less than 10 days till the real thing, hopefully this is the last test for everyone. (apparently i have no idea is it difficult / easy to apply to be actually certified) im thinking to start this thread to post why you start cfa journey in the beginning and maybe the reminiscence helps to boost the last few days
Me: took and passed Lv 1 when Jr year in college (8years ago), thinking it might help me to land a job and it did. registered Lv 2 for 3 times (employer sponsored, so i chose no show-up on exam day : ) ) and finally sat for it last year. Now taking Lv 3, with no bonus/promotion, only to finish what i’ve started.
Personally, I wanted to increase my knowledge of overall finance and asset management as well. Never expected it will automatically open doors for me but in the mid to long term I expect to have some benefits in the job market. Currently I am on an 18 months track and hoping to pass because last two years were brutal (barring the six months period between L2 and L3). I am exhausted right now as I am pumping those hours really hard in order not to see the exam ever again. But the motivation to study and pass is real. So can be the stress at times. But after I get everything done, I will look back and be proud of the commitment and those three designation letters that will come after I name.
I feel like I read somewhere only 8% of candidates pull that off (L1 Dec, swing to L2 in June, and then full year until L3). I hope you are one of them! I tried, but was so burnt out from L1 I couldn’t grasp everything for L2 and failed (though I was close)! Good luck!
Same thing happened to me, L1 Dec 15 followed by a L2 fail band 10 June 16 as by the time I had my L1 results and started studying I had c. 4 months of prep time which was not enough. Resat L2 June 17 and passed. Year off 2018 due to arrival of my daughter. 2019 is hopefully the year this finishes (although nearly half of candidate will be dissapointed)
Never have I studied this much and still felt insecure about my knowledge. Saying that 300 hours is sufficient was the biggest lie I have ever been told!
Lol if you went through Marcs level up course. He said to truly master everything you had to do everything 5 x. So his exam binder, eocs, blue boxes, white text examples, topic tests and the 2 mocks they give you. The exam binder has stuff going back to 2006…can you imagine the time it would take to do all that 5 times O.O. You’d have to be close to 1200 hours or something.
Level 1 Ethics was such simpler times. “analyst overhears conversation at a bar between two CEOs about merger, and trades on the info the following morning. what standard was violated?” now we have the analyst whose cousin (a fee paying but non-discretionary client) overhears the conversation and tells the analyst, who spills the beans to his junior analyst before executing the trade in the names of highest fee paying clients. the junior analyst sleeps with the new intern in the investment banking group and shares the info with the intern who is unpaid and works only 5 hours a week for the firm. [insert 20 other twisted stories and dependencies]. Who is in violation? 1. The analyst’s cousin’s boss’s intern’s father 2. The analyst’s cousin’s ex girlfriends’ ex’ mortgage broker 3. Yes.
Yep I think I’ve reached terminal velocity with this exam. Not sure I can absorb much more. Just counting the study hours with the lady and lost track after 500 for L3. I also just started my “vacation” time for the next week lock down and am beginning with a cold miller lite. Week long death spiral begins tomorrow.