CFA Level I study plan: 12, 16 or 24 weeks
Three week-by-week schedules that cover every Level I module in the order our study map teaches them, then leave time to review and sit mock exams. Pick the one that fits the weeks you have left, and print it.
How many hours you need
CFA Institute says successful candidates report spending over 300 hours on average preparing for each level (source). Our own estimate lands in the same place:
- Reading every lesson at full depth, with its worked examples, takes about 211 hours across the 102 modules. Each module page shows its own estimate.
- Checkpoints and practice questions add roughly a quarter on top, which brings the learning phase to about 263 hours.
- Review and mock-exam weeks add the rest. Each plan below comes to 336, 352 or 354 hours in total.
Where the hours go, by topic (lesson time only):
| Topic, in study order | Lesson hours | Exam weight (2027) |
|---|---|---|
| Quantitative Methods | 33 | 11–14% |
| Financial Statement Analysis | 28 | 11–14% |
| Economics | 16 | 6–9% |
| Fixed Income | 36 | 11–14% |
| Derivatives | 17 | 6–9% |
| Corporate Finance | 14 | 6–9% |
| Equities | 23 | 11–14% |
| Alternative Investments | 13 | 6–9% |
| Portfolio Construction | 14 | 8–12% |
| Ethical and Professional Standards | 16 | 10–15% |
Fixed Income takes the most time because it has the most modules (19). Ethics is the largest topic by exam weight but one of the shorter ones to learn; it sits last in the order so it is fresh on exam day.
Why this order
The plans follow the study map: Quantitative Methods, Financial Statement Analysis, Economics, Fixed Income, Derivatives, Corporate Finance, Equities, Alternative Investments, Portfolio Construction, then Ethics. Quantitative Methods comes first because discounting, returns and statistics are used everywhere after it. Accounting and interest rates come before the asset classes that rely on them. If you already know a topic well, you can move faster through it, but keep the order.
The plans
Hours per week are averages. Some weeks hold one long module and run a little over; others run under.
24 weeks: about 14 hours a week
If you work full time and want steady evenings plus one longer weekend session. 19 weeks of lessons, 2 weeks of review, 3 weeks of mock exams. About 336 hours in all.
- Week 1Quantitative Methods 14 h
- Week 2Quantitative Methods 13 h
- Week 3Quantitative Methods 14 h
- Week 4Financial Statement Analysis 14 h
- Week 5Financial Statement Analysis 14 h
- Week 6Financial Statement Analysis / Economics 15 h
- Week 7Economics 13 h
- Monetary Policy 2.3 h
- Introduction to Geopolitics 2.2 h
- International Trade 1.7 h
- Capital Flows and the FX Market 2.3 h
- Exchange Rate Calculations 1.7 h
- Week 8
- Week 9Fixed Income 15 h
- Week 10
- Week 11Fixed Income / Derivatives 14 h
- Week 12Derivatives / Corporate Finance 14 h
- Pricing and Valuing Futures Contracts 1.5 h
- Pricing and Valuing Interest Rate Swaps 1.5 h
- Pricing and Valuing Options 1.7 h
- Put–Call Parity and Option Replication 1.7 h
- The One-Period Binomial Model 1.5 h
- Organizational Forms, Corporate Issuer Features, and Ownership 1.5 h
- Investors and Other Stakeholders 1.7 h
- Week 13Corporate Finance 13 h
- Week 14Equities 12 h
- Week 15Equities 15 h
- Week 16Equities / Alternative Investments 14 h
- The CAPM, the Market Model and Factor Models 1.5 h
- Alternative Investment Features, Methods and Structures 2 h
- Alternative Investment Performance and Returns 2.5 h
- Private Capital: Private Equity and Private Debt 1.9 h
- Real Estate and Infrastructure 1.8 h
- Natural Resources: Land, Timber, Farmland and Commodities 1.4 h
- Week 17Alternative Investments / Portfolio Construction 14 h
- Week 18Portfolio Construction / Ethical and Professional Standards 15 h
- Week 19Ethical and Professional Standards 14 h
- Guidance for Standard II: Integrity of Capital Markets 1.1 h
- Guidance for Standard III: Duties to Clients 2.5 h
- Guidance for Standard IV: Duties to Employers 1.4 h
- Guidance for Standard V: Investment Analysis, Recommendations, and Actions 1.3 h
- Guidance for Standard VI: Conflicts of Interest 1.3 h
- Guidance for Standard VII: Responsibilities as a CFA Institute Member or CFA Candidate 0.8 h
- Ethics Application 2.5 h
- Week 20Review 14 h
- Revise by exam weight: Ethics, Financial Statement Analysis, Fixed Income and Equity first.
