Not trying to convince you - I am writing for people who is consideing if it worth going
@OP: have you ever thought about changing your AF name to increase the chance to pass the CFA exams? I am serious with my question, no kidding. “CFAilure” doesn’t sound goood.
Respect this very much. You will go far with this attitude,
CFAilure, you’re bitter because you have with a huge sunk cost with the CFA. The average number of hours of studying is the result of surveys conducted by CFAI. It is plainly just the average studying candidates did for that level for that year. So if you are a retaker and you reported 300 in year 1 and 300 in year 2, you still show up as 300 as the premise of the survey question is how many hours you studied in this year for this exam, not how many did you study across all of your attempts. Perhaps you want a survey question about cumulative hours, but that is also a faulty metric because the hours do not stack linearly. You get a lot of gain just reading the information the first time, and by mid-April you should be averaging 3-4 correct questions per vignette, and you spend May eeking out the 1 extra correct question per vignette. If you fail and retake the next year, you essentially have to restart due to memory lapses (I bet I cannot pass the CFA exams again in July even if I pass with flying colors in June.) But if you studied 300 in year 1 and 300 in year 2 and passed, it doesn’t mean you needed 600 hours to pass. The extra 300 was because you simply didn’t put in enough in the first year. If you were band 8-10, you might have just needed another 30 hours of studying plus a bit more luck and better rest to have passed the first time around, in which case you simply fell short a little in your first attempt. The study hours estimate are ex-post for that year and is intended as an ex-ante guide. There is no survey that would satisfy you because you have too much sunk cost to comfortably move on. Idk what your professional goals are, but you can start a hedge fund or become a C-level executive without a CFA – it’s not a necessary certification, but rather a nice-to-have.
what did you do differently in 2015 vs 2014? and by “going over the material?” what does that mean? did you re-read every line of the CFAI book? (knowing some re-takers who failed 2xs or more, some take for granted and they put in the time and not the effort, that i was eluding to in my post) i re-read every single line of the book, did all the blue boxes and EOC questions at least twice.
it seems like your test result was the PM, which you mentioned. did you do any practice PM sessions? i have found that a lot of ppl spend 90% of their time and effort on the AM session, and neglect the importance of the PM (which, oddly enough, ends of being 50% of the exam…most ppl forget this fact and take the PM for granted).
anyhow, if you did everything in your power to pass and put in the effort (not just the 5 months “time”), then yes i would chalk that up to s**t-Sam-Bradford-like luck.
JuniorCk8:
I mostly used Schweser books for reading and did some after chapter questions from CFAI books. This year, i made sure that I understood and memorize every concept. As i mentioned, I did all previous years exams that posted on CFA website and I also did their sample tests and i did two Schweser tests and lots of individual questions from multiple Schweser books. To be honest, I knew answers to 90% of the AM session and managed to finish everything on time. I still don’t understand how i could get <50% on all except on AM sections.
Bertran
Here’s a few tips from my experience. I’m no expert, I didn’t do great in AM, but well enough to pass.
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Do all CFA EOC questions before you do any Schweser questions (I did use Schweser notes and videos but did not spend time answering any of their questions)
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Do all the BBs
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Do as many old CFA AM tests as you can. You said you did all of them on the website, which would only be a few years, but you can get them going back many years. You can find on the web old CFA tests back to 2004 (or maybe even to '99, I forget) and Marc gives out tests going back to 1999 (I forget exactly which year, I can check if you want me to). You need to do as many as you can because the more you have done, the less surprises you will get on test day. I ended up doing tests back to 2008 (would have done more if I had time) and found most everything relevant.
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Have someone else grade old AM practice tests that you do. Since you thought you knew the answers to most of the AM questions maybe you need to make sure you are writing your answers properly
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I would recommend taking Marc’s class. Besides the class he will also help you out before/after the class with questions you have via email
My not respectful opponents of CFAI camp. You know, I have had it enough. I cannot desguise it any more. I must confess: I am driven by a deep bittery. Really deep. Personal grief… Deep pain… And… and it has nothing to do if I passed this year L3 exam or failed it.
I have a really disgusting feeling since when I read transcript from any CFAI affilated convention, CFAI people tells everyone that it is not about the money at all.
It is about the ethics.
The values.
The trust.
The benefits of clients.
The integrity of the investment profession.
In summory it is about making a coalition of every good to fight all the bad.
But if you dare to expect (only to expect) that CFAI would emplement all that its own integrity on its own exam , like:
showing the guidline answers for AM session days and not months after the exam
or
disclousing assessment of study hours
as immidietely CFAI sends all you to AF. I said ‘CFAI sends’ since I cannot believe that some of the posters are not part of CFAI social media team.
