Hello my names Anthony Edwards, I’m a business administration major, with a concentration in investments. During Covid I decided to study the stock market and I turned a dummy portfolio from 100k into 300k and netted 500% on my own money. Having a previous experience in store management made me understand cashflows and other concepts. Would you have any advice for someone embarking on a career change? I’m applying for internships and have a year and a half to get tangible experience.
I would definitely recommend it as an additive to your pursuit of the CFA, MBA or otherwise. The FMVA won’t be a substitute, but it offers way more practical technical skills than the CFA or MBA
Hey my brother, congratulations on gaining your first job in finance. I have been following your channel for a while. I am one of the very first persons to follow your channel and comment on your posts when you started CFA Level 1. You inspire me a lot, considering the fact that you are passing the CFA exams without a finance background. I would like to have a one-on-one section with you if you dont mind, please. I can send you my email address. Thank you.
Thank you! Really appreciate you following along. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to connect in that way. I got busy recently and I’ve had to take a step back from making videos for the time being. But I hope to one day get back to it. I need to actually do a video on my experience with level 3
Thank you so much fro sharing your video. I took mock exams for l1, but never really got the most out of them. Im currently preparing for l2 and your advice perfectly addressed the issues i am facing. I generally don't comment on videos, but this was just god sent. Thank you.
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I used MM for Level 3. But what helped me more was using the physical texts from CFAI. MM was great as a first pass. But you really have to read the texts to fill in the gaps. Also mock exams are key!
@@aristidetekeu4750 yes! I wrote L3 in February and found out in early April. I haven’t made a video yet, but I think I will once I receive the charter in the mail
Yes for all 3 levels, I used mark Meldrum. Level 3 requires the use of the primary materials from CFA though (in my opinion). Because of the short response section, you want to be sure that you’re using language that the CFA uses. Also, I HIGHLY recommend downloading as many of the old Boston Mock Exams as you can and taking them as early as you can for level 3.
Hey i just started my cfa l2 prep with economics. My exam is on 31 August 2024. I’ve taken online lectures & planning to complete all lecturers before april end after that how should i approach. I'm planning to solve candidate recourse twice with curriculum blue box & examples. Solve 5-6 mocks also. Any suggestion would you like to add?
I’d say that by the end of April, you should assess your skills with a mock exam. Then take note of where you’re lacking in knowledge by noting the LOSs that require your revision. Then I would spend time reading the text to make sure that I fully understand those LOSs. That’s what I did for level 2 (particularly for economics. Towards the end I actually read the entire second reading in econ).
Hi, Thank you so much for your analysis. Would you recommend reading CFAI course material in addition to going through Mark's videos? If yes how many times should one cover the CFAI course material? Do you think referring to Kaplan books is better since it is concise in addition to CFAI question bank, EOCQ & mock exams? Thanks Gaurav
I always started with MM videos. I would then test myself on concepts using quizzes, etc. whoever I found gaps, I would hyperfocus by using the CFAI texts and reading those for understanding
@chill7757 I gave up. I do not need this designation for my job as my employer has never heard of CFAI. 2,500 intense hours is enough to achieve nothing.
I finally gave up. I do not need this designation for my career as my employer has never heard of CFAI. Having the Charter or not having the Charter makes no difference to my career path.@@sirbrochill7757
My tip is to write, recite and repeat! It’s hard and will hurt your hands, but the only way to get it committed to memory is to memorize. And the best way to memorize is to hit all your senses of for learning. Writing, reading and speaking.
Thanks for the great video, what cities do you consider are center of finance or business? I am in central Ohio, I have a master degree, not in business or accounting. 5 years of bookkeeping experience. Is it possible to find FA job that is all online?