- Work through your review list: every checkpoint question you missed and every lesson you saved.
- Go through the formula sheet with Memorize only switched on, until you can write each formula from memory.
- Do timed practice sets by topic at 90 seconds a question.
- Week 21Review 14 h
- Revise by exam weight: Ethics, Financial Statement Analysis, Fixed Income and Equity first.
- Work through your review list: every checkpoint question you missed and every lesson you saved.
- Go through the formula sheet with Memorize only switched on, until you can write each formula from memory.
- Do timed practice sets by topic at 90 seconds a question.
- Week 22Mock exam and repair 14 h
- Sit a full mock exam under exam conditions: two sessions of 135 minutes, 90 questions each, with only the break the exam allows.
- Spend at least as long reviewing the mock as you spent taking it. Note every wrong answer and why.
- Send the weak modules back through their lessons and checkpoints.
- Week 23Mock exam and repair 14 h
- Sit a full mock exam under exam conditions: two sessions of 135 minutes, 90 questions each, with only the break the exam allows.
- Spend at least as long reviewing the mock as you spent taking it. Note every wrong answer and why.
- Send the weak modules back through their lessons and checkpoints.
- Week 24Final week 14 h
- One more full mock early in the week, then light review only.
- Ethics and the formula sheet, a little each day.
- Check your passport, your calculator (and spare batteries) and your test center route.
- Rest the day before. You will not learn a new topic in the last 24 hours.
16 weeks: about 22 hours a week
The most common shape: about four months, with real time for mocks at the end. 12 weeks of lessons, 2 weeks of review, 2 weeks of mock exams. About 352 hours in all.
- Week 1Quantitative Methods 19 h
- Week 2Quantitative Methods / Financial Statement Analysis 24 h
- Week 3Financial Statement Analysis 22 h
- Week 4Financial Statement Analysis / Economics 22 h
- Week 5Economics / Fixed Income 23 h
- Introduction to Geopolitics 2.2 h
- International Trade 1.7 h
- Capital Flows and the FX Market 2.3 h
- Exchange Rate Calculations 1.7 h
- Fixed-Income Instrument Features 1.5 h
- Fixed-Income Cash Flows and Types 2.2 h
- Fixed-Income Issuance and Trading 1.3 h
- Fixed-Income Markets for Corporate Issuers 2 h
- Fixed-Income Markets for Government Issuers 1.3 h
- Bond Valuation: Prices and Yields 2.5 h
- Week 6Fixed Income 22 h
- Yield and Yield Spread Measures for Fixed-Rate Bonds 2.3 h
- Yield and Yield Spread Measures for Floating-Rate Instruments 1.8 h
- Term Structure: Spot, Par and Forward Curves 2.3 h
- Interest Rate Risk and Return 2 h
- Modified Duration, Money Duration and PVBP 1.8 h
- Convexity and Portfolio Duration 1.8 h
- Effective Duration, Key Rate Duration and Empirical Duration 1.8 h
- Credit Risk 2.2 h
- Credit Analysis for Government Issuers 1.5 h
- Week 7Fixed Income / Derivatives 21 h
- Credit Analysis for Corporate Issuers 2 h
- Securitization: How It Works and Why 1.5 h
- Asset-Backed Securities, Covered Bonds and CDOs 2 h
- Mortgage-Backed Securities: RMBS, CMOs and CMBS 2.2 h
- Derivatives and Derivative Markets 1.2 h
- Forwards, Futures, Swaps, Options and Credit Derivatives 2.3 h
- Derivative Benefits, Risks and Uses 1.5 h
- Arbitrage, Replication and the Cost of Carry 2 h
- Pricing and Valuing Forward Contracts and FRAs 2.1 h
- Week 8Derivatives / Corporate Finance 22 h
- Pricing and Valuing Futures Contracts 1.5 h
- Pricing and Valuing Interest Rate Swaps 1.5 h
