To all my friends who are unaware and ask stupid questions, I just say: “Look at it this way, I’m not drinking until the end of the month ok?” And then they all understand…
This is an exhausting question. To complicate things even more for me I am a CPA. So I get “I thought you were already a CPA”. So, like someone else already posted, say "no not CPA, CFA. It’s a finance test - and leave it at that. In my opinion, having passed CPA and just taken CFA L1, they are pretty close in difficulty. I wouldn’t rank one higher than the other.
mmurphy_ia, I’m also a CPA and I agree with you 100% level is on par with the CPA exams. On the otherhand I found that Level II was much (did I mention much) harder than the CPA. As for Level III I’ll let ya’ll know in June. mmurphy_ia Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > This is an exhausting question. To complicate > things even more for me I am a CPA. So I get “I > thought you were already a CPA”. So, like someone > else already posted, say "no not CPA, CFA. It’s a > finance test - and leave it at that. > > In my opinion, having passed CPA and just taken > CFA L1, they are pretty close in difficulty. I > wouldn’t rank one higher than the other.
me too…“You are smart and have spent countless hours and time on this…you will pass” If not, maybe you should think of something else. Or…“why are taking this exam anyways…it is stupid” Or…" what? you still have 2 more levels to go!" It is exhausting to go thru with these…I lost a friend over this, the guy who said the second comment above…I just got too sick of hearing of it…and I went off on the guy who said the first comment, my roommate. Such is CFA life!!
idontcare Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > i told them “it’s just a finance test” easy… I say this ALL of the time. Still, older people are like “well what is it? its an mba? what can you do with it after you get it?” The problem is with us. We really shouldnt be talking about it, its kind of embarrasing to not pass, even though its okay to not pass the test. i mean, its meant to be hard, i would almost say that the test its meant to be failed. Sometimes i say, its to finance people what a cpa is for accountants. and leave it at that.
One guy said that I was doing it purely for money.It was the most nonsense statement ever made.There are other ways to make money.So why the hell I am spoiling my youth and my weekends over this. Let them say when you will have the CFA and others won’t then they will understand and tell to others my friend is a CFA and he earns so and so.
I think that CFA and CPA are likely on similar levels of difficulty, although the difficulties come from different aspects. I sometimes say “It’s a bit like a CPA, but for investment managers rather than accountants.” That gets a first-order approximation. Some important differences: 1. The law REQUIRES that you have a CPA to provide certain kinds of accounting services; CFA is not legally required for anything, but it’s becoming a de-facto requirement for hiring staff. 2. There are substantially MORE CPAs (because of the legal requirement) than CFA charterholders. There are slightly more than 100k charterholders in the entire world. The 100 thousandth charter (ever) was only awarded late this year. There are many CPAs, and there are also Chartered Accountants (CAs) and equivalent designations in other countries. 3. CFA is three exams that you must pass in sequence; CPA has a set of exams that can take simultaneously. There are rules in the CPA about how many times you can repeat and how much you have to pass at the same time (more than one exam at a time, I think, or you go back to the start)
Having passed levels I & II of CFA as well as CPA. I am of the opinion that CPA = CFA level I in diffculty. I found Level II to be harder. I’ve yet to take level III so I’ll tell you in June
If someone is REALLY getting annoying about it, I’ll just throw out those out-dated mean / median salary numbers. Usually shuts them up for awhile.
yeah… I live in Brazil…so, if people do not know what the CFA is in the US, imagine here!!! (we have in Brazil arroung 500 people with the CFA - if that) Besides the fact that people are not familiar with the CFA, people think you are an ass because you have to turn down every offer to go out !!! “you got to study on a holiday???” Someday they will see, I think!
UndergradCFA Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > > Can’t tell you how many times I’ve told someone > that it stands for Chartered Financial Analyst, > and the pass rate is 35%, and the first thing out > of their mouth is “That’s stupid. Why even do it > if only 1/3 people pass?” This line of thinking is nuts. If the pass rate was 85% then it would be worth doing?!? How backwards is that?
*slams head against wall* no, I am not an accountant…
I just simply say “it’s a finance thing.” