Since we are paying a fortune towards registration and exam fees, does the CFAI give us access to the entire website, e.g. all the CFA publications ? If not, what all are we entitled to? Thanks,
no. you are entitled to 1 copy of the CFA curriculum, 1 exam ticket and 1 sample exam. i don’t know how you can seriously try to claim you’re paying a fortune – the price is a joke compared to even the cost of one undergrad term.
it’s a BIG amount for us Indians- after all, we are still a poor nation, you see!!
you get limited access to some publications, I actually made use of them for my international finance and corporate governance course here, extremely helpful!
crish_r2008 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > it’s a BIG amount for us Indians- after all, we > are still a poor nation, you see!! You have to pay to play.
I hear u crish_r2008, it is expensive when you’r e outside the U.S. And just last night I was reading Economics where the text explains marginal/average product etc using GPA (grade point average) as an example and referring to it as something “familiar”. Its only familiar if you are familiar with the schooling system in the U.S. British style education systems do not use that so its not familiar - there’s a bias right there!
I’ve wondered about this issue and thought it unfair. With India’s per capita income of $3963, round off the CFA L1 fee to $1000 and its roughly 25%. That same ratio with the US’s per capita income of $45,850 would be pretty hard to swallow for most Americans. The issue also brings up interesting ethical questions regarding the sharing of test prep materials. As CFA candidates, it’s repeated to us that sharing test prep materials is a violation of the CFA code. Some of these materials are expensive to many Americans and even the practice exams at $60/per could be construed as such. For those in poorer parts of the world these materials would be, proportional to amount of income, substantially more expensive. So the question becomes, how unethical is it for a student in India, who has a part time job to support his parents and siblings, to share materials? Is it more unethical for the student to pay $800 for his own set of notes and have his family go slightly hungry? Or for a student not to read shared notes but increase his chance of failing the exam and hence wasting $1,000 on the exam? If one doesn’t make it black or white (i.e. “Always a violation”) than it becomes hard to draw the line. Consequently, it becomes very easy for all test-takers to justify their use of shared notes (“I’m just a poor American college student…”) Making ethical standards black and white in theory is easy but applied to real world situations much murkier. Should a different punishment be meted out to a rich American who uses shared Schweser notes than a poor student who is responsible for his families well-being? Also raised is the question of whether the CFA exams in other parts of the world should be cheaper than in the US. This brings up the problems of test-taking arbitrage and, eventually, could lead to something like different CFA access rights for different regions of the world. The last thing the CFAI would want to do is dilute its brand, have CFAI full members in different tiers, and ever have the CFA designation not mean the same thing worldwide. I’m not sure what an equitable solution would be. My guess would be it’s something the CFAI has thought about though. It’d be interesting to find out their take. crish_r2008 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > it’s a BIG amount for us Indians- after all, we > are still a poor nation, you see!!
if you’re still in college and know someone who’s a charterholder, you can get sponsored and get a huge discount. the head of the finance dept. at my uni has a CFA and he sponsored me for the exam. i only had to pay 220 as opposed to a $1000+
CV, You have hit the nail on the head and at the same time, opened a Pandora’s box as well! I agree with ALL your points but alas, that’s the state of affairs-nothing we can do about it. In fact, if we combine Schweser essential solution with the CFA curriculum (which is supposed to be the ‘bare minimum’ to clear the exam-as I understand from all forums), even a guy who is placed in the middle management and is doing reasonably well compared to most of his peers will have to shell out a month’s pay. Not to speak of a newly passed out college grad or one with only 4-5 years exp or perhaps someone who is burning the midnight oil to make ends meet. I hope somebody from the powers-that-be is reading this and do something- or at least share their thoughts.
It’s not CFA Institute’s responsibility to make the curriculum and study notes cheap and available to every person on this planet. Should Harvard open the door and give a free ride to every farmer in China because it’s the nice thing to do while charging 100k+ to everyone else? If you can’t afford the $650 curriculum and exam fee, save up some cash or take out a loan. How many CFA charterholders do you think there are worldwide making $3,963? The cost/benefit is ridiculously low, especially compared to ANY other form of higher education outside of the public library.
Considering that Harvard offers substantial financial aid to its students based on the students’ financial backgrounds - effectively charging less to poorer students, you may want to rethink this part of your argument. McLeod81 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Should Harvard > open the door and give a free ride to every farmer > in China because it’s the nice thing to do while > charging 100k+ to everyone else?
CFIA is a business model, just like any MBA program or American Idol – is not clear to most of us yet? Unfortunately, not everyone has access or resources to buy the books. I believe education should be free or at least access to books for soughtful minds.
I believe most CFAI societies provide “scholarships” for candidates as well.
CFAI institute didn’t approach you to write the exam, but you are choosing to do so. Just pony up the fees like everyone else…I’m a student and $1200 is equivalent to 25% of what I make in the summer…does that mean I expect some sort of favourable treatment most certainly not. C’mon guys we have more important issues at hand, namely June 09 exam haha.
im pretty sure you don’t require CFA in order to work in a call center
> if we combine Schweser essential solution > with the CFA curriculum (which is supposed to be > the ‘bare minimum’ to clear the exam-as I > understand from all forums) Actually, the bare minimum to clear the exam is a combination of time and the CFAI text books. A lot of people pass these exams without buying anything from Schweser or Stalla. EDIT: Oh yeah, and you also need the desire and drive to work your @ss off.