How to use this CFA study plan
This plan is designed for a candidate who can study for around 8–12 hours each week. If your available time is lower, keep the order of activities and reduce the number of questions. If you have more time, add questions and review rather than extending every reading session.
The CFA Program consists of three computer-based exam levels taken at test centres. The format varies by level, but the exams use a mixture of vignette-based item sets and discrete questions. The curriculum covers areas including quantitative methods, financial reporting and analysis, economics, corporate issuers, equity, fixed income, derivatives, alternative investments, portfolio management, and ethics.
That structure affects how you should revise. You need to be able to:
- recall definitions, formulas and standards accurately;
- apply them to the facts in a vignette;
- show clean numerical workings with consistent units and signs;
- interpret the result rather than stopping at a calculation;
- prioritise the relevant issue when several facts appear in the question;
- manage time across both discrete questions and longer scenarios.
Check the CFA Institute website for the current curriculum, learning outcomes, registration information, exam policies and the requirements for your particular level. Do not build your schedule around an old question bank or a previous exam format.
The weekly structure
Use four study sessions each week:
- Session 1 — learn and organise, 2.5 hours: read the assigned curriculum section and convert it into short prompts, formulas, definitions and decision rules.
- Session 2 — worked application, 2.5 hours: complete worked examples without copying the solution. Write the formula, substitute the figures, calculate, and interpret.
- Session 3 — question practice, 2.5 to 3 hours: answer discrete questions and vignette-based questions under a time limit. Mark every uncertain answer, even when it is correct.
- Session 4 — retrieval and repair, 1.5 to 2 hours: review due cards, redo missed calculations and explain one difficult topic aloud without notes.
At the end of each session, record three things: the topic, the error or uncertainty, and the action needed. “Fixed income weak” is not an action. “Redo spot-rate bootstrapping and explain why the second discount factor is not applied to the first cash flow” is an action.
Keep an error log with five labels:
- knowledge gap;
- formula or definition confusion;
- calculation or sign error;
- misread command or vignette fact;
- poor time allocation.
The last two labels matter. A candidate who knows the formula but uses an unsupported assumption has not solved the question correctly.
Week 1: Set up the syllabus and establish a baseline
Spend the first session checking the current learning outcomes and dividing the curriculum into study blocks. Group related topics rather than studying only in the order of the book. For example, place time value of money near fixed income, and ratio analysis near financial reporting and equity valuation.
In the second session, complete a short diagnostic set across several topics. Do not use the result as a prediction of your final score. Use it to identify whether your early problem is recall, application, calculation, or timing.
In the third session, review the diagnostic slowly. For every missed question, write the fact that controlled the answer. In the fourth, create the first revision board and a small set of cards from those errors.
A board should contain decision rules, not copied chapters. A board for valuation and fixed income might look like this:
A board on this topic ends up looking like this:
- PV of a future cash flow = FV ÷ (1 + r)^n
- NPV = present value of inflows − present value of outflows; accept an independent project when NPV is positive
- For a growing perpetuity, value = next-period cash flow ÷ (required return − growth), where required return must exceed growth
- Identify the action, the duty owed, the relevant CFA Standard and the facts supporting the conclusion
- Do not assume a recommendation is suitable merely because it is profitable
- Keep confidential information separate from public information and independently derived analysis
- Bond price and yield move in opposite directions, all else equal
- Effective duration estimates percentage price change for a small change in yield: −duration × change in yield
- Convexity improves the estimate when the yield change is larger or the price-yield curve matters
- Current ratio = current assets ÷ current liabilities
- If inventory is written down, the immediate effect is lower inventory and lower profit; the precise treatment depends on the reporting framework and facts
- Separate accounting policy, estimate and error before choosing the treatment
Use the board as the source for later cards, questions and audio review. Keep original notes or source references beside any rule that depends on a particular curriculum wording.
Week 2: Quantitative methods and economics
Study the tools that recur in later topics: time value of money, probability, sampling, hypothesis testing, regression concepts and the economic relationships required by your level.
For each formula, add four prompts:
- What does each symbol mean?
- What units should it use?
- What changes if the input rises or falls?
- What decision does the result support?
For example, do not memorise duration only as a formula. Practise saying: “A rise in yield generally lowers the bond price; effective duration estimates the percentage fall for a small parallel yield change, while convexity refines the estimate.”
