Sharpe & Clear Free resource · Level I · any exam window
How to plan your CFA® Program Level I studies, week by week
How many hours you need, how to split them by topic, and a weekly rhythm that makes what you learn stick. Then a full example, and a free planner for your own dates.
Free Excel planner: type your start and exam dates, get your own week-by-week plan
The planner works out your hours a week, your hours per topic from the 2027 weights, two weeks to fix gaps, three weekly mock exams, a final week and a dated calendar, week by week. Same method as this page.
No macros. Works in Excel, Google Sheets and LibreOffice. Pre-filled with our May 2027 example: just change the two dates. The four 2027 Level I exam windows are listed inside.
The method at a glance
- Hours a week = 300 ÷ your study weeks, then add 2 spare weeks for real life.
- Learn first: three quarters of your study weeks, with more time for the heavy topics and a little ethics every week.
- Then fix gaps for 2 weeks, sit 3 mock exams, one a week, and keep a calm final week.
- Every day: 20 minutes of active recall and spaced review.
- Practical Skills Module: after the exam, while you wait for your result.
- Topic blocks 1–9
- Spare weeks
- Fix gaps
- Mock exam weeks
- Final week
- Exam window
- Ethics, every learning week
- Week 13, halfway
How many hours a week? 300 hours ÷ your study weeks
CFA Institute's Level I page says successful candidates report over 300 hours of study on average. So start from your exam date, count your study weeks, and divide: hours a week = 300 ÷ your study weeks.
| Study weeks | Hours a week |
|---|---|
| 30 weeks | 10 |
| 24 weeks | 12.5 |
| 20 weeks | 15 |
| 16 weeks | about 19 |
Then add 2 spare weeks on top, for the weeks when life gets in the way. Book the exam first, then plan backwards: registering early saves USD 350 (USD 1,140 instead of 1,490 for the 2027 windows), so check the deadlines of your window on CFA Institute's website.
Less time than that? Add hours a week rather than cutting the mock exams, and learn the heaviest topics first.
How to split your hours by topic, from the 2027 weights
The topic weights tell you where the points are. Give each topic a share of your learning weeks in proportion to the middle of its 2027 weight range: about 2½ weeks for a big topic (11–14%), 1½ weeks for a smaller one (6–9%) and 2 weeks for Portfolio Construction (8–12%). Ethics gets no block of its own: 1.5 hours in every learning week instead.
| # | Topic area | 2027 weight | Weeks | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Quantitative Methods | 11–14% | 2½ | 27.5 |
| 2 | Economics | 6–9% | 1½ | 16.5 |
| 3 | Financial Statement Analysis | 11–14% | 2½ | 27.5 |
| 4 | Corporate Finance | 6–9% | 1½ | 16.5 |
| 5 | Equities | 11–14% | 2½ | 27.5 |
| 6 | Fixed Income | 11–14% | 2½ | 27.5 |
| 7 | Derivatives and Risk Management | 6–9% | 1½ | 16.5 |
| 8 | Alternative Investments | 6–9% | 1½ | 16.5 |
| 9 | Portfolio Construction | 8–12% | 2 | 22 |
| Ethical and Professional Standards 1.5 hours in every learning week | 10–15% | — | 27 | |
| Learning | 18 | 225 | ||
| Fixing gaps | 2 | 25 | ||
| Mock exams and final week | 4 | 50 | ||
| Total (plus 2 spare weeks) | 24 | 300 |
Why no ethics block? At 10–15%, ethics is a big topic, and judgment improves with many short sessions of questions rather than one cram week.
Why Quantitative Methods first? Other topics reuse its tools, such as the time value of money and basic statistics.
With a different number of weeks, keep the same shares: the planner rescales the hours for you.
A normal study week
The same slots every week beat motivation. Here is one way to fit 12.5 hours around a full-time job, for example 6:30–7:30 a.m. on weekdays, a Saturday morning and a Sunday afternoon. Scale it to your own hours a week.
| When | Time | What |
|---|---|---|
| Monday to Friday | 1 h a day | 20 minutes of spaced review, then 40 minutes of new material or practice questions |
| Saturday | 4 h | New material, then a timed set of questions and its review |
| Sunday | 3.5 h | 1.5 h of ethics questions, 1.5 h on your mistake log and weak spots, 30 minutes to review the week and plan the next |
Over a week, that's roughly a third new material, a third practice questions, and a quarter review and mistakes. Only a third goes to new material, on purpose: testing yourself is where learning sticks.