Loved your point on focusing on the LOS as you go through the material. The curriculum is so vast and so easy to get lost in, using the LOS as a centering point has been a real key for me
You got this! You have abojt as much time as I did when I began level 2. My main advice is to focus on really understanding what it is that they’re teaching you. That way, any weird curveball question that they have won’t throw you off too much
Congrats! Are the mock exams available for you yet? If so, I would take one now to see where your deficiencies are. I uploaded a spreadsheet in my community tab that you can use to evaluate what you got wrong/right. Hyper focus on the areas where you guessed/got answers incorrect. Then, I would focus more broadly on the LOSs. Go through every LOS and ask yourself if you know it. If not, focus on those LOSs. Also, as you approach exam day, carve out time to write out formulas over and over again, to commit them to short term memory.
Great tips, thanks - making my way down MMs QBank now over the next fortnight and then mocks for the next 4 weeks. Is 6 mocks sufficient? 3 from MM and 3 from CFAI
@@thefinancialanalyst31 can i know what were CFAI Mock scores. They are really weird. I score 82% on the first one then 73 then on the mock 2 AM its 68%. My score is going down. Did you experience any issues?
@@ayaanlifts I got a 64 on the first and a 68 on the second. When I took it, a lot of people said that they felt the second one had errors in the questions and it was more difficult. I’m not sure if it’s same mock exam, but I do remember the second one being more difficult and I did catch some errors in the questions
I think you may be cutting it really close, but that’s just my opinion. I needed all the time that I could get. If you think you can finish the curriculum in the next couple of months, and spare another for review, you should be fine
The May 2023 exam was the third time I failed this exam. Passed the CPA exam on the first try, but cannot figure this one out. I used Kaplan all three times.
@@thefinancialanalyst31 My score was closer to the bottom than the MPS. I was below 50% on all but two topics. And, I have 2,000 hours into studying for this level. Totally missing the right approach.
@@Bluemoonrealtygroup0617 if it helps, I did spend A LOT of time writing formulas incessantly, and went through every LOS to make sure that I understood what was expected of me. I do think that the institute sticks to the LOSs. Had I just had a general understanding of each LOS, I definitely would have failed
Stay tuned! My next video will be about how much time I invested vs the 300 hour rule. But yes, I definitely felt nervous and anxious at points. I’m generally Not an anxious person, but I specifically remember having a small panic attack at one point when I realized that that exam was close and I felt like I didn’t retain a lot of the curriculum
Oh the PM section on the second one was terrible. Not only was it hard to make out what the questions were sometimes asking, but some of them had errors
Will do! I hope these tips are helpful. Congratulations on passing Level I! It feels amazing. For Level II, the quicker you can get to that initial diagnostic step and home in on those LOSs that you're weaker on, the better. When do you sit for Level II?
@@thefinancialanalyst31 im job hunting at the moment. Based in South Africa. Will start studying when 2024 Material comes out on 15 August, and see how it goes. Im also doing FMVA from CFI, and thinking of doing a Python course in order to increase my chances of finding employment. I also followed the same strategy as you (Kaplan books and MM videos). Looking forward to following your journey on this channel
@@kylecoertze9495 Nice, what's the job market like in SA? I actually spent a couple of weeks there in March/April. Mostly in Cape Town, but I did visit Knysna for a couple of days. I'm also on the job hunt. Hoping that once I land a job, I'll be able to make a video about my experience with that, as well. Yes, the FMVA course is very valuable. Though I love the CFA curriculum, the practical skills that the FMVA teaches you is fantastic.
@@thefinancialanalyst31 thats awesome! Cape Town is amazing! Job market is tough in South Africa. I will keep on upskilling myself whilst job hunting, and treat every "study day" like a "work day". Good luck on your search! Race you there?
I passed May '23 L2 and August '22 L1 on first attempt. My biggest shortcoming was not revisiting topics often enough. I didnt look at quantfor 4 months. When I got to my 50 day review period, it felt like i had to relearn quant all over again. I did well on the rest of the exam, but pretty much bombed quant for this reason
Quick question Is there any difference in terms of the standard of questioning between the practice questions and mock exams questions because I'm finding them not to hard and this make me concerned😊
Oh yeah, the mock questions tend to be harder, because they dig deeper into the content and really pick out small details from the curriculum. I find that the mock exams tend to be harder than the real thing. The practice questions are of a similar difficulty, but sometimes those can get a little detailed, as well.