Complete questions in two passes. First, solve without looking at the formula sheet. Second, inspect the question for information you ignored or assumptions you introduced. Mark sign errors separately from conceptual errors.
Week 3: Financial reporting and corporate issuers
Spend this week on the accounting treatments and corporate finance relationships in your current curriculum. Use comparison notes where two treatments are easy to confuse. Include the effect on the income statement, balance sheet, cash flow statement and ratios where relevant.
For corporate issuers, practise translating a calculation into a decision. A capital budgeting answer should not finish with a number. It should state the decision rule, the result, and the main sensitivity or limitation.
At the end of the week, complete one mixed session containing quantitative methods, financial reporting and corporate issuers. This prevents you from identifying the topic from the chapter heading before reading the vignette.
Week 4: Equity and fixed income
This is a high-value application week because questions often require both a method and an interpretation. Revise valuation models, market multiples, bond pricing, yield measures, duration, convexity and credit considerations included in your level’s curriculum.
For every calculation, use the same layout:
- identify what the question asks for;
- copy only the relevant facts and units;
- name the method or formula;
- calculate without rounding too early;
- interpret the result in the language of the question;
- state a limitation if the assumptions materially affect the answer.
Use a short daily review queue rather than rereading all your notes. A due queue might look like this:
The due queue shows which boards need attention before you start a new reading session:
Clear the queue before adding a large new deck. If a card remains difficult after several reviews, rewrite it as a smaller question or attach a worked example.
Week 5: Derivatives, alternatives and portfolio management
Study each instrument or strategy through its payoff, risk exposure, valuation method and suitability or portfolio role. Draw the payoff or cash-flow pattern where possible. Then explain what happens when the underlying price, volatility, interest rate or time to expiry changes, using only the relationships covered in your curriculum.
For portfolio management, practise moving from investor facts to a defensible recommendation. Identify the objective, constraints, risk capacity, liquidity needs and relevant policy decision. Do not add a client preference that the vignette has not supplied.
End the week with a mixed paper. Spend part of the review looking only at command words such as calculate, determine, justify, compare, explain and recommend. Your first line should answer that command rather than reproduce everything you know about the topic.
Week 6: Ethics, Standards and mixed application
Reserve a deliberate block for Ethics and Standards. Learn the wording and scope of the applicable standards, but practise applying them to facts rather than reciting headings.
For each ethics vignette, ask:
- What action or omission is being tested?
- What duty, conflict or information problem is present?
- Which standard is relevant?
- What facts support the conclusion?
- What should the candidate do next, if the question asks for action?
Then complete a mixed set under timed conditions. Include ethics beside numerical topics so that you practise changing reasoning modes. Review incorrect answers immediately enough to remember the decision point, but schedule a second review later in the week.
Week 7: Full practice and targeted repair
Use two sessions for longer mixed practice. Follow the timing and delivery conditions that apply to your level, as confirmed by the official source. Do not pause to look up formulas or change answers because you have seen the topic before.
Use the other two sessions to repair weaknesses. Do not repeat an entire chapter because one question was missed. Group errors by section and cause. A useful repair screen ranks the areas that are costing you marks:
After the mixed paper, review the weakest sections before choosing more content to study:
A low percentage with frequent errors should lead your next session. A high percentage with one careless error should lead to a shorter check, not a complete relearning cycle.
Week 8: Consolidate, practise timing and reduce avoidable errors
Start the week with one final mixed practice session under the conditions applicable to your level. Review the paper in three passes:
- questions you got wrong;
- questions you got right but guessed or found slow;
- questions where your working was untidy or your interpretation was incomplete.
Spend the remaining sessions on your core checklist, due cards, formula retrieval and short sets from your weakest sections. Practise skipping and returning to questions when the first approach is not productive. Time pressure makes prioritisation part of the method, not an afterthought.
Avoid beginning a large new topic late in the plan unless it is required by the current learning outcomes and absent from your preparation. Consolidate definitions, calculation methods, ethics applications and common traps. Sleep, travel and test-centre arrangements should be checked against the official instructions rather than assumed.
How MySummaries helps
MySummaries can turn your own CFA notes, curriculum extracts and worked corrections into revision boards. From each board, it can schedule spaced-repetition cards, generate written practice based on the same material, identify repeated weak sections, and read a short examiner-style lecture covering the areas you keep missing. That keeps the plan tied to your curriculum and your error log instead of a generic topic list.