Between work and grad school in the evenings (MFE) I only had enough time to look at Ethics and FSA for Level I. I felt horrible about it, but work/school/wife had to come first. Fortunately when I took the exam I found most of the material to be second nature. Is this degree of difficulty specific to LI or can I expect LII and LIII to be similar? Has anyone else been in the same situation where you were able to let work or school or a combination of the two chip away at the recommended 300 hours of study time? Thanks.
For level one, yes. For level two, no. I found the material on level two broader & deeper than level one. But, that is dependant on what type of things you are covering in grad school and what type of background you have in these CFA topics. I wouldn’t be able to pass without at least 250 hours of studying, maybe I’m slow.
Thanks for the reply. I figured as much, and I’m trying to decide whether I can jump into level II wholeheartedly or if I should wait until next year after I get done with some other things. I fully expect the next two rounds to be more difficult. It seems to me the big difference between LI and LII is the required level of critical thinking and meaningful understanding of the material. If anyone else can provide insight or share more firsthand experience that would be great. Thanks.
so you passed level I after just studying ethics and fsa. that is impressive.
Not as impressive as my coworker getting both fired on the spot and charged with three counts of assault at our holiday party, hours after he received a very nice-sized bonus. That’s impressive.
agreed. that is one of the most impressive things i’ve ever heard. you gotta elaborate
Here’s the redacted version that I had to send to my boys after they were PLEADING to get the story…enjoy :)… So let me give you a little of background about this kid before I get into the story. Like me, he got the job here because his dad is friend’s with the owner of the company, and he started in March. Based on all accounts (including my firsthand knowledge), he was an outstanding worker and had a good personality which fit in well here. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that, on the CLO side (there are two sides, CLO and ABS, I’m on the ABS side) he was the favored son. I guess what I’m trying to say is that this kid is (was) basically the golden child of the company – smart, worked hard, got along with everybody; in fact, the same day of the holiday party he’d just been told what his bonus number was going to be for this past year - $40K; when you add that in to what his salary is he’s pulling about $100K, which is certainly not bad for a 23-year-old. Anyways, the holiday party started at 7:30, which from what I hear is what time almost everyone showed up at. Me, being the pimp that I am, stroll in at 8:45 and see that this kid (his name’s Dave) has a nice buzz going on, but nothing noticeably out of the ordinary as far as I could tell. Anyways, I do my little hobnob thing and mingle throughout the crowd until 10:00, at which point I see Dave again for the first time since I arrived. Now, I have no idea what’s taken place in the last hour and fifteen minutes (maybe some Zanzabar Blues, maybe copious shots – I really don’t know), but this kid has somehow turned into a drooling, belligerent drunk. However, he wasn’t so drunk that he was being out and out ridiculous – just louder than usual and his eyes were like slits, and he was talking nonsense, but the people that he was with were also drinking heavily, so he was fine. Fast forward to 11:30: This kid is now a walking, talking bottle of liquor. There’s not one coherent statement and/or thought emanating from his person, and he’s having trouble walking. I’m pretty sure that one of the people who he later got into it with actually had to take him to the bathroom so that he could puke, but that’s neither here nor there. Now everyone has left the party save for [deleted] (the President of the Company), [deleted] (his brother), [deleted] (Dave’s boss and one of the four main executives at my company), Dave, and me. Dave is still a blubbering mess, but [deleted] and I have gotten him into the back of his car service home, so I’m thinking that everything’s cleaned up for the night. Anyways, the driver starts to pull away, and ten feet later slams on the brakes and gets out of the car saying about how this kid “is screaming about his Blackberry” and how he “won’t leave without it”. [deleted] and I walk over, open the back door, and basically tell Dave to shut the fuck up and close his eyes, and next thing he knows he’ll be at home. *He would’ve gladly paid $30K to have another chance to take our advice that night, methinks. So at this point I feel like I’ve done my part and gotten the kid into the car, so I take a walk over to the hotel across the street and order a bottle of wine in the lobby and start to drink while I sit there and think about what a boring holiday party it was. As I’m sitting there talking, there’s two other guys (more on one of them later) who are sitting on the couch across from me, and I overhear one of them talking about “the six cop cars at [deleted]” (which was where our holiday party was). Of course this has me intrigued, so I ask about what happened; his response was that “a couple of Indian guys and a short guy were fighting”………now I’m still incredulous about this and clearly don’t believe what I thought I was hearing, so I asked if he got any names, and he goes “yeah, sheesh, beesh, something like that”, both of which rhyme with [deleted] and [deleted]………at this point my jaw is on the ground and I’m sitting there absolutely flabbergasted……….the guy goes on to say how one of “the Indians” was screaming “You’re fired!” at the kid, and I’m further in shock……….so anyways, did some digging, and the story is apparently as follows……. After [deleted] and I had put him into the car for the second time and I had walked away thinking everything was fine, he accosted the driver again and said that he wouldn’t leave without his Blackberry (honestly, what the fuck this kid was thinking I’ll never know, as I don’t think I could even get that drunk anymore if I started funneling vodka again). So this time, [deleted], [deleted], and [deleted] all try to calm him down, but he’s now worked himself up into a belligerent rage, and is somehow convinced that they’re only trying to get him into the car so that they can steal his car. Yes, you read that right: he thought that the president of the company (who drives a 750) and his boss (who drives a pretty nice Benz) were trying to steal his car. Clearly, this kid’s no sucker, so when he thought that someone was trying to jack him for his ride, he went absolutely fucking bonkers. Not only did he try to physically attack all three of them, he started calling the Indian guys “dotheads” and I’m sure whatever other ethnic slurs one would use against a person of Indian descent………still though, the three of them remained calm and tried to just get him in the car and get him home………it would probably still have been salvageable at that point, but because of the fracas in the parking lot, now the manager of the restaurant and the bartenders have come outside………forgot to mention that in the middle of all the ruckus with the three people from my company, this kid called his dad on his cellphone to tell him that these people were trying to steal his car (I’d pay $100 to see his dad’s face as he took that call at midnight and heard his son accusing his dad’s boy (a multi-millionaire) of trying to steal his car)…………anyways, as I said not quite sure exactly what went down when the manager and bartenders came out [edit: Dave punched one of the bartenders in the face, TWICE, and wrestled another one to the ground], but suffice it to say it couldn’t have been good, as the kid was taken away in handcuffs and charged with three (yes, not one, not two, but three) counts of assault……….so…………after a lot of pleading and apologetic emails and I’m sure calls where he was crying, they still stuck by the decision to fire him………. So gents, that’s a quick rendition of how you go to the holiday party as the young, up-and-coming golden child and leave the holiday party with no job and three counts of assault. Frigging hysterical if you ask me……….
PHENOMENAL.
fantastic narration, and the (deleted) here and there words made me feel like this was a mad lib (libb?). this guy is a __________ (noun). hmm, j*ckass? hope your bonus pool just got bigger. 'tis the season.
“so you passed level I after just studying ethics and fsa. that is impressive.” I believe I did, but I will have to wait until January like everyone else to find out for sure. I read a story on here a while back about somebody crushing LI with no studying and then bombing on LII. I don’t want to be that guy. If anyone with a MSF or MFE could comment I would appreciate it. Thanks.
wow that’s an expensive “learning experience”
Hey Alphabound, what MFE program are you attending? I am applying to some MFE’s. Chris
A relatively unknown state school. Nothing fancy.
Alphabound: Are u at Oxford?
No, not at Oxford.