students, There are more than 300 such cases every year when the CFA institute either delay your result or cancel your exam or debar you from writing the Exam in future

·         In practical questions, they might give a lot of numerical values and information, wherein few are given just to confuse you and will not be used in solving the question

·         Make sure that you go through the complete paper. Sometimes the easy questions are given towards the end

·         Remember that sometimes the choice can be calculated using elimination. Try to see the choices and figure out the choices that would clearly not be the solution.

One point to note is that this is a relative examination. So if you are finding it difficult (and assuming you had prepared it to the best of your satisfaction), then rest assured everybody would be finding it difficult! So the key is now to best achieve whatever is possible. You have to do better than your peer.
 
Read last minute strategy for CFA Level 1 Paper. Click here.

CFA Examination Registration Fees Dates for 2018

Are you planning to appear for the CFA Program exam December 2018? If you are, you should take a note of all these dates that are extremely important. Add them to your Google calender,reminders,notes and wherever possible. I would suggest frame these dates on your wall. So to begin with, here is our calendar.

CFA – An Introduction

CFA is an abbreviation that stands for Chartered Financial Analyst designation which is an ace credential professional program offered globally by the American based CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) institute to investment and financial professionals.

The top employers of CFA Charter holders include JP Morgan, UBS, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and another global finance, investment, and banking firms.

The CFA program course of study is organized into three levels (Level I, Level II, and Level III) and each level requires passing a six-hour CFA exam by paying the CFA fees.

As a candidate or student, one must pay one-time program enrolment fees at the time of registering for the first Level 1 CFA Program exam. You need to pay the exam registration fees before the deadlines. The Program enrolment fee is USD 450.

CFA Program Fees (Mandatory)

There are 3 layers of fees you’ll need to pay for the exam:

One-time enrollment fee for first-timers (i.e. new CFA Level I candidate)

Registration fee for each level or retake

Curriculum fee for each level or retake

a) CFA Enrollment Fee

This is a one-time program enrollment fee of $450 when you apply for Level I exam. You don’t need to pay again for Level 2 and 3.

b) CFA Exam Fees for Registration

This CFA registration fee is the same for all three levels, but it varies depending on when you commit to the exam. You need to apply 9 months before the exam date to get the early bird discount.

As of now, the registration for the June 2018 is closed, but the registration for June 2019 exam will open in August 2018. For December 2018 CFA Exam (Level 1):

(i) the CFA FEES, the standard registration fee amounts to USD 950 (ends 15th August 2018)

(ii) late registration fees are USD 1,380 (ends 12th September, 2018.)

c) Curriculum Fee

The cost of ebooks is included in the exam fee. If you pick the print version, you’ll need to pay US$150 on top.

CFA Level 1 Study Planner

Most of the CFA® pursuers believe that CFA® Program tests are very difficult and arduous but that is not the case unless you make them difficult for yourself. CFA® level I syllabus is directed towards covering wide range of topics related to finance rather than going deep into specific topics. While CFA® aspirants can expect CFA® Level I exams in December, studying alone won’t help you to clear this exam. Planning your study schedule will prepare you to cope up with the extensive study syllabus.

What if someone could help you with how many study hours are required every week from start of study day till the date of your exam, which topics you need to focus on as per your preparations and how much time you need to give to individual topics? Won’t that make your work easy? Well, we have made two CFA® Study planners for all the students who are preparing to appear for CFA® level I and CFA® level II.

Here’s the second reason for failure in the CFA exam. Most of the candidates practice too little.

They study their CFA Curriculum but they fail to test themselves on what they’ve actually learned. What you need to do is to solve countless exam-type questions all way through your exam prep. Over and over again. To see where you’re standing.

It’s best if you develop the right habit from the very beginning. It would be perfect if you tested yourself on a daily basis, after each reading and each topic. If you do tests regularly, you’ll see your progress and you’ll know which areas still need some improvement and which are fine.

Moreover, by doing different exam-type tests, you get accustomed to the form of the CFA exam, which should definitely make you feel more comfortable when the exam day comes.

If what you know about the exam is that it’s a multiple choice test consisting of 120 questions of the morning session and 120 questions of the afternoon session, you will not feel that much comfortable for sure.

To get the fact resonate better:

Imagine that you are to play a basketball match and all you know about basketball is that you need to throw a ball into a basket but never in your life have you tried to score a point. Certainly, you’ll agree that to win that match, you’ll need a lot of luck.

Holiday & Revision

As you must have noticed, our study plan also includes:

1 week of holidays (right in the middle, after you do your Ethics, QM, PM, FRA, and CF, but you can choose otherwise!),

4 weeks of Final Revision preceding your exam (indispensable to be ready for the CFA test),

regular spaced revision sessions all throughout your exam prep (for topics, but also for each week of your study as available inside the Free Study Plan Application).

All this to help you prepare for your exam thoroughly.

The weekly break has 2 functions. On the one hand, it allows you to recharge batteries in the middle of your exam preparation. On the other hand, it motivates you to work hard on the first 5 topics. It’s like an award for those who follow the plan!

And as far as the hard work goes, all the revision sessions arranged inside the study plan give you plenty of space to practice and review what you’ve learned. It’s an important prerequisite to successful and productive learning.