6-Month Level 1 CFA® Exam Study Plan: Safe and Sufficient

CFA exam / Study plans / Level 1 MAY 2025, 6-month

CFA EXAM STUDY PLANNER available for ALL LEVELS

Is 6 Months Enough
to Prepare for Level 1 CFA Exam?

CFA candidates often ask if 6 months are enough to prepare for the level 1 CFA exam. YES, it’s enough. Especially if you apply the 'Safety-First Rule for CFA Exam Prep'. This studying strategy factors in more than 300 study hours and assumes a regular review of study content.

Here it goes:

300 Study Hours:
a Benchmark, not a Guarantee

Level 1 candidates usually begin their preparation 4 or 5 months before their CFA exam. The average number of hours they spend studying amounts to roughly 300. But what if 300 study hours is simply not enough? What if it’s a prerequisite that cannot guarantee your success? Objectively speaking, it is hard to arrange more than 300 hours within a period of 4 or 5 months, especially if you have a regular job, family, and daily duties to take care of.

Importantly, those who passed their CFA exam usually report more than 300 study hours per exam level. Plus, they surely factor in some extra review hours. An average level 1 candidate usually spends around 300 hours studying before the exam and does not review regularly. No surprise that low level 1 pass rates of ca. 20% to 40% are still a fact.

You want to do better than that!

The solution is simple:

plan to do better than an average CFA candidate arrange ca. 400 study (and review!) hours to successfully prepare for your CFA exam start your prep NOW, i.e. even 6 months before your level 1 exam.

This precautionary approach is what it takes to apply the 'Safety-First Rule for CFA Exam Prep'. So, join now and capitalize on the time you invest in your preparation:

Regular Review:
Who Does It?

That’s the problem! Hardly anybody reviews study content regularly – on a weekly, or even daily, basis.

I don't know why.

Is it ill-defined self-confidence? The unawareness of how to best learn for such a huge exam? Or simply laziness? No matter the reason – regular review is what makes a difference!

Control Your Forgetting Curve

A forgetting curve is always present, whether you study for 6, 4, or 3 months before your exam. But if you start your preparation now, you will be able to plan some spaced review sessions. You should definitely use this possibility and make revision a part of your regular studying cycle to prevent the bad effects of the so-called forgetting curve:

As you can see – without reviewing – after one day, we remember only around 35% of what we read yesterday. To learn things and store them in our memories, we need to repeat them now and again. Spaced repetition gradually flattens your forgetting curve.

This simple rule is the reason why I tell my students to review parts of the study content systematically, at least once a week. That’s also why – when creating our CFA Exam Study Planner – I insisted on adding review sessions alongside study sessions. Because I strongly believe that frequent revision is the key to success and the topics review or the pre-exam revision, while important, are simply insufficient. The option of Proper Review-ON System^TM is available in the paid version of the planner. In the free version, Topic Review and Final Review are scheduled, as you'll see below.

How Long to Prepare for Level 1 CFA Exam?

6 months are definitely sufficient to prepare for your level 1 CFA exam. With 6 months, you can easily plan for roughly 400 hours of studying during your exam prep. You'll find lots of time for regular review sessions + you'll be secured against any unexpected events like busy periods at work, an ill child, or whatever else can make you give up your planned study hours.

I think it’s reasonable to say that even 60-70% of those who opt for 400-hour prep are likely to pass their exam. Bearing in mind that the average pass rate for level 1 is now low, I guess it’s worth a try. Therefore, if you can start your preparation now, go on and follow this safe study schedule:

Be careful, though!

Even if you decide to adopt the plan, 2 major threats can seriously impede your preparation. The steep forgetting curve is one of them. The other is about inefficiently used study time.

Be Serious about Studying all Way Through

Be wary of ideas that would come to your head to tell you that since you started your preparation earlier than others, you have already gained an advantage that will surely pay off in the end. The thing is – it should, but it may as well not. To make this advantage work to your benefit, you have to study as diligently and efficiently as you can from the very beginning to the very end.

If you are too lenient with yourself instead of being competent and productive, your advantage will melt away. Even worse, your inefficiency may surprise you and leave you empty-handed.

