CFA® Level I

ABOUT THE COURSE

The first CFA® charter was awarded in 1963 and since then has grown to become the global standard: more than 250,000 candidates from over 160 countries register for the exams each year.

In three successive exams you will be assessed on a wide range of subjects, including analytical tools, asset valuation, portfolio management and ethical and professional standards. The knowledge you gain while studying will be invaluable to your future career in finance.

Quartic CFA® learning products

Quartic provides a wide range of learning tools for your CFA Program exams, using leading educational technology to provide comprehensive video libraries, question banks, live online workshops, progress tests and mocks plus all the faculty support you need while you’re studying, to help you to prepare for these challenging exams.

For CFA candidates with non-technical backgrounds we offer introductory courses on Financial Maths and Accounting.

Our learning tools are mostly located on the Quartic Online portal, with support from a set course workbooks, in print or e-book format. The e-book technology provides a unique freehand annotation capability, allowing you to sketch diagrams, write out formulae or pensively doodle during instructor-led or video sessions.

The videos and workshops are backed up with Q-banks containing thousands of CFA exam-style questions, each with fully worked or video solutions.

Our Summary Revision Notes and popular new Q Sheet^TM provide candidates with a summary of all key concepts, invaluable resources during the Revision phase.

Throughout the learning process our teaching faculty are on hand to provide CFA candidates with unlimited support direct from CFA charterholders – by phone, e-mail or Zoom plus all the faculty support you need while you’re studying, to help you to prepare for these challenging exams..

Our tutor support is second to none, with the faculty responding to most technical questions within one working day.

Although all Quartic CFA candidates receive the full suite of products, there are different levels of interaction:

Silver package

This package is designed for self-starters: we provide all your materials and will respond to technical queries with rapid response time.

Gold package

As well as tutor support from the day you enrol, Gold includes a series of live interactive review sessions in the months prior to the exam. Do not expect to be spoon-fed: these are “video on” and challenging question-based sessions, designed to help candidates consolidate their knowledge, understand the exam process and push their scores up. Groups are small, enabling each candidate to gain from one-to-one conversations. Dates are provided below.

Quartic Executive Mentoring

Time is precious and many candidates are under enormous pressure to juggle work and studying, squeezing as much as possible out of each waking hour. Our mentoring programme is designed entirely around you: one of our faculty tutors (a CFA charterholder is assured) will organise regular one-to-one mentoring sessions with you. These are timed to fit your diary and your personal study plan and the content will include whatever best matches your requirement: coaching on tough technical concepts, question review or exam technique. Mentees may, of course, join any scheduled open session too.

Exams

The Level I exam is a computer-based test with four available testing windows in each year, during February, May, August and November. The duration of the exam is 4.5 hours, with 180 questions split across two sessions and covering all ten topics.

Curriculum

Level I teaches the foundations of finance with a significant emphasis on the analytical tools.

The ten different topic areas are as follows:

• Ethical And Professional Standards
• Quantitative Methods
• Economics
• Financial Reporting & Analysis
• Corporate Finance
• Equity Investments
• Fixed Income
• Derivatives
• Alternative Investments
• Portfolio Management

Benefits of the CFA Program

Registering for the Level I exam has many benefits, some more tangible than others:

• Gaining a deeper understanding of finance
• Providing you with advanced financial analysis skills
• Boosting your career prospects
• Highlighting your commitment to high ethical standards
• Being part of a globally recognised community of investment professionals
• Providing networking opportunities through your local CFA society.

Prerequisites

In order to enrol on the Program you need:

• a bachelor’s degree (or equivalent) OR
• an Undergraduate Student with two years remaining in your undergraduate studies OR
• to have 4,000 hours of professional work experience OR
• to have a combination of university and work that totals three years

You must also sign a statement of professional conduct, pay the exam fees to CFA Institute and be in possession of a valid international passport.

If you’d like to brush up your maths skills or you come from a non-financial background, we would strongly advise you to take our introductory courses on financial maths and accounting, to bring you up to speed before delving into your Level I studies..