Totten Prep
CFA Level 1 prep · Designed for candidates, by candidates

Pass Level 1 with
250 hours,
not 400.

Built around the concepts that actually move your score, weighted the way the exam weights them. Designed for candidates with full-time jobs, full calendars, and a real study budget, not a textbook one.

Free 90-question mock exam →Get the free Ethics lessons
250hr
Built around the study budget you actually have.
10/10
Topic areas covered, weighted the way the exam tests them.
Nov ’26
First beta cohort sits Level 1. Results arrive January 2027.
Free · No credit card · Instant scoring

The free 90-question
CFA Level 1 mock exam.

Sit a full, topic-weighted Level 1 mock, written by current candidates, calibrated to the way the real exam tests. Submit when you're done and get an instant scored report broken down by topic, plus a worked explanation for every single question.

  • §90 questions across all 10 topic areas
  • §Weighted to mirror real exam emphasis
  • §Instant per-topic scoring breakdown
  • §Full explanation on every answer
  • §Retake unlimited, track improvement
  • §Free forever. No payment required.
Create free account & start →Email + password. 20 seconds.
§ 01
Products & pricing

Five ways in.
One curriculum.

Start with the Ethics chapter to see how we write. Step up to Notes for the full curriculum. Move to Working Pro when you want the videos, question bank, and weekly office hours that take you to exam day.

Available now · Ethics, FSA, and Fixed Income Chapters

The Ethics, FSA, and Fixed Income Chapters are on sale now. Founder’s Notes and the remaining Focus Modules are coming soon.

Start with the Ethics Chapter, the highest-weighted topic on Level 1, or take the FSA or Fixed Income Chapter, two of the heaviest topics on the exam. Founder’s Notes is not yet available to buy; join the waitlist to lock in the $179 early-access price when it launches. The free Ethics lessons and 90-question mock exam are open to every account.

Buy Ethics Chapter →
Tier 01 · Try the writing
Available now
$29one time

Ethics Chapter

The highest-weighted topic on Level 1, in 60+ pages of plain-English explanation. A working sample of how Totten Prep teaches.

  • §Full Ethics & Professional Standards chapter
  • §~30 practice questions with worked explanations
  • §Exam-day cheat sheet for Ethics
  • §Secure web access · 6 months

Two Ethics lessons are free with any account; the full chapter unlocks all Standards, worked examples, and the exam-day protocol.

Buy Ethics Chapter · $29 →
Tier 01 · Heaviest topic
Available now
$25one time

FSA Chapter

Financial Statement Analysis, the heaviest topic on the exam, taught statement by statement so the ratios and adjustments actually stick.

  • §14 modules, income statement through reporting quality
  • §365-question practice bank with worked explanations
  • §Formula plates, boxed examples, and flashcards
  • §Secure web access · 6 months

Unlock all 14 modules, the formula sheet, the exam-day protocol, and the full practice bank instantly.

Buy FSA Chapter · $25 →
Tier 01 · High-weight topic
Available now
$25one time

Fixed Income Chapter

Fixed Income, one of the heaviest topics on the exam, taught from bond structure through pricing, duration, credit risk, and securitization.

  • §10 lesson and reference modules
  • §270-question practice bank with worked explanations
  • §Formula plates, boxed examples, and flashcards
  • §Secure web access · 6 months

Unlock every module, the master formula sheet, the exam-day protocol, and the full practice bank instantly.

Buy Fixed Income Chapter · $25 →
Tier 02 · Most popular
Coming soon
$199
$179 early access

Founder’s Notes

All ten topic areas, weighted the way the exam tests them. ~500 pages of distilled notes covering the entire Level 1 curriculum, bundled at a meaningful discount vs. buying each chapter individually.

  • §All 10 topics, ~500 pages, secure web access
  • §~500 practice questions with explanations
  • §Per-topic exam-day cheat sheets
  • §“Ask the Notes” AI, trained on the curriculum
  • §1 extra full-length timed practice exam
  • §6 months of access, notes, cheat sheets, and updates

Not yet for sale. Join the waitlist now to lock in the $179 early-access price.

Join Founder’s Notes waitlist →
Tier 03 · Focus modules
More chapters coming
$25
per chapter

Focus Modules

Targeted, single-topic deep dives for the areas most likely to decide your score. Candidates rarely fail Level 1 across the board, they fail on two or three weak topics. Close those gaps and you clear the MPS.

  • §Financial Statement Analysis, $25 · available now
  • §Corporate Issuers
  • §Fixed Income, $25 · available now
  • §More high-weight topics rolling out through launch
  • §Curriculum-aligned lessons, worked examples, and targeted practice
  • §Built for professionals studying around a full-time job

The FSA and Fixed Income Chapters are on sale now at $25 each. Join the waitlist to get first access as each remaining module ships.

Coming soon · Monthly subscription

Prefer to pay monthly? A subscription plan is on the way, waitlist members get first access and the founding-member discount.

