I don’t have a degree in finance, I have no experience in the field, and I started studying from scratch. I also don’t plan to ever really use the CFA for anything at this point because my career path is leaning towrds marketing.
I have taken the test 2 times now. The first time I was band 7 with 51-70 in almost all topics. The second time (yesterday) I just got my band 10 fail.
I am thinking about taking it one more time but in December. I have other things I want to do and study so I don’t want this to be such a huge part of my life anymore. Do you think it is wise to take it again / take it in december or june?
My personal opinion: about 50%, if not more, of the people who are sitting in that room taking the exam are probably taking it for the wrong reasons. Everybody and their mother these days is signing up for CFA 1 because everyone around them is out of a job, it costs less than an MBA, and its seen as just an ace to have in your sleeve.
I worked my tail off and I passed on the first try, but its because I want to be doing this stuff. If you really don’t want to do this and just want something cool on your resume, why waste your time? Why are you going to be bending your brain learning how to calculate FX swaps if you know it will never be necessary for you to do?
If you want to be in marketing and you still have a thought of finance, get an MBA if you don’t already have one. Yes its more expensive but its also way more flexible than a CFA. Besides, since you’ve already gotten into band 10 you are probably in excellent shape to tackle accounting, econ, finance, and stats - that’s about 50% of your MBA core right there.
Actually, I was taking the CFA so I could get into a better MBA school! My undergrad grades were less than stellar and I thought having this on my record could be very meaningful.
Hmm. In my opinion, if you go for CFA again and then show up to the admissions committee at a top school selling them on how awesome of a marketer you will be, they are not going to look at the CFA with great admiration because they’ll think you really don’t know what you want and are hedging your bets everywhere. It would be almost the same as if you were to sit for the first CPA exam as far as they’re concerned.
If I were you I’d say that you took the exam twice seeing it as a challenge, and even though you did well, realized finance isn’t your main calling, but you gained knowledge that will be helpful in business for you (which is true, like I said you will have fewer problems in your core classes).
Then I’d invest the time you would have put toward a re-take of the CFA into a GMAT prep program so you can get your GMAT score above 700, and I think you’d still have time left after that to work on your marketing career credentials so you’d look more attractive to an admissions committee, e.g. participate in some campaign, etc. Trust me, way better investment of time than doing level 1 again in June!
CFA exams are not seen as academically rigourous by any reasonable uni admission…high gmat / good experience are far more important so perhaps focus more on these? Ofcourse having said that,passing the exams, all things being equal , is preferable to not passing these exams…being able to show some engagement with the subject when applying to unis is probably more reassuring than not being able to show it…Band 10 is very very close to passing and June is not that far away so perhaps you do not need too much revision to pass it next time.
Unless you have something better to do that demands your utmost attention, perhaps one more try is warranted !
I’d say best advice - talk to an admissions officer, but seriously I am 80% sure they’ll tell you they’d rather see something that helps your case in marketing. Think of any professional activity you can do to show you really love marketing and can do well in it over the next six to twelve months, and kick ass on the GMAT.
Actually… I don’t think I explained myself very well. I am the marketing director of a small company but I started studying for the CFA before I got this job. I decided to continue even though I found a job I really enjoyed because I did not want to just give up. At this point, I have gone so far that I feel like I need to continue.
At the same time, I do have other things I want to study and do that I consider more important… but band 10 is so close…
If you want to go to a top school you basically have to show them several things:
a. You kick a professionally and you are doing things to make yourself even bigger and better.
b. You kick a academically and can handle the work they throw at you.
c. You are a good ‘fit’.
C is who you are as a person which is based mostly on your past, and obviously the toughest and most subjective. That is where you can pay consultants to dress up your resume. A is what you have been doing with yourself thusfar and what you can still do to make your case in this area before handing in your app. B is what you’ve done in the past (GPA), and what you can still do to prove it (GMAT).
CFA should fit into category A, not category B.
The strongest argument for category B is a strong undergraduate GPA. If you don’t have one, your other choice is to nail the GMAT hard and heavy, comfortably into 700. I’d never sacrifice a 700+ GMAT score for CFA pass, because CFA is not viewed by b-schools in the same way esp. since you are a marketing person. The fact that you took the exam twice testifies that you have commitment, and that you bothered to study the material. You could, I guess, print out your last email where it says you got into band 10, and show that to them at interview and even log into your CFA site and show them.
Unless you are already regularly scoring 700+ on your GMAT practice exams, esp. having a good quant score which will set you apart from those who want to do marketing because they ‘hate numbers’, I would not even think about opening up another Level 1 book. But that’s just me, and your best bet is to ask the admissions officers.
I’m with Alladin on this one. Band 10 is so close and 4 months till June should be sufficient. Why wait until Dec, plus June pass rates have been higher (not that by a lot).
Focus on areas that let you down and I’m sure you’ll clear it this time round.
Passing CFA tests will not offer you any meaningful boost at grad school admissions.
I agree with some people above, the CFA program (while useful in what it teaches) is taken by too many of the wrong people with the wrong hopes/dreams.
The CFA program is best used as a supplement to a finance career. It provides little value as a “break into finance tool” and almost no value as a “break into bschool tool”
