Updated: October 05, 2023

CFA exam / Challenges of exam prep

CFA Exam Is Difficult & Challenging!

The CFA exam is a real challenge. The difficulty of the CFA exam is so great that CFA candidates spend around 300 hrs to prepare for each of the 3 exam levels that they need to pass. Due to this CFA exam difficulty, you must apply a productive study process if you want to succeed.

To seriously prep for your CFA exam test, use:


  1. CFA exam preparation materials that can help you digest the volume of the CFA exam curriculum.
  2. CFA exam revision notes that will help you review the study content.
  3. Handy e-books that contain just the must-know info.
  4. Flashcards to revise definitions and formulas.
  5. Practice questions to get familiar with the CFA exam format.
  6. CFA mock exams that you should start doing even 2 months before your CFA exam.
  7. CFA Exam Study Plan to help you schedule your exam prep and overcome your forgetting curve.



Best Study Process
for CFA Exam Prep


If you want to be productive while studying for your CFA exam,
you need to use BOTH passive and active learning strategies.


EXAMPLES:


Passive Learning

Reading CFA Program curriculum

Watching video lectures

Learning formulas by heart

Going through e-books

Watching presentations


Active Learning

Making notes

Doing practice tests

Using flashcards

Doing mock exams

Mailing with a tutor


One of the biggest challenges of your CFA exam prep is the VOLUME of the exam curriculum (not so much its difficulty). That is why a good study plan and a proper review process are of key importance. Both will help you improve the so-called learning curve and forgetting curve (concepts originally stated by Hermann Ebbinghaus in the 19th century).

Learning Curve


Forgetting Curve




How to overcome the Forgetting Curve

Apply one simple rule:

Review systematically each portion of the study material.

  • REVIEW SESSIONS: after each portion of the study material
  • DAILY REVIEW: 10-20 min. on your next study day
  • WEEKLY REVIEW: on weekends, may take even 3 hours to review what you studied over the last week
  • TOPIC REVIEW: every topic calls for a thorough revision as soon as you cover it
  • FINAL REVIEW: the most hectic couple of weeks just before your exam when you are supposed to revise the key concepts and rehearse your exam by doing numerous CFA exam mocks

To enhance your review process:

Find CFA exam study materials inside your study plan!

  • video lectures with an average length of 12 min.
  • notes for readings in the form of printable handy e-books
  • exam-type practice questions & mock exams
  • test app that allows to generate practice tests with different difficulty levels
  • CFA exam formulas app in the form of flashcards filtered by topics, readings, and importance
  • and so much more + our portal is mobile friendly you can study & review on the go!

When To Start My CFA Exam Prep?

Create Study Plan for FREE

We’ll remind you when your prep starts




Interesting Facts About Soleadea

We've been promoting innovation in the CFA exam prep industry
ever since our beginning in 2013.


We were the first to:

  1. write a series of blog posts about CFA exam study planning with sample study plans inside;
  2. build a free CFA Exam Study Planner with features such as deadline reminders, and now also editable weekly study schedules, changeable reading statuses, or progress-dependent chance to pass measure;
  3. launch an app to facilitate the learning of CFA exam formulas – it takes the form of flashcards and allows you to filter formulas by topics/readings/importance and then to tick off the memorized ones (you'll find it inside our CFA Exam Study Planner);
  4. offer a FREE CFA mock exam;
  5. approach the CFA exam prep holistically by introducing the Exam Learning Framework™ (ELF™)find here the free workshop about how to change your attitude to your CFA exam preparation;
  6. introduce the Pay-What-You-Can policy with affordable prices for CFA candidates worldwide.



More than 100,000 candidates have trusted us so far. Join them!

Maja:

THANK YOU!! You just made me very happy:)

Carlo:

wow! this is good! thanks.

Anna:

Visit www.soleadea.org as a free resource of extra mock exams to get comfortable with the format itself. Those tests are prepared by professionals and the guys who developed this preparation guide are always ready to help. They clarified some of the confusion I had even after reading the books and browsing a bunch of blogs.

Anna:

I had a chance to look at what Soleadea offered and wanted to take a moment and thank you, guys, for such a great effort to "maintain and improve the professionalism of others". The new portal is, in my opinion, a more reliable source of practice compared to browsing blogs that provide material ranging in degrees of accuracy.Keep it up, guys, keep it up!

Cathy:

Awesome site... they also have lovely slide presentations on some of the topics. I'm sitting for the Dec exam and trust me I will be a regular in this website...

Bernadetta:

Thank you! The presentation is very well done and will definitely be helpful.