I would like to form a study group for the CFA level 1 to meet on weekends in NYC. It will be very informal and we may go over questions or discuss different topics. Let me know if you are interested.Also, please post suggestions of any study groups you may have formed in the past and what worked and what didn't. Does anyone have any suggestions on where we could meet? NY public library? Or are there libraries at Columbia or NYU we could meet in?cmr31@cornell.eduChristopher.Riccione@citigroup.com

I would like to form a CFA study group in Toronto. If anybody is interested please send me a PM.

hi,i'm also a cfa-learner, i'm not certain of the cfa value for career in usa. would anybody give a detailed description of the density of cfa holder in large bracket investment bank?

Will the CFA help with a front office trading role or prop firm?

I'm also due to take the CFA in NYC this spring. I'm already working with another fellow. Possibly a third. We all have recent MBA's as well though, so we may be glossing over a lot.Strangely, none of us actually live in Manhattan (NJ, Brooklyn and Queens). So Columbia would be a non-starter for us. As far as CFAs in the street... there's a lot in Portfolio Management and Analysis, not many in trading, and none in sales.

by the way I used Schweser notes, I highly recommend it

I've got the Schewser notes myself. Did you notice any inaccuracies?Is it really as easy as these sample tests make it appear?

Hi, I live in Toronot I am preparing for the CFA and I would like to join ur study group.My e mail is j_skaf_75@hotmail.com

I wondered if anybody could comment on the following:My wife is going to take the CFA L1 in December... We were looking at some of these seminar courses as a decent review after lots of self-study. I don't really care about the cost - it's really the substance. Does anybody have any comments on these seminars and what the good ones are? thanks

Well, i cant say much abt the seminars but it mayb a good yardstick for a review tht is all, tht is all it is capable of doin. Exams are nowhere easy, Shweser or Allen Resource question banks comes now where close to the actual questions.Time is of the essence. Need lots of luck too! Level one key area is Fin Statements, Ethics, Asset Val, Quant, Econs, PM...in descnding importance! FAbozzi is a good book to read for L1 asset val. (personal view)All da best for December!Cheers!!

KR - I found the seminars useless, a waste of time I could have spent studying. Other people I know (my wife who doesn;t work in finance) found them invaluable. So no help there! I went to a shweser review one by the nj airport and I found all they did was go over shweser notes, something I could do myself. the class was too big and too broad in nature (3 days to cover it all) to really answer any questions the student may have. Supposedly they help you narrow down the material (the go over the whole shweser and say study this, don;t study this - their instructors help write the exams!) but basically you need to study all of shweser to pass, so they only cut out a little bit. They spend alot of time going over old questions, bu tthe answers are already in the book so what help is that? Over all, without knowing her background but but I know enough about yours to say with confidence if she studies shweser hard and asks you to explain anything that is unclear and you help her with old exams she will pass easily. Schweser skims over stuff, only tells you what you need to memorize basically, so having someone to ask questions from is, in my opinion, what she needs more than a review class. I don;t think she will learn anything at the review that isn;t in the notes.

Thanks guys... Beans, I think your first comment is what I'd imagined. Most of the people on this board will just pick up the books and start digging in, but if it isn't your background then sometimes a little motivation helps. If they go over the schweser notes then you might get annoyed, thinking that you could have done the same thing but you could be sitting at home in a comfortable chair with a cold beer. People with less studying confidence like the formality of it... I was somewhat impressed by the stuff from the Sharp (???) lectures. What the guy does is really organize and condense the material. We have the Foran books, and the thing about it is that it's just so much material. If you work in the business every day, it's no big deal, but if you are somewhat new then it's pretty scary. So if somebody can boil it down to a bunch of bullet points then maybe that's a good thing. Actually she has this small hang-up about it because when she took the Series 7 there was an unusually large number of questions on variable annuities - i.e. precisely the stuff that I said was bullshit and should be avoided. So if they choose a bogus chapter to focus on then that's a problem. I'm trying to spend some extra time on financial analysis and will probably push the ethics stuff a little but you never know what may come up.Beyond that, I think regular study over an extended period of time is really the only way... just like going to the gym or something like that. Anyhow, thanks for the advice.

KR, I've recently completed the first level examination and was fortunate to have my old firm pay for the seminar. If you are prone to procrastination, the seminar will certainly help keep you focused. Beyond, that, there is little value in the courses for two primary reasons:(1) The instructors have not impressed me with their grasp of the material. They essentially try to fit the material to the exam rather than providing a holistic understanding (fixed income concepts for example). (2) The variation in the students is extreme. Many of the seminar attendants can bog down a class and if you are not confident in the material can even retard your understanding of concepts.The Exam.The exam covers the following areas: I apologize if I've missed any.Ethics, presentation standards, stat concepts, stat testing (regression/hypothesis), prob concepts, macro-econ, micro-econ, international trade, simple fx trading, accounting, financial statement analysis (ratios, Dupont), equity and debt valuation, security markets, options and futures and alternative investments. I found the exam to be fair and straightforward with regards to all the topics except ethics and accounting. Ethics questions dwell on minutae and degree and severity rather than the actual transgressions of the Code of Standards. This was necessary as the material is too easy to test broad concepts. The accounting was the only unfamiliar area of study and I found it the most difficult b/c I have developed a mental block towards this dismal science. If you can avoid being stubborn about accounting (I'm the sort that would like to see an end to corporate taxation in general - it just creates inefficiencies and jobs for dim people), then a good month of review should be fine.The exam was a fait a compli for me. I simply had to acquire it b/c I cannot go back to grad school. Additionally, I think the ethics portion is incredibly useful. The MOST useful tool was the online prep service by Schweser which gave me six practice exams, diagnostics and videos to review accounting concepts. The online site was quite helpful I thought and worth the expense.

Hi,I am a new joinee.I read ur post and wish to know more about this program.I hope your pursuing it from AIMR!!!Kindly give me more data on application process for this programand fees for the same.Thanx!