@jlion1786 - Do you think the MPS will be lower this year?? I’ll probably score between 68% and 72% . . .
I need to plan on what to do next
@ turbo_agni
It’s too hard to tell right now. We are just a small percentage of people on this forum taking the exam and who are complaining about how hard it is. What if there are a whole group of people who thought the exam was easy?
The exam now that I think of it was not that hard but rather it really just tested you on concepts that if you knew WELL and I stress that word WELL you wouldn’t have a problem with it. Of course many of us including myself have problem sleeping the day before the exam which causes us to be our own worst enemy.
This might make a lot of you feel better.
For the december exam I felt I had a 50 50 chance to pass the exam. I went into the exam not knowing what the hell I was learning. I was avging about 56-64 percent on my mock tests. I was basically just memorzing methodology on how to solve problems and formulas which I had no idea meant what.
I ended up with a band of 10. I really felt if I did better in ethics and scored an ethics score above 70 percent I might have passed. So for you new people on the forums I cannot stress how important Ethics and FRA is.
FRA may only be 20 percent but this topic branches into fixed income, corparate finance and equity. So make sure to know your FRA and ethics well.
Here is the mistake I made. I took the 2 months off between waiting for the results. Instead of being either optomistic or pessimistic I did nothing. I should have just started reading the ethics portion again at least between those months because I mean it’s going to show up on level 2 again. This time around these 2 months I’m reading through level 2 ethics and FRA while waiting for the results.
I mean hey if I fail at least I got FRA and Ethics down that’s 35 percent, if I pass great I’m ahead of schedule and I just need to finish 8 other sections.
Eventhough there were about 30 problems that I did not really know how to answer I’m pretty sure I passed. So many of you who are worrying about missing 50 questions or something don’t worry. Most likely you can miss 70 questions on the test and you’ll still pass the exam.
My advice to you all from a 2nd time taker of the level 1 is enjoy your summer. If you are paranoid just start reading the ethics book review FRA a little bit while you wait for your results.
This is just a test and it doesn’t define who you are. Some people are just horrible at taking tests. Life and this is about how many times you can pick yourself up after you fail. If you choose to stay on the ground then you might as well just stay there and be pitiful the rest of your life. Everyone fails at one point in their life, the people who pick themselves up and try again will always do great things.
So guys don’t worry about it. Study a little bit but reconnect with your friends cause they are all wondering if you are still alive.
Thanks for ur thoughts. I think I should just hit the Gym, sit back and relax.
Don’t EVER listen to the people who say “if you can’t pass L1 on X number of trys then quit”. L1 (3x) and L2 (more than I care to remember) were both struggles for me, but I passed L3 in two trys. And guess what? My charter looks EXACTLY like those of people who cleared on their first try at each level. Also, I’ve never had anyone ask me how many times I took each level. Nope, not once.
As for not having a finance education…that doesn’t matter. You’re not defined by what you did at a university for four years. You still have an infinite capacity to learn new concepts.
Check out this thread in the L3 forum “Never say never”:
http://www.analystforum.com/forums/cfa-forums/cfa-level-iii-forum/91324301
Evaluate your efforts, in terms of both time and, most importantly, understanding of the material, and make your own decision.
My one piece of advice is do it while you’re young (if you are). If you quit at 25, you’ll regret it at 30 and preparing does get harder when you’re married and start having children.
Best of luck.
+1.
The NPV of taking 6 or 7 years to finish is probably pretty poor.
300 hours x 7 years x $100 an hour = $210,000.
You gonna make that back, incrementally, discounted?
I myself passed level 1 and 2 on first attempt but level 3 was a killer for me and im a retaker; HOWEVER some people struggled in level 1 and 2 and passed level 3 from first attempt. Don’t expect 1 answer from different people. It’s always a case by case thing and from how I see it, it depends on how BAD you need it. If earning the charter is really important then I dont care if I keep sitting for the exam for 10 years… if you believe it will give you a small added value then you better find something that’s more important for your career.
@ geo:
With all my respect, I’m not sure I understand the $100. At the peak of my career (in Central-Europe and not in Canada where I live now) my hourly salary came out about $40-45 (counting with the normal 60-65 hours per week which is a requirement). And it was a very well paying job…
@ Bilal:
Yes sure it all goes back to why you are doing it. There are some countries (I only have experience in Canada) where people on a job interview turn the whole page of 20 years of career and ask you why you don’t have a decent education? Obviously bachelors degree from 1995 does not qualify decent.
So in the end it’s not about CAREER (with capital letters) but any kind of entry level analyst job.
I used Elan and only went to the CFAI for the times when I needed more in depth explanation to understand the concept.
I have never read the full CFAI curriculum as a way of studying so I can’t say whether or not it’s effective, but I think that the cost-benefit of CFAI is much lower than for other study guides. The writers of the study guides do a lot of the optimization work for you so your time is most effeciently spent on the things that are likely to end up on the test. “Teaching to the test” as it were.
