Oh boy, you really woke me up from my hibernation…
CFAI established rules for all candidates and everyone is in the same boat, nothing is “unfair”. The letter to CFAI President in the nutshell reads like this - “I wasted years of my life and I still could not pass the exam. I don’t think its me, I think it is CFAI, because…blablabla”. This letter does not deserve any more attention that it has already received.
Now the claim that CFAI SHOULD do something - CFAI already did, it established rules and it does not force you to participate in CFA Program if you do not accept these rules. What else to say?
I always wanted to donate my 2 cents about the the language issue that some candidates like to point as a huge disadvantage, “unfair” factor, etc. - - this is an excuse I heard so many times not just from CFA candidates, but also from international students. This complain usually means that person wants an excuse to attribute low performance to anything except himself, similar to the situation with letter to President.
Now talk about unfairness - I perform best at AM section when I am surrounded by Hawaii Girls with ukulele, but I was not provided them during my exam. Can you imagine how hard it was to finish AM section under this conditions? Do I complain or write a letter to CFAI President?
I would suggest, Sir, that you (I believe inintentionely) substitute my claim with another one I never made.
I never meant that CFA Charter must be easy to obtain. I never meant or stated that CFA Exam must be easy. Even more - it must be tough, you are right. Really tough. But there is a differrence between ‘you failed and here are the mistakes you made’ and ‘you failed and don’t even dare to as me why’. I think, Sir, that CFAI and CFA Designition would benefit from such a trasparency and that is my point.
You are totallyright. ‘How’ is really important. But when we take into consideration all the timeneeded on ‘how’ activities (stydying, practicing, mock exams etc) we will come to the number of hours really higher than 300.
Imho, a Candidate must to have that assessment before she enters the program and it is strongly unfair not to disclose the real estimation of hours since ‘she must be capable to determine’. Using the argument ‘filter people capable to determine’ can lead us even to agree with Mr. Madoff since his victimes ‘were need to be capable to determine’…
Guys, CFAI is not G-D; it is a private organization that employs people and people tend to make mistakes despite all possible rules and procedures that they have put in place. If anybody wants to argue this point, just take the early release of the Level 3 results as an example.
Listen, it’s like this. Say 1000 people now are googling information about financial exams, A and B. The both are tough.
But Exam A Admin says: ‘people, it’s full time program. if you work more than 50 hours a week you are in disadvantage or your employer need to put you in a study group in the office. non-native english another disadvantage. 480 hours of study on average.’
Exam B Admin says ‘hey, just pay the fee and sit. no advise for candidates or potential candidates. work as much as you can. all up to you’.
on d-day A and B deliver the same exam.Which program is more fair - A or B?
Can someone explain the CFAail the concept of a survey and an average, especially the part with the large outliers? He may stop this ridiculous discussion.
I appreciate the validity of this thread. This is a juicy conversation topic, and you seem to have struck a chord here, CFailure. Bottom line – If you fundamentally do not agree with the current polices, then do not participate in the program. Sorry to break it to you. Not trying to be rude, just honest. I sincerely wish you all of the best in your personal and professional endeavors. You sound like a genuinely nice person. You’ve heard my two cents, and I will now be dropping off this thread.
This can’t be a serious post… you did good, bud. You did real good. But, the jig’s up. Your trolling efforts have been uncovered. Go back home, get you a bottle of Popov vodka, call it a day.
On the one hand, I marvel at the amount of time you have put into this, on the other hand, I have to agree with what Consummate Pro said… Why are you pursuing this designation? Most people get this charter to either:
a) get into the financial industry, or
b) improve their job situation/prospective situation in the financial industry
Think about it, over these years you could have become a doctor, an engineer, speak multiple languages, obtained a PHD, or any number of things that would be extremely attractive to a potential employer. So why are you choosing the CFA?
I guess what I’m saying is maybe this just isn’t what you should be doing? Maybe you should just try something else…?
This is by far the most ridiculous rant I’ve read on AF bar none… Should CFAI also mention potential gaining of weight, health issues, losing of girlfriends/wives, social life and no guarantee of passing in the program description to ward off potential candidates who can’t handle it?
Why do we need to minimum pass rate? All I need to know is that about 50% of the candidates pass. That is good enough for me.
300 hours BS? I never came close to 300 hours and I still passed all 3 tests, in 18 months. Was it hard and did I think I put productive 100-200 hours per test? Yes. Is the 300 hours BS? No. Most of my colleauges works 100+ hours a week and so it is not possible to get there. However, people have different backgrounds and hence 300 hours.
I’m sure there are flaws but I would stop pointing fingers at other people and try to understand where you came up short.
It just sounds like you’re complaining that the exams were harder than you anticipated them being. This letter is a waste. I’m surprised that anyone at CFAI would bother to respond to this. Your issues have nothing to do with the transparency of the CFAI.
It’s a hard series of exams and it’s getting harder every few years. I’ve read all your responses and I’m not sure you have a legit argument.
If you’re mad you waste the time, fine. If you’re mad you spent a lot of money, fine. But don’t whine about it. Everyone here has run into the same issues you did.
If CFAI starts to publish min. passing rates, people may start to value of exam year above the other exam year, this is surely not in their interest and not in the Charterholders as well.
