Gyaan for CFA Level-1 Candidates.

CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) is a course provided by CFA Institute, USA. It consists of three Levels, with Level-1 you can appear in June, December while Level 2 & 3 only in June.
Why CFA?
CFA mainly helps for those who want to work on Equities, Handling Portfolio , Investment Research , Backend of Investment Banking. For Students , It is surely a way to enhance your CV value but only when backed with sufficient amount of Practical Knowledge ( Which you can gain by reading Economic Times daily or doing some Live Corporate Projects based on your area of interests).
CFA Level-1 is the basic level testing in all areas:
1) Ethics
2) Quant
3) Financial Statement Analysis
4) Economics
5) Corporate Finance
6) Derivatives
7) Equity
8) Fixed Income
9) Portfolio Management
10) Alternative Investments
Most of my mates at JBIMS as well as CA friends are planning to take this exam in June'09 so thought of sharing some of my own experiences as well as tips to crack the exam.
How to Start?
Commerce Students can start first with Financial Statement Analysis whereas Engineering grads can start with Quantitative Methods.
Strategy: It is always better to start with comfortable topic than taking a topic which you find difficult to cope with.
Which areas to stress upon more:
Ethics, Financial Statement Analysis , Quant and Economics
Ethics is sort of confusing and you have to prepare well to get cases right. You can do Ethics after completing Quant/ FSA and then regularly practice it. Make sure that you are in touch with Ethics ( All Laws..) till the end of exams else you are bound to get confused in Examination Hall.
Do Not Leave a Single topic:

Make sure that you read up on all 10 areas , Leaving even a small area like Alternative Investments is not advisable.

Mocks:
Make sure that you take as many mocks before the exams.Schweser Book Volume 6 (contains 3 mock papers)and one free mock must be atleast solved before Final Exam provided by CFA Institute, USA.
Work Hard !!!....Work Smart !!!!....All the Best for Exams...!!...Any Queries Please comment.