Your spare time is worth $100/hr? So your opportunity cost for taking the average crap is around $17? That’s one expensive dump.
My spare time is worth more than that, but I’m not a junior in this business. So yes it might cost me $20 to take a dump. I assume for someone already putting in lots of hours at work, overtime is worth more than your standard salary. Hence I guessed $100. Make it $50 and the NPV still sucks. And if you only make $50/hr, its harder to recover that difference.
It depends if you steal the study time from productive time during which you could have earned more money ($100 or whatever) or from time you would sleep, walk, read a book, go to gym or movies, spend with family or friends in leisure, i.e. unproductive time.
But this is a fruitless discussion, I agree if one realizes that is not able to pass any of the levels one should give up. I certainly will if I don’t pass for the 3rd time. Till then I’ll have to work on my test taking skills, which proved to be awful.
I wouldn’t mind if there were “lower level CFA like” designations for the less smart (or worse test takers) - there just aren’t.
^ I disagree. People take the CFA program to eventually earn more money. They could instead spend the time they were studying busting balls and doing something to earn cash. Studying for CFA and work are interchangable. You can definitely do a DCF on your study efforts. And many probably should.
I hear former trader say if you’re spending your time playing video games than CFA is a wise choice. I think you need to evaluate it further. Drop the games either way and consider either (a) working more, or (b) doing CFA. What’s going to pay you the most for not playing Halo 3 or whatever games are out there now.
The guys that are on the outside and probably won’t see much if any benefit from the program are probably making an irrational financial decision. Like an IT guy. He’s probably going to make more in IT. End of story. Now, if there are some intangibles involved, then fine. But I’m just saying after 3 spins, it’s probably time to really evaluate the cost you’re putting into something you’re probably not going to pass. 1 in 5 get the Charter. The guy that failed 3 times in L1 is not that 1 in 5. There might be a few out there, but it’s just fundamentally unlikely it’s you.
And the lower level CFA program is CPA.
…
Kidding but lets see if Greenie shows up.
hmm…nope CFA is the lowest u can get 
@ geo:
I always thought CPA is closer to accounting type designation. But I’m not a big connoisseur of designations (either age thing or just the geography I’m coming from). So thanks for the hint, I will look into the CPA definitely because it’s better for me to finalize some kind of education than to retire as an all time candidate.
And yes sure exam fee and cost of books is a totally lost investment if you don’t pass but the time itself it depends. If you work 10 hours a day and you earn 10x$100, but if 20 than 20x$100, I understand that. But in all jobs I’ve ever had I was paid for the “official” 8 hours and then depending on company/country/position/business cycle I had to work let’s say between 8-12 (never 20) - so I was always left with some free time. (Have never used it wisely thogh).
^ I was kidding about CPA. It is an accounting designation. Its also a cash cow with low risk. And yes, you get paid for 8 hours. But you could consult or what not on the side. That’s what I do when I feel like it. I also help run a side biz. Probably things I should have done instead of CFA (if I was purely money driven, but like I said, there are intangibles). Also depends on your undergrad and where you’re at in life and career of course. For some, the payoff may be greater than PV of $250k.
Oh and I beleived you about CPA. 
First I would say, try not to get bent out of shape before you get your exam results. I sat for the June exam and personally thought the exam was harder than any of the 6 mocks that I took prior. The highest score on the mocks I got was a 74%. I know for a fact that I didn’t do that well on the exam. My expectations were to walk out of the exam and feel like I did when I scored a 74% – pretty confident, it did not happen. When I took some time to think about how I truly did, I realized that I did know a lot on the exam, but there was some things that tripped me up. So depending on what your expectations were before you took the exam, just because you did not meet those expectations, doesn’t mean you failed.
Second, I am of the believe that while many people fail this is exam, most fail due to inefficient studying more than just not taking it seriously. Assuming that you are relatively intelligent (which I am assuming) if you spent 1200-1300 hours studying for this exam than I would cite that is your problem. There is defintely some room for improvement in terms of you studying efficiently, especially if you have already taken the exam.
For someone who scored a band 8 on the exam you shouldn’t need to study that long. You were pretty close that first time, so don’t get down on yourself, you were almost there! My guess is you are not allocating your time well to studying. Always try to find the best way to use your time when you tackle the material.