So, you better fix your mind on your ultimate goal – which is to pass your CFA exam – and keep this goal in front of your eyes while studying!

MAY 2025 6-Month CFA Exam Study Plan Detailed

This is a sample 6-month level 1 study schedule. What you need to do is to customize it to your needs and expectations. One of the basic things you should decide is how difficult all the level 1 topics are to you. This will tell you exactly how many study hours from the range of 300 to 400 you actually need to prepare well. Also – to get your number of hours – you should decide if you want to follow the Proper Review-ON System^TM and revise on a weekly, or even daily, basis. You know where I stand on this issue.

START on 11 NOV 2024

1^st Study Block:
QM + PM + Topic Review

2^nd Study Block:
FSA + CI + Topic Review

3^rd Study Block:
FI + EI + Topic Review

4^th Study Block:
DER + AI + Topic Review

5^th Study Block:
ECO + ETH + Topic Review

FINAL REVIEW
(7 Apr – 13 May 2025)

END on 14-20 MAY 2025

The MAY 2025 level 1 exam window lasts from 14 to 20 May 2025. So, you can have from 5 to 6 weeks of – what we call – Final Review. Basically, that's when you should do as many mock exams as possible!

Using our Study Planner, you can choose your topic sequence. In our sample level 1 study plan, all 10 topics are divided into 5 Study Blocks. Every block always ends with a topics revision. Ethics may be done either at the beginning or at the end but don't forget about the ethics adjustment.

After you study & revise all the topics, there’s the Final Review. With all mocks and other practice tests, it’s usually the most intensive of all the study time. But this Final Review will be just a cherry on top if you review regularly not only after each quality-time Study Block but also as you move from one CFA exam reading (aka. module) to the other.

Below’s a timetable for this 6-month level 1 study plan. Upon creating your own study schedule, the dates will get adjusted and you'll be able to choose your START DATE and EXAM DATE (within your exam window).

6-Month Level 1 CFA Exam Study Plan Timetabled

6-Month Level 1 CFA Exam Study Plan
Level 1 Topics	Topic & Review Deadlines
Quantitative Methods	27 Nov 2024
Portfolio Management	13 Dec 2024
QM+PM Review	15 Dec 2024
Financial Statement Analysis	2 Jan 2025
Corporate Issuers	10 Jan 2025
FSA+CI Review	14 Jan 2025
QM+PM Review	14 Jan 2025
Fixed Income	3 Feb 2025
Equity Investments	16 Feb 2025
FI+EI Review	22 Feb 2025
QM+PM+FSA+CI Review	22 Feb 2025
Derivatives	28 Feb 2025
Alternative Investments	4 March 2025
DER+AI Review	10 March 2025
QM+PM+FSA+CI+FI+EI Review	10 March 2025
Economics	22 March 2025
Ethics	4 Apr 2025
ECO+ETH Review	6 Apr 2025
Final Review	13 May 2025

If you set up your personalized study plan,
the deadlines will get adjusted.

Here’s a sample level 1 CFA exam study schedule as displayed in our Study Planner:

FIND your Study Plan in the PLAN tab View all the weeks of your CFA exam prep, see how much you’ve done and how much is still ahead of you, as well as customize your schedule using your Study Plan personalization options and the DRAG & DROP for both topics and study weeks.

CFA Exam Study Planner: STUDY View You will be asked to focus on your current week of studying. You will know what to study (left-hand menu) and how much to study (benchmark study times). Here, you'll also find your study lessons, including videos, tests, PDFs, etc. At the end of the week, your hard work will be evaluated (hit the SUM UP button).

CFA Exam Study Planner: PROGRESS View You will be able to see your progress by topics and weeks. Each week your Chance to Pass score will go up or down.

CFA Exam Study Planner: REVIEW View To learn, you must review. Use the special view of your Study Planner to review your study lessons, rewatch videos, revise formulas, etc.

Read Also:

• Level 1 CFA Exam Study Materials
• When to Start Prep for CFA Exam?
• How to Create Study Plan in 8 Steps
• CFA Exam: Registration to Results
• 3 Reasons Why You May Fail Your Exam

UPDATED: Oct 7, 2024