- Pricing and Valuing Options 1.7 h
- Put–Call Parity and Option Replication 1.7 h
- The One-Period Binomial Model 1.5 h
- Organizational Forms, Corporate Issuer Features, and Ownership 1.5 h
- Investors and Other Stakeholders 1.7 h
- Corporate Governance: Conflicts, Mechanisms, Risks, and Benefits 1.7 h
- Working Capital and Liquidity 2.2 h
- Capital Investments and Capital Allocation 2.7 h
- Week 9Corporate Finance / Equities 21 h
- Capital Structure 2.3 h
- Business Models 1.7 h
- Equity Instrument Features 0.9 h
- Equity Jurisdictions, Classes, and Voting 1.2 h
- Equity Issuance and Trading 1.8 h
- Sources of Equity Returns 1.1 h
- Introduction to Equity Valuation 1.4 h
- Discounted Cash Flow and Growth Models 3.5 h
- Relative Valuation with Multiples 2.8 h
- Week 10Equities / Alternative Investments 23 h
- Financial Statement Forecasting 3.3 h
- Industry and Competitive Analysis 2.1 h
- Company Analysis 2.3 h
- Equity Research Reports 1.3 h
- The CAPM, the Market Model and Factor Models 1.5 h
- Alternative Investment Features, Methods and Structures 2 h
- Alternative Investment Performance and Returns 2.5 h
- Private Capital: Private Equity and Private Debt 1.9 h
- Real Estate and Infrastructure 1.8 h
- Week 11Alternative Investments / Portfolio Construction 21 h
- Natural Resources: Land, Timber, Farmland and Commodities 1.4 h
- Hedge Funds 1.8 h
- Digital Assets 1.7 h
- Portfolio Risk and Return: Part I 2.7 h
- Portfolio Risk and Return: Part II (CAPM and Performance Measures) 2.8 h
- Portfolio Management: An Overview 2 h
- Basics of Portfolio Planning and Construction 2.3 h
- The Behavioral Biases of Individuals 2 h
- Week 12Portfolio Construction / Ethical and Professional Standards 23 h
- Introduction to Risk Management 2.2 h
- Ethics and Trust in the Investment Profession 1.7 h
- Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct 1.5 h
- Guidance for Standard I: Professionalism 2.2 h
- Guidance for Standard II: Integrity of Capital Markets 1.1 h
- Guidance for Standard III: Duties to Clients 2.5 h
- Guidance for Standard IV: Duties to Employers 1.4 h
- Guidance for Standard V: Investment Analysis, Recommendations, and Actions 1.3 h
- Guidance for Standard VI: Conflicts of Interest 1.3 h
- Guidance for Standard VII: Responsibilities as a CFA Institute Member or CFA Candidate 0.8 h
- Ethics Application 2.5 h
- Week 13Review 22 h
- Revise by exam weight: Ethics, Financial Statement Analysis, Fixed Income and Equity first.
- Work through your review list: every checkpoint question you missed and every lesson you saved.
- Go through the formula sheet with Memorize only switched on, until you can write each formula from memory.
- Do timed practice sets by topic at 90 seconds a question.
- Week 14Review 22 h
- Revise by exam weight: Ethics, Financial Statement Analysis, Fixed Income and Equity first.
- Work through your review list: every checkpoint question you missed and every lesson you saved.
- Go through the formula sheet with Memorize only switched on, until you can write each formula from memory.
- Do timed practice sets by topic at 90 seconds a question.
- Week 15Mock exam and repair 22 h
- Sit a full mock exam under exam conditions: two sessions of 135 minutes, 90 questions each, with only the break the exam allows.
- Spend at least as long reviewing the mock as you spent taking it. Note every wrong answer and why.
- Send the weak modules back through their lessons and checkpoints.
- Week 16Final week 22 h
- One more full mock early in the week, then light review only.
