Need to vent. I just don’t care anymore about the CFA. I am going to sit for this damn thing in 3 weeks and give it my best shot. I started this thing nearly a decade ago, and now I’m married. When I started the program I thought obtaining my charter would be a good way to open doors and get into the business, but now I see that the deck is stacked way against me now. I have friends and friends of friends that have 10+ years of experience with no job. Plus, I have a hellova rolodex of contacts in the business. CIO, CEO, analysts, you name it, I’ve probably got a connection. I just don’t have the patience anymore. I can’t sit for 3-4 hours straight and study. Too distracted by my blackberry, laptop, etc. Gah. I’m going to crush this thing in 3 weeks if it’s the last flipping thing I do. I’ll obtain my charter, and then never pay another penny to CFAI again. 
Oh, I made a small decision NOT to come here even though AF is my #2 bookmark in my browser. You guys stress me out. I’ll pop into a random LIII thread and notice all these formulas flying around and I get all stressed out. So - I probably don’t know most of you, but I have a good number of posts here.
wow. Did you take a break between each levels or just were plain unlucky? 10 years seem a very very long period. I would have given up. Hats off to you. Just keep going for 3 weeks and you never know you may get the charter this year.
Let’s see… I took LI in Jun00 Failed LII in Jun01, Jun02 Passed LII in Jun03 Failed LIII in Jun04 Took 05 off Failed LIII in Jun06, Jun07 Obtained my masters degree, took Jun08, Jun09 off Here I am. So, no, I haven’t sat for 10 years straight.
Something tells me you’re pretty covered on the work requirements at this point
Wise a$$, but I laughed.
CPierce, if you get your charter and you live in NYC then you’ve** got to start paying $200/yr to the Institute for the rest of your life, plus another $200 clams to NYSSA … so, it’s not your last penny to the Institute, only your 1st of many : ) **unless your employer covers this of course
After I obtain my charter, I may just decide to not pay my dues. I won’t use CFA on my title just tell people “Cpierce obtained CFA Charter in 2010”
Love your perseverance towards the program CPierce! This is my first and last attempt at L3 as I have decided to give it one last honest attempt before I decide to forego this program for good. Also am 0/48 on my work-ex
What pisses me off the most of L3 is the issue of hard recall with the AM exam. This is going to be the no.1 factor to make or break my chances. If they really wanted to make it an essay based exam, I wish they could make it a bit realistic too. Its not like when I need to get some work done and I need some information, I am going to be given a minute and a half to work on it. Ideal thing would be that you would check up on the necessary info. use the data, analyze etc. if you have any doubts. HOW to use the data and apply your knowledge as opposed to WHAT you know at that particular moment. In other words, I wish they allowed a cheat sheet or something. Ok, done venting. Back to B**ch work.
Pierce: You are tired. I’m tired. We are all F’n tired. The designation will do nothing for me professionally other than add some alleged legitimacy with the institutional consultants. So why do it? Because I said I was going to f’n do it, so I quit feeling sorry for myself and head to the library. The vent feels good for a bit, I know. And watching the brainiacs on this board swap formulas and such on foreign currency hedging off the top of their heads doesn’t help with the confidence. But if nothing else, take this with you: you passed level 2, so you can compete with any of the level 3 candidates. 50% passing rate: 10% probably were on the verge on not even bothering to show up because of lack of prep, 20% way understudied (life got in the way), 10% choke (sick on test day, personal issues), so all you have to do is beat out the other 10%. I am sure that is how I got past level 2. Hit the books my friend. You have over 2 weeks to push it to the end. I promise you these last two weeks will make the difference between passing and failing; venting will not. Too bad too, cause I can bitch with the best of them.
