HAHA! 
Excellent posts, all around.
Thank you MR. I am glad you enjoy my content, all around.
to be fair, i did take econ/acct, cuz it was easier to get an a than STEM classes. i took a lot of liberal arts classes like sociology, psychology, and anthropology. stacked the odds
I dont know that any of the material in itself is incredibly complicated, its the fact that you have so much material on one exam that makes it challenging. L1 is significantly easier than L2 due to the formatting alone let alone material being more challenging. L3 brings in the open ended format which is another challenge. If you look at it in a vacuum sure its not hard, but when you have everything riding on an exam they give once a year and you only get 120 questions as in L2 if they hit an area you are weak on you could be in trouble.
huh? brosef is just making things up as he goes
Although the OP is a total troll, he isn’t incorrect to say that the exam material isn’t that difficult. You do need to put in a decent number of hours due to amount of material and everything riding on one exam. The factors that make it difficult are working a full time job that demand longer hours / other time constraints and the self-study aspect.
What completing a CFA demonstrates for me is work ethic, self-discipline and demonstration of some financial acumen, which are very important attributes when selecting candidates.
CFA is a joke for people with rigorous majors. You have to remember all the formulas nothing too complicated complex in them. None have taken pattern recognition or logic circuits. If the hardest courses is intermediate accounting 3 then sorry for you brain
Completely agree with last 2 posts.
We had this discussion back in the General forum a few years back and I got $hit for saying essentially the same thing. The exam requires discipline and time but is no way rocket science. People who complain about the complexity of the exams make us finance folks look like cry babies. Perhaps I simply know too many engineers, actuaries and med graduates.
Context is everything.
If someone is voluntarily offering up that they are taking the CFA exam and it’s really hard in attempt to garner sympathy or for his or her audience to be impressed… douche.
On the other end of the spectrum, if someone is trying to downplay the difficulty of the CFA exam to put themselves on some intellectual pedestal… douche.
I feel like this site wouldn’t exist if there wasn’t varying levels of difficulty to the CFA program. It’s all in the eye of the beholder. Obviously time is a huge factor, but there are plenty of candidates that come in with little to no finance/econ/math backgrounds. We’re really going to sit here and belittle their struggle with certain concepts in attempt to fluff up how smart we are?
Analyst Forum, when you can’t get your rocks off in real life, here’s your second chance.
CFA books are not hard, indeed they are made to be totally understood in a reasonable amount of time. However, background is important. People changing careers will have trouble (despite of they are geniuses or not). The fact here is that CFA exams are not that hard too if you put enough effort, time and commitment. Another unique thing of extracurricular exams is that they are upon your personal time organization. Not all people can study without having a teacher and a class schedule!!.
I will hate MBA… (if I ever take one).
The best expression I’ve heard is that the CFA curriculum is one inch deep and a mile wide.
CFA is mostly about discipline and material retention techniques (Which to some come naturally and some has to master)
tank you come again.
There is no single job in the whole world that apply all the knowledge tested in the CFA Curriculum. That’s why it is 1 inch deep and a mile wide.
Studying for the CFA exams is like getting into a relationship with a hot, but extremely needy girlfriend that’s promising anal. Starts off sounding like a great idea; you think it’s what you want; you’ve heard a lot about it; you get all excited and may get a quick win with a finger in the bum [or level one]…but then the honeymoon period quickly subsides. The perks almost seem like it’s not worth it considering the huge time suck it is, you give up so much of who you are but you keep telling yourself it’ll get better. Your friends haven’t heard from you in a while, but you keep telling them it’s worth it. You have that juicy carrot being dangled in front of you. You’re visualizing how great it will be to finally get in there, to join the club…unfortunately, many won’t make it; they just give up. ‘Fcuk the tush!’ they say. For those that stick it out - are ‘disciplined’ enough to put up with the process - they get the tush in the end…and you know what? some will love the tush and some will say it’s not all its cracked up to be…either way, their efforts are admirable.
Seems like only those with hard STEM majors can. Please, enlighten us simple CFA folk with your vast knowledge of finance…
I always find it so cute that people from developing countries are so obsessed with the topic studied at undergrad level. It seems related to the fact that people from developing countries are also overly focused on gaining letters vs actually developing personally or planning a career trajectory. In the the UK you study whatever you like and nobody really cares.
“I must study Politicks and War that my sons may have liberty to study Mathematicks and Philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematicks and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce, and agriculture, in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, musick, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelaine.” John Adams