- Ethics and the formula sheet, a little each day.
- Check your passport, your calculator (and spare batteries) and your test center route.
- Rest the day before. You will not learn a new topic in the last 24 hours.
12 weeks: about 29.5 hours a week
Only if you can give it close to a part-time job's hours, or already know some of the material. 9 weeks of lessons, 1 week of review, 2 weeks of mock exams. About 354 hours in all.
- Week 1Quantitative Methods 28 h
- Week 2Quantitative Methods / Financial Statement Analysis 30 h
- Portfolio Return and Risk 3.1 h
- Simulating Prices and Returns 2.2 h
- Simple Linear Regression in Finance 4 h
- Financial Data Science 1.6 h
- Introduction to Financial Statement Analysis 1.7 h
- Analyzing Income Statements 3 h
- Analyzing Balance Sheets 2.4 h
- Analyzing Statements of Cash Flows I 2.5 h
- Analyzing Statements of Cash Flows II 1.7 h
- Analysis of Inventories 2 h
- Week 3Financial Statement Analysis / Economics 29 h
- Analysis of Long-Term Assets 1.8 h
- Topics in Long-Term Liabilities and Equity 2.3 h
- Analysis of Income Taxes 2 h
- Financial Reporting Quality 2.8 h
- Financial Analysis Techniques 3.3 h
- Introduction to Financial Statement Modeling 2.7 h
- The Firm and Market Structures 2.5 h
- Understanding Business Cycles 1.8 h
- Fiscal Policy 1.8 h
- Monetary Policy 2.3 h
- Week 4Economics / Fixed Income 31 h
- Introduction to Geopolitics 2.2 h
- International Trade 1.7 h
- Capital Flows and the FX Market 2.3 h
- Exchange Rate Calculations 1.7 h
- Fixed-Income Instrument Features 1.5 h
- Fixed-Income Cash Flows and Types 2.2 h
- Fixed-Income Issuance and Trading 1.3 h
- Fixed-Income Markets for Corporate Issuers 2 h
- Fixed-Income Markets for Government Issuers 1.3 h
- Bond Valuation: Prices and Yields 2.5 h
- Yield and Yield Spread Measures for Fixed-Rate Bonds 2.3 h
- Yield and Yield Spread Measures for Floating-Rate Instruments 1.8 h
- Term Structure: Spot, Par and Forward Curves 2.3 h
- Week 5Fixed Income / Derivatives 28 h
- Interest Rate Risk and Return 2 h
- Modified Duration, Money Duration and PVBP 1.8 h
- Convexity and Portfolio Duration 1.8 h
- Effective Duration, Key Rate Duration and Empirical Duration 1.8 h
- Credit Risk 2.2 h
- Credit Analysis for Government Issuers 1.5 h
- Credit Analysis for Corporate Issuers 2 h
- Securitization: How It Works and Why 1.5 h
- Asset-Backed Securities, Covered Bonds and CDOs 2 h
- Mortgage-Backed Securities: RMBS, CMOs and CMBS 2.2 h
- Derivatives and Derivative Markets 1.2 h
- Forwards, Futures, Swaps, Options and Credit Derivatives 2.3 h
- Week 6Derivatives / Corporate Finance 29 h
- Derivative Benefits, Risks and Uses 1.5 h
- Arbitrage, Replication and the Cost of Carry 2 h
- Pricing and Valuing Forward Contracts and FRAs 2.1 h
- Pricing and Valuing Futures Contracts 1.5 h
- Pricing and Valuing Interest Rate Swaps 1.5 h
- Pricing and Valuing Options 1.7 h
- Put–Call Parity and Option Replication 1.7 h
- The One-Period Binomial Model 1.5 h
- Organizational Forms, Corporate Issuer Features, and Ownership 1.5 h
- Investors and Other Stakeholders 1.7 h
- Corporate Governance: Conflicts, Mechanisms, Risks, and Benefits 1.7 h
- Working Capital and Liquidity 2.2 h
- Capital Investments and Capital Allocation 2.7 h
- Week 7Corporate Finance / Equities 31 h
- Capital Structure 2.3 h
- Business Models 1.7 h
- Equity Instrument Features 0.9 h
- Equity Jurisdictions, Classes, and Voting 1.2 h
- Equity Issuance and Trading 1.8 h
- Sources of Equity Returns 1.1 h
- Introduction to Equity Valuation 1.4 h
- Discounted Cash Flow and Growth Models 3.5 h
- Relative Valuation with Multiples 2.8 h
- Financial Statement Forecasting 3.3 h
- Industry and Competitive Analysis 2.1 h
- Company Analysis 2.3 h
- Week 8Equities / Alternative Investments / Portfolio Construction 29 h