"50% passing rate: 10% probably were on the verge on not even bothering to show up because of lack of prep, 20% way understudied (life got in the way), 10% choke (sick on test day, personal issues), so all you have to do is beat out the other 10%. I am sure that is how I got past level 2. " I like your vision!
thanks bro, needed that pep talk
goes to eleven Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Pierce: > > You are tired. I’m tired. We are all F’n tired. > The designation will do nothing for me > professionally other than add some alleged > legitimacy with the institutional consultants. So > why do it? Because I said I was going to f’n do > it, so I quit feeling sorry for myself and head to > the library. > > The vent feels good for a bit, I know. And > watching the brainiacs on this board swap formulas > and such on foreign currency hedging off the top > of their heads doesn’t help with the confidence. > But if nothing else, take this with you: you > passed level 2, so you can compete with any of the > level 3 candidates. 50% passing rate: 10% > probably were on the verge on not even bothering > to show up because of lack of prep, 20% way > understudied (life got in the way), 10% choke > (sick on test day, personal issues), so all you > have to do is beat out the other 10%. I am sure > that is how I got past level 2. > > Hit the books my friend. You have over 2 weeks to > push it to the end. I promise you these last two > weeks will make the difference between passing and > failing; venting will not. Too bad too, cause I > can bitch with the best of them. Its the effective passing rate i.e. suckers who sat thru both the sessions…so that 10% you took out first comes back in. Ohh well…just gotta beat the 20% of the lot… I am F&%^n sick and tired too…not because I have studied very hard for it…more so because it took me two levels to realize that it is a BS of a designation. CFAs are like rolls of toilet paper at my work. We have got plenty of them and I don’t think bosses give a shit. In fact they are annoyed that more than half of the analyst team starts begging for leave come May/June.
Where the F do you guys work where people are annoyed at CFA designation and asking for time off to study!!! I work for an Asset Manager, and the CFA is highly regarded and people are very cool with taking time off to study. IN fact, I have and MBA from a top ten school and I was encouraged to get the CFA to “round me out”. From what I have seen, if you want to work asset managment, you better have a CFA (yeah I know its not noun jack@ss). Go look on PIMCOs website and see how many CFAs they have. Complain and whine all u want, but it means something…if you want to get into ASSET MANAGEMENT!!
I’m gonna love my CFA when/if I get it. And work is going to love it too. And I won’t regret having spent all those years doing it.
Cpierce, you get props from me for sticking with this so long. 99.99% of people would of quiet a long time ago. Nobody can say you never had your heart set on this exam. Just curious but what do you think was your biggest barrier from passing level 3 and finishing this exam back in the day?
When I said that the designation wasn’t going to do anything for me professionally, I meant as far as new job or more money (directly). Don’t get me wrong, I think it is a great program and I will slap the “CFA” on everything I’ve got. It has made me a much better money manager and I am glad I have come this far. But on a day-to-day basis, and as far as “career advancement,” I am too old for job hopping, ladder climbing and other typical “advantages” of the designation.
To address BiPolar - It’s really hard for me to pin down ONE thing that has prevented me from passing. I honest to god don’t remember my past scores (I’ve taken a few years off, and when I last took LIII they didn’t publish bands), but I know that fixed income on LIII has just given me fitz. A wierdly worded IPS will really mess me up too (the soccer player that had a millions of currency units but no further income was average risk tolerance still gives me nightmares…). Also, I’m somewhat bothered that the afternoon “only” has 60 questions. There is a part of me that would not mind 180 questions – but that’s left for another thread. goes to eleven - I could not agree with you more. A few weeks ago, my wife and I went out to dinner. I was telling her that I was running out of steam and just “didn’t care” anymore. She kept driving how much this will help me find a new job. I told her that I wasn’t a young pup anymore - when I started this designation, I wanted to land in asset management, but after seeing the carnage, and working alongside my clients (who are asset managers, I work for a service provider, think along the lines of Bloomberg), I’m not so sure they’ll even give me a chance given the depth of the talent pool right now. I’m going to sound like an ass here, but nobody is going to hire a 34 year old CFA with no experience in EM/PM for the salary that I need to put food on my table. I would have worked for free at 24 to gain that experience, but not anymore. So yes, this designation isn’t for “career advancement” anymore. I am too old for job hopping and entry level jobs.