CFA Level 1 tips: 12 tips from pass rate data and mock exams

The CFA Level 1 tips that make the most difference are simple: study in proportion to the 2027 topic weights, spend more time answering questions than rereading, and aim for around 70% on CFA Institute's mock exams before exam day. The exam is 180 multiple-choice questions over two 135-minute sessions, which gives you about 90 seconds a question. In 2026, 45% of candidates passed in February, 39% in May and 43% in August. The 12 tips below are built from those numbers.

12 CFA Level 1 tips at a glance

1. Plan your study around the 2027 topic weights, which differ from 2026.
2. Start with the five biggest topics: Ethics, Quantitative Methods, Financial Statement Analysis, Equities and Fixed Income.
3. Don't drop the smaller topics. Together they are still around a third of the exam.
4. Use the 2 mock exams included with registration as checkpoints, not a final rehearsal.
5. Decide early whether you need the 5 extra mocks in the Practice Pack.
6. Treat 70% on your mocks as a readiness guide.
7. Read each reading once, then move to questions.
8. Keep an error log and review it every week.
9. Practise on the exact calculator you will take in.
10. Pace each session in 45-minute blocks of 30 questions.
11. Answer every question, because a wrong answer costs nothing.
12. Book a window you can commit to, and sit it.

Which CFA Level 1 topics carry the most weight in 2027?

Ethics is still one of the biggest topics, but it no longer stands out on its own. For 2027, CFA Institute has cut Ethical and Professional Standards from 15 to 20% down to 10 to 15%, and raised Quantitative Methods from 6 to 9% up to 11 to 14%.

Source: CFA Institute Level I exam page. Last checked: 13 November 2026.

Tip 1: check that your notes and question bank match these weights. Plenty of study plans online still use the 2026 figures, which give Quant half the time it now needs.

Tip 2: the five topics weighted at 10% or more make up between 54% and 71% of the exam. Get these solid first, while you have the most time.

Tip 3: every question carries the same marks. Economics, Corporate Finance, Derivatives and Risk Management, and Alternative Investments are 6 to 9% each, so together they make up 24 to 36% of the paper. That's too much to leave to guesswork.

Which is the easiest subject in CFA Level 1?

CFA Institute doesn't rank topics by difficulty, so the honest answer depends on your background. If you work in accounting, Financial Statement Analysis will feel familiar. If you studied economics, Economics will. A more useful question is where you can pick up marks quickly. The smaller topics cover less ground, so an hour spent on them often moves your score more than an extra hour on a topic you already know well.

Ethics deserves a mention. The questions are mostly words rather than sums, which makes it look easy. But the answer often turns on small details of the Standards, so it rewards plenty of practice questions rather than one quick read.

How to use CFA Institute's 8 mock exams

CFA Institute makes eight mock exams available for Level 1. Two come with your registration and open 8 weeks before your exam. The optional Practice Pack costs USD 299 and adds 5 extra mocks, 1 mock in the exam-day software and 1,000 extra practice questions. Access ends on your exam date.

Tip 4: sit the first included mock as soon as it opens, under full timed conditions with both sessions on the same day. It's a baseline that shows which topics need your remaining weeks. Save the second for the last fortnight.

Tip 5: if your baseline is well below where you want it, the extra mocks give you more checkpoints to measure progress. Sit the exam-day software mock in your final ten days so the screen layout holds no surprises.

Tip 6: CFA Institute calls 70% on your mocks "a good rule of thumb" for readiness. It doesn't publish a pass mark as a percentage, so treat 70% as a guide and look at the trend across mocks rather than one score.

After each mock, review every question you got wrong and every one you guessed. Write down the topic and why you missed it. You can download the CFA Level 1 mock score tracker to log your topic scores against the 2027 weights. To work through a question you still don't understand, use Medly Professional, which covers CFA Levels I to III: when you get a question wrong, it explains the reasoning and sets a new question on the same point.

Question practice or reading the curriculum twice?

Questions win. In a 2006 study by Roediger and Karpicke, students who tested themselves remembered more a week later than students who spent the same time rereading. Rereading feels productive because the material looks familiar. Answering a question shows you whether you can actually use it.

Tip 7: read each reading once, carefully, then go straight to its practice questions. CFA Institute says successful candidates report spending over 300 hours per level on average. Over six months that's about 12 hours a week, and a large share of that time should go on questions.

Tip 8: keep an error log. For every miss, note the topic, the concept and whether it was a knowledge gap, a calculation slip or a misread question. Once a week, redo the questions in your log. The patterns will tell you what to revisit, and our guide on how to revise notes covers ways to make that second pass stick.

If a concept in the curriculum isn't clicking, hearing it explained another way often helps. You can ask Medly's AI tutor to break it down and then test you on it. Medly Professional is free to start, with no card needed.

How to time the two 135-minute sessions

Each session has 90 questions in 135 minutes, and CFA Institute suggests about 90 seconds a question. Session 1 covers Ethics, Quant, Economics, Financial Statement Analysis and Corporate Finance. Session 2 covers Equities, Fixed Income, Derivatives, Alternative Investments and Portfolio Construction.

Tip 9: only two calculator models are allowed: the Texas Instruments BA II Plus (including the Professional) and the HP 12C family, under the calculator policy. Do every practice question on the one you will take in, so time value of money and cash flow functions become automatic.

Tip 10: use these checkpoints in every mock and on the day.

1. Question 30 by 45 minutes.
2. Question 60 by 90 minutes.
3. Question 90 by 135 minutes.

If you can finish each block of 30 questions in around 40 minutes, you'll have about 15 minutes at the end of the session for flagged questions. When a question passes two minutes, pick your best answer, flag it and move on.

Tip 11: there is no penalty for a wrong answer, and each question has three options. Never leave one blank. A guess still has a one in three chance.

What the 2026 pass rates tell you

Source: CFA Institute results for February 2026, May 2026 and August 2026. Last checked: 13 November 2026.

Fewer than half of candidates passed in any of the three windows, but CFA Institute said the August rate was above the Level 1 exam's 10-year average. The more useful number is underneath it. In August 2026, first-time candidates passed at 49%, while candidates who had deferred at least once passed at 29%.

Tip 12: that gap doesn't prove deferring causes a lower score, since people who defer may already be short of study time. It's still a good reason to pick a window that fits your 300 hours, then plan backwards from it and sit when you said you would. Check the current windows and fees on CFA Institute's dates and fees page before you book.

Frequently asked questions

How many questions do you need to get right to pass CFA Level 1?

CFA Institute doesn't publish how many questions you need to get right. It gives the minimum passing score only as a scale score (1600 for Level 1). Its own guidance treats getting 70% of questions right in your mock exams as a good sign you're ready.

Is there negative marking in CFA Level 1?

No. CFA Institute says there is no penalty for an incorrect answer, so answer every question.

How many hours should I study for CFA Level 1?

CFA Institute says successful candidates report spending over 300 hours per level on average. That's about 12 hours a week over six months.

Is 4 months enough for CFA Level 1?

Yes, if you can keep up the hours. Four months is about 17 weeks, so 300 hours works out at roughly 18 hours a week.

Which calculators are allowed in the CFA Level 1 exam?

Only the Texas Instruments BA II Plus (including the Professional) and the HP 12C family. Practise on the model you will use on the day.

How many mock exams should I take for CFA Level 1?

Take at least the 2 included with registration, under timed conditions. If you're short of your target, the Practice Pack adds 5 more plus 1 in the exam-day software.

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