A 12-week CFA Level 1 study plan covers roughly 300 hours at ~25 hours per week. This pace is demanding. You will need to study most days of the week and may sacrifice coverage depth.
A visual preview of how exclam.ai turns this 12-week CFA plan into daily coverage, review, flashcard, quiz, and mock streaks. Adjust the start date and review week to match your exam timeline.
A 12-week CFA Level 1 plan walks the syllabus module-by-module — heavier-weighted topics get more weeks, lighter ones either get a single week or pair with adjacent topics on intensive paces. Ethics is placed last so it stays fresh going into the exam. Review and mock phases follow the coverage modules.
Cover Quantitative Methods (6–9%), Economics (6–9%) in this week — paired because their individual weights are light or the intensive pace requires combining adjacent syllabus sections. Read each objective, flashcard the key formulas, and run one quiz across the group before moving on.
Cover Financial Statement Analysis (11–14%), Corporate Issuers (6–9%) in this week — paired because their individual weights are light or the intensive pace requires combining adjacent syllabus sections. Read each objective, flashcard the key formulas, and run one quiz across the group before moving on.
Cover Equity Investments end-to-end. Build flashcards covering every learning objective and quiz yourself before moving to the next module.
Cover Fixed Income end-to-end. Build flashcards covering every learning objective and quiz yourself before moving to the next module.
Cover Derivatives (5–8%), Alternative Investments (7–10%) in this week — paired because their individual weights are light or the intensive pace requires combining adjacent syllabus sections. Read each objective, flashcard the key formulas, and run one quiz across the group before moving on.
Cover Portfolio Management end-to-end. Build flashcards covering every learning objective and quiz yourself before moving to the next module.
Cover Ethical and Professional Standards end-to-end. Build flashcards covering every learning objective and quiz yourself before moving to the next module.
Weak-topic drilling. exclam.ai surfaces topics where you underperformed during coverage and re-quizzes them. Daily FSRS flashcard reps across all 10 topics to prevent decay. Start doing timed question batches focused on the heaviest-weight sections.
Full-length CFA Level 1 practice exams under timed conditions. Target one mock every 3–5 days. Same-day error review: for every question you miss, re-derive the solution from scratch. Taper in the final 3 days — light flashcards only.
CFA Level 1 has 10 topic areas. This plan allocates time across all of them, weighted by the approximate exam weights.
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