- Equity Research Reports 1.3 h
- The CAPM, the Market Model and Factor Models 1.5 h
- Alternative Investment Features, Methods and Structures 2 h
- Alternative Investment Performance and Returns 2.5 h
- Private Capital: Private Equity and Private Debt 1.9 h
- Real Estate and Infrastructure 1.8 h
- Natural Resources: Land, Timber, Farmland and Commodities 1.4 h
- Hedge Funds 1.8 h
- Digital Assets 1.7 h
- Portfolio Risk and Return: Part I 2.7 h
- Portfolio Risk and Return: Part II (CAPM and Performance Measures) 2.8 h
- Portfolio Management: An Overview 2 h
- Week 9Portfolio Construction / Ethical and Professional Standards 28 h
- Basics of Portfolio Planning and Construction 2.3 h
- The Behavioral Biases of Individuals 2 h
- Introduction to Risk Management 2.2 h
- Ethics and Trust in the Investment Profession 1.7 h
- Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct 1.5 h
- Guidance for Standard I: Professionalism 2.2 h
- Guidance for Standard II: Integrity of Capital Markets 1.1 h
- Guidance for Standard III: Duties to Clients 2.5 h
- Guidance for Standard IV: Duties to Employers 1.4 h
- Guidance for Standard V: Investment Analysis, Recommendations, and Actions 1.3 h
- Guidance for Standard VI: Conflicts of Interest 1.3 h
- Guidance for Standard VII: Responsibilities as a CFA Institute Member or CFA Candidate 0.8 h
- Ethics Application 2.5 h
- Week 10Review 29.5 h
- Revise by exam weight: Ethics, Financial Statement Analysis, Fixed Income and Equity first.
- Work through your review list: every checkpoint question you missed and every lesson you saved.
- Go through the formula sheet with Memorize only switched on, until you can write each formula from memory.
- Do timed practice sets by topic at 90 seconds a question.
- Week 11Mock exam and repair 29.5 h
- Sit a full mock exam under exam conditions: two sessions of 135 minutes, 90 questions each, with only the break the exam allows.
- Spend at least as long reviewing the mock as you spent taking it. Note every wrong answer and why.
- Send the weak modules back through their lessons and checkpoints.
- Week 12Final week 29.5 h
- One more full mock early in the week, then light review only.
- Ethics and the formula sheet, a little each day.
- Check your passport, your calculator (and spare batteries) and your test center route.
- Rest the day before. You will not learn a new topic in the last 24 hours.
A plan built around what you already know
These plans assume you start from zero in every topic. If you have studied finance or accounting before, you will not need the full time everywhere. The free self-assessment checks each module with a few adaptive questions and builds a personal plan that skips what you already know and spends the time where you need it.
Making the hours happen
- Fix the slots, not the topics. Decide which evenings and which weekend block you study, then let the plan fill them. Thirteen hours a week could be four evenings of about an hour and a quarter, plus eight hours at the weekend.
- Do the checkpoint at the end of each lesson. They are timed at exam pace, and any question you miss goes on your review list for the review weeks.
- Learn the calculator early. Set it up in week one, before Quantitative Methods. The calculator guide covers the settings and the keystrokes you will use most.
- If you fall behind, do not drop the review and mock weeks to catch up. Switch the remaining lessons to Cram mode, the one-screen version each lesson has, and keep the final weeks for practice.
- Pick your window with the plan in mind. From 2027 there is no paid deferral, so a registration you do not use is lost. See the exam dates and deadlines.
Start with week one: Rates and Returns. The formula sheet collects every formula as you go.