And when it sends some of you to redicule people just another story has been told on the AF:
CFAI is a private company.
A business.
It is all about the money.
Do not even dare to ask for any values.
Critic is not tolerated - it could attract attention of potential customers.
Double standards - 500 hours of study time is a right thing if you decided to retake and sing you are stupid if you ask if it could take to make a certain level.
Any critics is like a blasphemy. Take the exam or leave quietly right now.
Some of you told me the real reason I send the letter now is that I failed. They totally ignored that I said that lass year - when I passed L2 I had a off-the-forum correspondents with CFAI bosses. I did not go publc since socal media activity takes time and now I can afford more time for it that last year.
My real driver was your hypocrisy, people.
OK, let’s reply to some comments.
wtf?
Dear IsThereAny, please refrain of offencive language.
Found out who was that. http://www.analystforum.com/forums/cfa-forums/cfa-general-discussion/91293703
No, I believe we 'll have a better show here.
Stevie Ray,
Thank you for your suggestions. Trust me, my AM results have nothing to do with my level of knowledge and ability to write in the format that CFAI is looking for. I’ll try to post them tomorrow, so that you can tell for yourself.
Perhaps I did not communicate my point well.
There are 6 books of CFA Curriculum for each level. We all know the number of pages with them with the full certainty.
In academics every course has its cyllabus. And in the cyllabus there is name of the book and the number of study hours required to be invested. Number of hours is correlated with the number of pages. The more pages to read - the more hours to be
Can CFAI put the number of hours needed on the front page of every of its readings? Like Open University US does? Does it make sense?
The question is not if CFA designition worth 200, 300 or 2000 of candidate’s hours. My problem is as following. I know personally tons of people who got stock on Level 1 or 2 or 3. The common problem of that people is the amount of time: they really cannot afford to study for CFA, but in reality they do. These well-meaning people first go to CFAI website and read that concealed ‘candidates report… more than 300 hours…’ statement. Then they approach AF with ‘abundant free information’ and read here ‘inspiring’ stories of wall street people who did 3 levels from 1st attempt with 200 hours investment.
They go - and fail.
And nobody tell them: ‘stop here!!! it’s full-time program by its scope’. People tell them ‘come on. you were so close. put another 200 hours’…ifthey knew from the very beginning about the real scope of the study program… Yes, that is their fault as well, but if CFAI claims transparency they should adjust their study time assessment.
D**n, this discussion is getting ugly.
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As for the time thing: complete BS. They can give you 100 hours, 1000 hours or 1000000 hours. Each case is unique, you’ll never get a figure comfortable for all candidates. Plus I don’t see any point in doing this math because it’s pointless. You have 5 books you have to know them by exam day. Why bothering yourself with recording how much time you spend? Whywould anyone do that? This is plain stupid. Those who add up these hours are usually the ones failing this thing. Think why.
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Although I think OP is a borderline psychotic with a little schizo and personal issues, he has a point when he is discussing essay part. Too many people claiming solid preparation end up with a miserable morning part, like most of the subjects below 50. This is strange and indeed needs to be discussed. Especially after what happened a couple of weeks ago, one can believe that in certain cases there may be unfair treatment or stuff like that. But yeah, we’ll never know.
Stockholm syndrome?
Well, I remeber only once when I was really determinted to pass, really as you are describing. All of me was the motivation. I took a many days off the office, started every day with affirmations.
Tracked every minute of study.
That was a really good feeling. One small mishap: if you fail, it would take some toll. For me that year took a lot of time to be able to look on myself in the mirror 
Disclaimer - that was 7 year ago.
tavarish, nado 100 gram
If you pay one thousand bucks without diligently researching amount of material to be digested taking into account your mental abilities, you’re screwed. How you goin to make it in finance if you require somebody to do a simple homework before exam which is supposed to be yours?
If it wasn’t hard, would you even want the letters this bad?
If it wasn’t hard, would the letters be meaningful?
Barriers to entry is a good thing, CFAilure. You should take it as a blessing that it was hard to pass.
You are missing the point. The time issue is not for a current candidates. Its for the people who are not in the program, never saw the material and would like to check if they can afford (in terms of time) enter the program or return to the program after some years off.
every current candidate who paid the fees and got his books knows how much time is needed. especially he had already the same level last year.
the point is to give time estimates for potential candidates.
is that clear?
no offence taken. one of my goals here is to launch a change in the opaque am grading process.