I know this question has been discussed before, but i would like to raise it again. if one gets a finance undergrad from a top US or Canadian school, would it be equivalent to getting a CFA in terms of knowledge? How much of the material can a finance grad be expected to learn in the CFA. We have a bet with this new guy here. He says he can pass L1 with 3 weeks of studying. He is definitely an intelligent but he says its not because he is intelligent but because its nothing new. everything in the cirriculum including L2 and L3 was covered in his undergraduate courses (u of t). i think he will succeed.
If he studies the right stuff, he shouldn’t have a problem with L1. He’ll need a lot more studying to pass L2. He’d fail L3 miserably. Not really because it’s harder, but L3 is full of stuff they don’t teach at the undergrad level, and more importantly, it’s full of stuff where you need to learn “CFAI’s way to do it”.
our bet right now is only on L1 since he problably won’t be here when L3 comes around. they’re giving me 1 to 1 odds, which i think its a good bet. HOldside, can you be a bit more precise with regards to “CFAIs way to do it”.