Make it stick: active recall and spaced repetition
Rereading feels productive, but it tests nothing. Active recall means closing the book and pulling the idea out of memory: a flashcard, a question, a formula rewritten from scratch. A large 2013 review of ten study techniques, published in Psychological Science in the Public Interest, rated practice testing and spaced practice the most useful; rereading and highlighting rated low.
Spaced repetition: review each item after 1 day, 3 days, 1 week and 3 weeks. Got it wrong? Back to day one. A flashcard app can schedule this for you.
- 20 minutes a day, every day: 10 minutes of due flashcards, 5 old questions, and 1 old mistake redone without looking.
- A mistake log: for each miss, write the cause, the fix, and a date to redo the question one week later.
Want the plan to run itself?
In our Level I course, you pick your exam window and the app turns the hours left into a daily goal. Short lessons with visuals you can play with, flashcards that come back just before you would forget, and a few exam traps a day.
Just your email: no card, no password. See the Level I course
Halfway: the week you'll want to quit
Around the middle of your plan (week 13 of 26), the exam still feels far away, and the first topics feel fuzzy. That's normal, and the plan already has an answer:
- The daily reviews keep the early topics alive: they are still there.
- Missed a few days? Don't double up. Drop the lost block and keep the rhythm.
- More than a week behind? That's what the spare weeks are for.
- Bad day? Promise yourself 10 minutes. Starting is the hard part.
The last 6 weeks: fix gaps, then mock exams
Six weeks before your exam, you stop adding new material and start performing.
- 6 and 5 weeks out: fix gaps. Weak topics first, mixed timed question sets, and your formula sheet rebuilt from memory.
- 4 weeks out: mock 1. Review it the next day, then fix your three weakest topics.
- 3 weeks out: mock 2, plus an ethics pass with many questions.
- 2 weeks out: mock 3. Then redo your whole mistake log.
- The last week: final week. No new material: short reviews, flashcards and early nights.
A mock exam is a dress rehearsal: full length (180 questions in two sessions of 135 minutes), real timing, and the same time of day as your appointment. Spend as long reviewing a mock as sitting it. CFA Institute's Practice Pack FAQ suggests aiming for 70% on at least one of its official mock exams.
A full example: May 2027, starting in November
For the May 2027 window (11–17 May), start on Monday 9 November 2026: 26 weeks, 24 study weeks at 12.5 hours a week, a spare week over the holidays and another one in late March, then mock exams on Saturdays 17 April, 24 April and 1 May 2027.
See the whole May 2027 plan, block by block, with its deadlines
Your own dates
Level I runs four exam windows in 2027: February, May, August and November. Pick yours, then type your start and exam dates into our free Excel planner: it builds your week-by-week plan with the method above. Every 2027 window, with its deadlines and fees: Level I exam dates, deadlines and fees (2027).
Your study plan checklist
- Pick your exam window, and register early if you can: it saves USD 350.
- Book your test day and centre right after registering.
- Work out your hours a week (300 ÷ your study weeks) and block them in your calendar: the same slots every week.
- Start with Quantitative Methods.
- Set up flashcards and a mistake log in week 1, then review 20 minutes every day.
- Put three mock exam dates in your calendar, one a week, in the 4 weeks before your final week.
- Practical Skills Module: our tip: do it after the exam, during the wait for your result (results come typically 5–7 weeks after the exam). It must be done before your result is released.
- Practise with an approved calculator: a Texas Instruments BA II Plus (or Professional) or an HP 12C model from CFA Institute's list.
- Read CFA Institute's exam-day guide before your final week.
Free PDF: our study playbook, with the plan template, the weekly rhythm, a mistake log and an exam-day checklist. Get it by email
Prefer to watch?
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This method, drawn week by week: hours a week, topic weights, spaced review, the halfway week and the mock exams.
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Sources
All checked on 8 October 2026. The plan itself is our own method, not official guidance.
- CFA Institute, Level I exam page: 2027 topic weights, "over 300 hours on average", exam format, Practical Skills Module.
- CFA Institute, dates and fees: 2027 exam windows, deadlines and fees.
- CFA Institute, Practice Pack FAQ: the 70% mock exam score to aim for.
- CFA Institute, calculator policy and exam-day preparation guide.
- Study techniques: "Improving Students' Learning With Effective Learning Techniques", Psychological Science in the Public Interest, vol. 14, no. 1, 2013.