an actual conversation I recently had: woman I work with: “so, what are you studying for?” me: “it’s called the CFA exam- chartered financial analyst” “what is that, a masters degree?” “no, it’s just a series of exams” “what is that, like an MBA?” “no, it’s not an MBA either” “what is that, a CPA?” “no…” [sigh]
I explain that it’s a bit like a CPA for people who do financial analysis and portfolio management. I then say that there are three exams, each given once a year (except for L1), and that they each have very high failure rates. 70% at Level 1 and it drops to about 50% failure at Level 3. As for comparisons to Ph.D., it’s not as hard as a whole Ph.D. program, but the intensity of study does feel approximately comparable to what’s needed for the comprehensive exams one needs to pass before doing a dissertation.
commstudent Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Was being sarcastic… > > Big Babbu Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > I’d think a PhD in math would be pretty > > prestigious. I also think it would be pretty > time > > consuming and you’d have to be fairly bright to > > complete one. > > There are alot of other letters that probably > > shouldn’t be compared to the CFA exams in terms > of > > difficulty or time consumption, but I don’t > > necessarily think a PhD in Mathematics falls > into > > those categories. But, I’ve never gone through > it, > > so I could be totally off base. Yeah. Right after I posted I thought that may have been the case so I went and re read your post. Even then I wasn’t totally sure. That’s the problem with email\blogs\boards…it’s hard to pick up sarcasm unless you are very familiar with the writer.