What pecent of the population do all those profeessions constitute? Surely less than 10%
when i mentioned walmart, i was referring to the customers, not the employees. THAT is the average american. I think we are often sheltered to what average really is
Less than 10% combined, even in US? Wow! I thought they would be at least 30-40% of the US population since all the professions mentioned above require a bachelors degree as a minimum.
wow, i didnt know americans are so smart. 50% of the non-tax paying us population could pass CFA exams if they put stamina into it? jesus, are you writing this under crystal influence or what? the messages in this thread make me think this forum is detached from reality, but since i have just passed my L3, I shall not spend any more substantial time here…
You didn’t understand Itera’s post. Reread it.
Hint: Where you put 50% in your sentence makes a big difference.
Stop it with this nonsense. The work is the hard part of anything. The work is the hard part of the CFA exam. The work is the hard part of med school. That’s the point.
Let’s take a real step back - there are 3 exams, the first two are entirely multiple choice, and you only need something in the high 60’s to pass, yet, L1 and L2 only have 45% pass rates, and even after weeding out the “weaklings” at thsoe levels L3 STILL HAS A 50% PASS RATE. The exams are freaking hard, and although a lot of people probably could do it, most don’t, and that’s the point of doing it.
As for the cirriculum being shallow - it appears relatively shallow to those of us who work in finance, but to say an engineer or IT professional, this is pretty deep finance. Relative to the entire field of medicine, med school is pretty shallow, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a huge accomplishment.
First, let’s conclude that the people who say shit like “with enough time, I can do xxxx” are typically losers who have not accomplished much.
Now, my honest opinion. CFA exams aren’t necessarily a test of your intelligence. As some have said above, one of the toughest parts is the immense amount of materials you have to go through resulting in hundreds of hours of commitment.
Now if you let some unemployed student who’ve graduated from university and has all the time in the world to study for the exam, he will pass eventually.
It becomes much more difficult if the person is working AND taking the exam, especially if he/she is working long hours (i.e. 60 hrs +) in finance field.
Lastly, this thread is stupid.
african americans, chinese americans, native americans, or european americans?
all hard tests require a time commitment. Im sure that with enough time, any of us could pass any exam in the world. You have to ask yourself, what test is so hard that no amount of time in the world would result in you passing?
male or female. straight or LGBT. Red state or blue state. IT guy or non IT (the last one is racist and offensive, i dont mean it, apologies, IT is a decent job, there’s no shame in being an IT, a friend of mine is an IT guy)
Most people in this thread are underestimating the idea of getting $10,000,000 to pass some exams. People would live on welfare while studying for the whole year. They’d sign $100,000 contracts to paid upon final completion for each exam their tutor helped them pass. I’m sure everyone here could teach someone to pass this exam if they were marginally intelligent and you had patience. I don’t think a college degree is required to pass this. So yea… I’d bet to say over 70% of Americans could pass. I’m not saying in three years, but they’d finish in their lifetime.
An IQ of 100 is average by definition and actually makes you fairly thick in our World. The average car dealership service writer probably has an IQ higher than 100. I would guess I haven’t had more than a sixty second conversation with somebody of average intelligence since grade school. Those that have taught an average grade school class should chime in here. Hell, I can remember twenty word vocabulary tests that people found difficult. Think they got the chops to pass these exams? Not a chance.
But the incentive has changed. The effort now goes towards an incredible monetary benefit not an arbitrary grade.
“Accountants”, funny. Notorious for failing Level II. Yeah, I think most doctors would get through. But, only because of their crystalline intelligence, Amazingly, a majority of doctors are lacking when it comes to fluid intelligence. Probably caused by the rote memorization needed for medical school. A travesty.
Do you know a few “average” people? Some have trouble understanding the difference between a mutual fund and an IRA. Hell, I know teachers that struggle with that concept. I would hope most of them are least a little above average. Definitely the case, actually.
You can’t motivate people to get off their asses to save their lives or prevent themselves from losing eyesight and limbs to diabetes and you think an abstract $10M will motivate? Most will say, “ahh its too hard” after an hour and return to Survivor season 42. You greatly overestimate the average person. Greatly.
Your instant gratification argument falls apart in your example. People on The Biggest Loser see results (albeit small) almost immediately, and they see results continually. People studying for the CFA exams see (meaningful) results at most after six months – and for Level III (at least) after one year – so it’s arguably a lot easier for their discipline to wane.
agreed. and thank god there’s so many lazy people who have no motivation. Imagine if every single person was hard-working, super ambitious, and would do anything to get ahead. Imagine the insane competition…
Now the flip side is when you get too many lazy idiots. since everyone gets 1 vote, you end up voting in dumb laws that cater to the lazy… free healthcare for the poor/ lazy. free welfare. free… free… how do we pay for all this?? i know. let’s tax the hardworking successful folks. problem solved
I think this is true for most intelligent, hardworking people. We tend to look around at our friends/colleagues/peers/circle of influence and equate them as “average”.
For example, most of the people I see daily have at least Bachelors degrees, and some have Masters degrees. Most of us are CPA’s who are used to working at least 40 hrs a week, maybe 50 or 60 or 70. Could we pass the CFA exam (given enough study time)? Most likely.
But then again, we’re not really “average”. The average person doesn’t have a Master’s. They don’t have a Bachelor’s. The average person probably has 20 credit hours at the local community college (most of it in English), works as little as possible to earn a paycheck, then goes back home so they can watch Duck Dynasty or The Simpsons.
Yep, very true. i think we are all guilty of this. I remember reading how something like 45% of elementary school students are on free or reduced school lunch. This blew me away. i didnt know a single person on this. It shows how sheltered we really can be.