In early February of this year, the CFA Society of Sydney launched a new and improved review course to assist Level 1 Candidates in their exam preparation. The course was developed in conjunction with Gerhard van de Venter CFA, a member of the Society and lecturer in Finance at the University of Technology, Sydney.
The 2007 CFA Level I Review Course consists of thirty-six hours of tuition over six Saturdays held at regular intervals throughout the semester. The structure aims to work alongside a candidate’s typical study program and allows students to read the texts and actively participate in each session, while also fitting in with other commitments. The course finishes with a new and unseen Practice Exam prepared by the Boston Security Analysts Society.
On enrolment, candidates received a full set of slides used throughout the course. These materials were derived from the Schweser Study Program and are organised by Study Session and Learning Outcome Statements and are supplemented with further questions and examples during the lecture. The course is lectured by a small faculty of experienced educators, all of whom are CFA Charterholders. This team consists of a combination of academics and industry practitioners. We have deliberately limited the number of lecturers to ensure that candidates are able to develop an ongoing rapport with each lecturer, which we felt was an important element not captured in previous courses we have run. I would like to pass my sincere thanks on to our team (Gerhard van de Venter, Thomas Henker, Harry Liem and Damian Bridge) for their contribution to the course.
Overall, we are looking to create a high quality course that we can roll out over time to Levels II and III, to take candidates through the entire CFA curriculum. The response to date from candidates has been very pleasing, and the enrolment figures are significantly higher than in previous years. The course fits together with the distribution of Schweser study materials and the offering of the Boston Society Practice Exam to form our service offering to candidates.
Richard Brandweiner CFA
Candidate Education