Notify me →

A note on pricing: comparable full-system bundles in this market start around $1,300. Totten Prep is built to sit well below that, and below the threshold most employers reimburse without manager approval. Prices shown are launch prices reflecting the 25% founding-member discount for waitlist sign-ups, nothing is on sale before launch.

§ 02
Why most prep falls short

Most prep is built for the candidate who doesn’t exist.

Someone with 400 free hours, unlimited patience for video, and no other claims on the calendar. The real candidate has a job, a life, and a fixed window of study time, and needs prep designed around those constraints, not against them.

01

Everything is treated as equally important.

The exam weights some topics at 15 to 20% and others at 5 to 7%. Most prep doesn’t differentiate. You spend the same effort on a topic worth a quarter of the points as one worth a twentieth, and you find out which was which on exam day.

02

The format assumes 400 hours of free time.

Two-hundred hours of video. Thousand-page textbooks. Plans that quietly require you to read every page. Excellent material if you’re a full-time student; impractical if you’re working, parenting, or studying for any other reason that takes calendar space.

03

It’s written for everyone, which means no one.

Tone is committee-flat. Examples are generic. The book can’t tell you which footnotes actually matter on exam day, so you finish a chapter and quietly hope you remembered the right things.

04

Teaching and testing are sold separately.

One product reads to you. Another quizzes you. A third explains the questions. You end up stitching three subscriptions together, which is the problem you were trying to avoid by buying prep in the first place.

§ 03
The Totten Prep approach

Designed for candidates,by candidates.

Totten Prep is built by current CFA Level 1 candidates, not by academics, not by lifelong publishers. That matters because the candidate knows what actually gets tested, where the time gets wasted, and which concepts return the most points per hour studied. The material is written the way a candidate would explain it to another candidate over coffee: direct, calibrated to weight, and willing to say which 20% of the curriculum drives 50% of the score.

Weighted to the exam

High-weight topics get deep coverage. Low-weight topics get the minimum that gets you the points. You’ll know which is which.

Built for limited time

A 250-hour study plan that respects the calendar you have, with hours allocated to where they earn the most marks.

Plain English

A textbook’s job is to be complete. Our job is to be useful. We’ll tell you when to skip something, and why.

How we allocate your hours
Ethics & Professional Standards15 to 20%
Financial Statement Analysis11 to 14%
Equity Investments11 to 14%
Fixed Income11 to 14%
Portfolio Management8 to 12%
Quantitative Methods6 to 9%
Economics6 to 9%
Corporate Issuers6 to 9%
Alternative Investments7 to 10%
Derivatives5 to 8%

Topic weights based on published CFA Institute Level 1 ranges. Our content coverage, practice questions, and study plan hours follow the same ratios.

Most prep is trying to look comprehensive. We’re trying to get you to a pass with the time you actually have.
On the roadmap · For our global candidates
Shipping in a future release

Answer explanations in your language, not just the language of the exam.

The CFA exam is written in English. The thinking doesn’t have to be. We’re building a language toggle on every answer explanation so candidates across India, Greater China, the Gulf, Southeast Asia, and Latin America can read the why in the language they actually reason in, then switch back to English to lock in the exam vocabulary.

简体中文 · Mandarinहिन्दी / Hinglishالعربية · ArabicPortuguês

Every translated explanation will be reviewed by a bilingual finance speaker before it ships, no raw machine output. Free for every user when it launches.

Join the waitlist
We’ll only email you about the language toggle. No other list.
§ 04
Who’s behind this

Built by current candidates. On purpose.

Totten Prep was started by a CFA Level 1 candidate, not a publisher, not an academic, not a committee. The original notes are the ones the founder built for themselves while preparing for the exam under the constraints we now design around: a full-time job, a limited study window, and a refusal to read pages that wouldn’t be tested.

We keep the team small and the focus narrow. Every chapter, every question, every explanation is written or reviewed by a current candidate preparing for the same exam. That's the entire point of the brand.

Where things stand
Entity
Totten Prep LLC
Beta cohort
Sits Level 1 · Nov 8, 2026
Results expected
January 2027
§ 05
Listen while you study

The Totten Prep podcast.
For candidates on the move.

Short, focused episodes that reinforce the concepts worth the most marks, the kind of review that sticks when you’re commuting, walking, or between meetings. Listen on Spotify or subscribe on Apple Podcasts.

Spotify →Apple Podcasts →
Get started · Free

Read the
first chapter.
Then decide.

Create a free account with just email and password to unlock the 90-question mock exam and the free Ethics lessons. Takes 20 seconds.

or with email

Creating an account unlocks the free Ethics lessons and the 90-question mock exam. No spam. Unsubscribe in one click.

Help & feedback

Found a bug, a typo, or something confusing?

Every note comes straight to Landon at hello@tottenprep.com. Email works too, the form below just skips the inbox app.