For example, I started writing, then typing out notes, in the beginning, but what I realized was that it didn’t make sense to type all that stuff out when I had already highlighted. I found it was better to just read over what I had highlighted, when there was something that tripped me up. Also. I found making charts for certain topics (when to use a Z test vs a T-test or differences between IFRS vs GAAP or backwardation vs contango vs roll yield vs convenience yield) helped more than just writing or typing out notes
Here are some things you might consider:
- If you are reading the CFA Books, stop reading them and spend most of your time reading the review guides (Schweser, ELAN, etc…). The information is truncated to cover the relevant information, and you get a higher ROI in terms of pages read relative to questions asked in the EOC questions. This will save you a massive amount of time studying, while still learning the material. I used the Schweser for my review
- Use the CFAI books, but use them for EOC questions or if there is something that you feel the review guide isn’t thorough enough in covering, refer back to CFAI books for further reference. The EOC questions in the CFAI are more challenging and really helps you look at the topics from a different perspective. Some people feel that you should read Ethics in the CFA book, but I didn’t feel that was necessary for the exam. I guess it just depends on the person here
- Take an adequate amound of exams at least 3, but I would say as many as 8-9. I took 6 (3 Schweser, 3 CFA). I didn’t sit for six hours in one day to take a mock. I would take the morn session on Saturday and the afternoon on a Sunday. I have taken long exams before and felt that I would mentally be ready for a 6 hour exam for the real thing. By splitting it up, I could review on half of the exam on Saturday and the other on Sunday. I didn’t have the much time during the week due to work so I felt that was the best use of my time
- Use Q- Bank if you can. Its basically 4000 questions covering the 10 topics in the curriculum. I don’t know if an equivalent is avaiable for the other review guides. The questions are more straight forward, but it really helped me with the learning the formulas, without really having to grind through the flash cards and memorize them. If you understand the components of the equations, I found it way more easy to remember. There is a conceptual benefit you gain from Qbank as well. Also, when taking Q-bank quizzes, it was more beneficial for me to do 10-15 questions quizzes at a time as opposed to 40 or 50 questions quizzes. When you are done with the quizzes, review what you missed. I looked forward to just working on a quick quiz and learning what I missed on a few questions, rather than taking a 50 question quiz and going over all 50 questions at one time. That was a bit of a grind
- Also Q-bank is good for going through mutliple topics (e.g. Econ, Quant, FRA, Corp Finance) all in one day. This can minimize forgetting certain topics that you have covered already. I did this later in the game before the June exam, but if I could do it over, I would have used Qbank a lttle sooner.
- Lastly, just going through the process I think being strong conceptually with regards to the material should not be taken lightly. Understand the cause and effect relationships. If this happens, how does this affect A, B, & C? I found that you have to go 2-4 levels deep on this material. Not just know the definition of a certain topic or remember a formula. CFAI has a way of asking questions that really challenge you here
Again, I am definitely not a pro in this area. I, like you, am waiting for my results for Level 1. From everyone that I have talked to, no one feels confident about how they did when they walked out. The last two bullet points are something I will definitely focus in on more the next time around (hopefully Level 2!)
I really do think if you improve on your studying efficiency you’ll see improvement. In the chance that you don’t pass this time around, I would strongly suggest taking it in December, while its still fresh in your head. Hopefully these tips are useful to you and you can dominate next time around be it Level 1 or 2! Good luck!
To answer some of your questions:
I have an accounting degree, but I got the degree in 2003, so its been awhile for me. And while I have the degree I don’t work in accounting (and never have). Even still the accounting curriculum in CFA is different from university accounting. CFA is more analyzing the Financial Statements which I did not do in accounting, and you probably won’t do unless you have some actual work experience in accounting. It was more debit and credit based at school, so its simliar but different.
I have a business degree, so I have some type of understanding of several topics. I can tell you the topic that were toughest for me on the exam were Econ, Equity Investments and Derivaties and Fixed Income.
- Derivatives I never really learned and as I got close to exam time I felt it was more pertinent to focus on a bigger topic like Ethics or FRA, than Derivatives (essentially, a topic that had a 5% weight and was not that easy for me to understand)
- Econ - mock exams scores in this area ranged from 50-80%, depending on what questions they asked - exam day I felt like I was somewhere in between
- Fixed Income generally did well on the mocks but felt like I struggled on the exam probably around a 60%
- Equity investments - always seems to get tripped up on the 2nd half of this topic, it never came together form. I usually scored between a 55-70%
Oh god. When I walked out of the exam room that Saturday I knew I guessed on a few questions… but I felt somewhat confident. Now I’m reading all these comments and I wonder if I’m completely fooling myself.
I only got really serious about studying in May, just because I was in complete denial for all of Feb March Apr… But then doing practice exams after practice exams, and going through Schweser’s quiz bank really helped, I think. I focused on Econ and quants just because I had never really studied stats before and my macro class in community college was a joke. I took a week off from work before the exam and probably studied 12 hours a day.
I also only got like three hours of sleep before the exam–my brain wouldn’t shut down–so my memory of the exam is hazy at best…
Oh and I studied so much in May and was so stressed my personal life just completely fell apart the week after the exam. Bah. July 29th, you better bring me some happiness.