28…started school late…graduated at 26…2 years retail financial sales…level 1 done…5 year old, 18 month old, and 4 month old…spending now until may learning excel/vba…level 2 in june 2014, planning 13 months of study… was studying 4 nights a week after kids went to bed until 10:30/11:00pm…then 5-7 hours each weekend day for most of the weekends…had a baby 2 months before the test…Greenman is right…I’m no genius and I’m sure neither is he, but you’ve gotta have the commitment and make the sacrifice of not seeing your kids, your wife, your girlfriend, your friends, your mother…whatever it is until the time is up…then it becomes so much more valuable
Higgs is right when he says GreenMan is more right than wrong. I’ve been a charterholder for several years, been pretty active on this forum and watched a lot of people go through the process and have a pretty wide network of CFA friends. I will say that ON AVERAGE , the CFA will interfere significantly with your family life and personal life and health. These are very common complaints for candidates, especially married ones or ones with children. I think the fact that some critics are saying they failed L1, but it shouldn’t interfere with aspects of your personal life is kind of funny because they clearly don’t know what it does or doesn’t take to get through three levels. Like many, I came from a pretty spotty academic background initially (bad student) and the learning curve was very steep for me. That doesn’t mean that an English major with good study habits couldn’t rock the exam. Like Greenman, I used to write a lot of well intentioned posts perhaps a bit overzealously and get frustrated when candidates who haven’t been through the process felt they were in a position to trivialize the effort it takes.
THAT BEING SAID , I’ve known many smart cookies that sort of just glided through the CFA process and made it look triflingly easy. I also watched a guy dust LI like a MoFo with no calculator and make it look pretty carefree. At first their attitude was frustrating, but then you just learn to shake your head and laugh out of respect for their talent. So, it can be a very different experience for some (a minority). But the overwhealming majority that approach the exams this way get slammed pretty hard by LI, or if not, then LII.
I think after the charter, people generally tend to cool their jets a bit and question whether they would have approached the process with as much zeal, or sacrificed so much, or even done it at all. I’m decidedly neutral on the subject, and it is pretty common to meet charterholders that underwhelm you with their generally lack of intensity on the subject.
Thanks for the words of wisdom, BS. Maybe I have a little too much zeal.
My two favorite posts on this thread so far:
“Stop whining, Greenman. My family supported me through it because I wasn’t an “asshat” through the whole process. Get your priorities in order.” (from a Level 1 failure)
“The exams really aren’t that hard. I failed many times before I finally passed.” (from a Charterholder)
a) You have somehow achieved 3rd world problems in the UK. Congrats? You won the contest?
b) You don’t believe 1st worlders have significant problems. Probably because 1) you haven’t grown up enough to have enough problems of your own or 2) you’re just a hypocrite that pretends he’s never complained.
c) You haven’t actually completed any of these things so you really have no business building yourself a pedastool. You have no idea what level of hard work it takes to get there.
Your grammar suggests some combination of b) and c). Good luck with everything, you got a better response than your pointless comment deserved.
My comment was perhaps a little flippant but some of the condescension in this thread is mind boggling and frankly helps no-one.
Feeling thoroughly patronised I think I’ll leave you and greenman to remind us all of how hard it really is and how we all are “rookies”, as well as stomping on anyone who tries to put a bit of humour out there. At the end of the day guys its only 3 exams, if you want to do it, do it, if you don’t, don’t.
One thing is for sure though if I pass these three exams you can be sure I will not come back here and patronise anyone.
In the words of Mark Twain…,
“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.”
If you don’t mind hearing the perspective of another charterholder…
If you’re determined to complete the CFA program because you think it would really help your career or because you just want to learn a lot more about finance, then fight on.
If you’re determined to pass L1 mainly because you’re not used to failing things and you want to kick its butt… well, ok. But if you pass L1, then what? Go back to #1 above and make sure that you’re doing this for the right reasons, and not as an ego trip.
Yes, L1 is cake. L2 and L3 are significantly harder. Huge time commitments, health issues, family issues, insane pressure to pass a test offered only once per year. I passed all three exams on the first try, but if I’d have failed L3 I don’t know if I would have done it again. Heck, even now I don’t really want to contemplate what I would have done if I’d failed, and I passed four years ago.
thanks for your posts. People need to hear the truth and be honest with themselves and what is needed of them to succeed. I have been putting in a lot of time studying for level one and I know it will increase exponentially for each level. I want advice on how to succeed not on how to feel good about myself. I’m not 8 years old. Cheers.
The harder the better. It just means lesser people getting CFA.
I failed this Dec 2013 and am retrying again.
Even though I came from engineering background, I use this excuse the first time. But there is no excuse the 2nd time.
I need a different approach, either join a group study or spent some money on classes.
I also plan to come to this forum every day. THe best way to learn is to fail. Some users in this forum tend to give incorrect answers only to be correct by S2000Magician and some others. But we can learn a lot when someone giving wrong answers is corrected.
Learn from your mistakes. As Socrates said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Take time to determine what went wrong. More often than we would like to believe, failing the test results from not adequately knowing the material or not being prepared for the exam style. Did you not put in enough quality hours? Did you focus on the wrong sections? Use the results of the score breakdown to determine this. Should you have done more practice problems and mock exams? This can be a painful exercise because it puts the ultimate responsibility on you. However, it is necessary if you want different results in the future.
Determine a new approach. Plan how you will tackle the exam next time. This does not mean completely changing all methods of study. Rather, you should keep what is working and discard what needs improvement. This should give you confidence of future exam success.
The CFA exam process is not easy. Fewer than 20% of candidates pass all three exams on their first attempt, so you are not alone. Look to the future and visualize receiving the passing result from your Level III exam. With perseverance and a well-planned strategy, you will ultimately succeed.
There are some folks who just want to pass level 1 and get entry into the world of finance and “maybe” after few years consider doing level 2 and 3.
I am from software development background and I didnt pass yesterday (even after putting serious efforts) but I did learn fantastic thing about the market and finance.
I am not letting all my hard work go in vain and giving one more try to level 1 in June to gain entry to the world of finance. Would I go for level 2 or 3 after that? Who knows!!
Greenman – What I would really love, and I’m sure the rest of this forum would love, is for you to stop going on and on about these exams as if you’re teaching a high school class advanced quantum physics. There’s not much to this: you study, you’ll pass.
Also, just because you’ve been so arrogant so many times, I would suggest you get your priorities in order. If you’re so busy with work, and raising a family, might I suggest you not waste time posting irrelevant useless posts on this forum like the one I just read above. You might feel like you have more time that way.
Seriously? You think passing Level 1 will get you “entry into the world of finance”?
And you’re taking the test, but don’t want to become a charterholder? Am I reading this right?
And has anybody noticed that the only people who hatin’ on the old Greenman for sharing his opinions are the Level 1 candidates? Nobody who has passed Level 2 or Level 3 are arguing with me. Just food for thought.
