CFA Drill · Independent study companion · Not affiliated with CFA Institute · Updated 31 August 2026 · Operator: EonDigi Inc.

CFA Level I study map, weekly plan & reverse-engineering method

CFA Drill is a personal practice product operated by EonDigi Inc. (United States). It offers original multiple-choice drills across all ten CFA Program Level I topic areas, with explanations written for candidates and working professionals who learn by committing to an answer first, then reconstructing the keyed solution. This long-form guide is published so readers—and search and advertising crawlers—can evaluate our educational approach without signing in.

Nothing on this page is CFA Institute curriculum, official mocks, or investment advice. CFA® and Chartered Financial Analyst® are trademarks of CFA Institute. CFA Drill is not affiliated with or endorsed by CFA Institute. Practice items are licensed for personal on-screen study only; see our Terms and Privacy Policy.

1. What “reverse engineering” means here

A common failure mode is reading explanations first. You feel productive, underline formulas, and still miss the same stem under time pressure. Our workflow inverts that sequence:

1. Read the stem once; choose A, B, or C under focused attention.
2. Grade the attempt: learning, blindspot, or mastered.
3. Only then open the reverse-engineering panel—formulas, timing conventions, Code duties, or ratio identities.

Mastery is not a single lucky correct click. In CFA Drill it is either a deliberate “Mastered” action after a correct attempt, or a pattern of correct repeats. Blindspots are items you quarantine on purpose—ethics scenarios you keep missing, duration sign errors, inventory methods you swap under inflation. The blind-spot pool is global so a weak topic cannot hide behind a subject filter.

Longer process notes: Attempt first, then reverse-engineer.

2. Level I subject map (weights are approximate)

Topic weights change by curriculum year; treat the ranges below as a planning scaffold, not a promise from CFA Institute. Build coverage in proportion to weight and to your personal miss rate.

• Ethical and Professional Standards (≈15–20%) — Code and Standards, situational judgment, GIPS orientation. Highest leverage early: mistakes here are often process errors, not vocabulary.
• Quantitative Methods (≈6–9%) — TVM, descriptive statistics, probability, sampling, hypothesis testing, simple regression.
• Economics (≈6–9%) — micro and macro, FX, trade, monetary/fiscal links to markets.
• Financial Statement Analysis (≈11–14%) — statements, ratios, inventories, long-lived assets, taxes, earnings quality.
• Corporate Issuers (≈6–9%) — capital structure, leverage, working capital, payouts, ESG in corporate finance.
• Equity Investments (≈11–14%) — market organization, indexes, industry analysis, multiples, basic DCF intuition.
• Fixed Income (≈11–14%) — pricing, yields, duration/convexity, credit, securitization overview.
• Derivatives (≈5–8%) — forwards, futures, swaps, options payoffs and uses.
• Alternative Investments (≈7–10%) — real assets, private markets, hedge-fund styles, commodities.
• Portfolio Management (≈8–12%) — IPS, risk/return, CAPM/SML, behavioral biases, rebalancing.

3. An eight-week Level I practice plan (with CFA Drill)

This plan assumes you already have curriculum exposure and need decision practice, not a first read. Adjust volume to your calendar; keep the attempt-first rule non-negotiable.

1. Weeks 1–2 — Ethics + Quant foundations. Daily Ethics drills until you can name the duty before the slogan. Parallel Quant: ordinary annuity PV/FV, effective rates, mean/variance. Log every blindspot.
2. Weeks 3–4 — FSA + Corporate. Map each stem to income, cash flow, or balance sheet. Practice inventory and depreciation direction questions. Corporate: leverage and coverage identities.
3. Week 5 — Equity + Fixed Income. Multiples vs drivers; bond price–yield and duration direction. Do not skip credit spreads as “just a definition.”
4. Week 6 — Derivatives + Alternatives. Payoff diagrams in words; who posts margin; what an alternative risk premia story is claiming.
5. Week 7 — Portfolio + mixed sets. IPS constraints, beta/SML, rebalancing. Then mixed subject sessions so filters cannot hide weak areas.
6. Week 8 — Blindspot purge + light Ethics refresh. Only reopen reverse panels for items still wrong. Sleep and timing matter more than rereading the same paragraph.

Free accounts receive a fixed sample per subject from the current bank edition so you can test this workflow before purchasing Pro.

4. High-frequency traps by topic

Ethics

Distractors often maximize firm revenue, treat “legal” as “ethical,” or outsource judgment to a compliance manual you never read. Gifts, soft dollars, issuer-paid travel, and side projects are usually about disclosure, recusal, or refusal—not about clever wording.

Quant

Ordinary vs annuity due; nominal vs effective; sample vs population; “fail to reject” vs “prove true.” If two choices are numerically close, you almost always used the wrong clock or the wrong n.

FSA

Rising receivables with falling CFO while net income rises is a quality flag. Inventory methods move COGS and ending inventory in opposite directions when prices trend. Deferred tax is the bridge between book and taxable income—rate changes apply to remaining temporary differences.

Fixed income & equity

Duration is a sensitivity, not a maturity date. “Higher yield” is not automatically “better bond.” Equity multiples without growth, risk, or accounting context are incomplete stories.

5. Original sample drills (public)

6. How Free and Pro work (bank edition)

CFA Drill publishes Level I content under a single bank edition label (for example CFA-L1-2026.1 plus a build stamp). Free and Pro share that cohort label.

Free accounts get a fixed sample per subject (currently ten) from the current bank edition, to evaluate progress states and reverse-engineering. When a newer edition ships, the free sample follows the then-current edition.

Pro — Level I is a one-time digital purchase via Stripe (list price typically USD $79; checkout controls). At payment we stamp the then-current bank edition on your account. You receive the full bank for that edition (plus in-edition errata), ad-free UI, and a personal non-transferable study license. Later bank editions and other levels, if launched, are priced separately. See Refund & Purchase Policy. Advertising, when enabled by Google AdSense, appears only beside drill content for free users—not on these static articles.

7. FAQ

Is this enough to pass without curriculum?

No. CFA Drill is a practice layer. Use official curriculum and your own notes for first exposure; use drills to force decisions and expose blindspots.

Why original items instead of “real past papers”?

We do not redistribute CFA Institute materials. Original stems let us teach a method legally and keep a coherent reverse-engineering style across subjects.

Can I screenshot or share items?

No. Content is licensed for personal on-screen study only. Copying, scraping, or redistribution violates the Terms.

8. More public notes & start practicing

Read without signing in: method, Ethics, Quantitative Methods, Financial statement analysis.

Open the interactive app at cfa-drill.com, create a free account, and drill one subject at a time. Support: support@cfa-drill.com · support page.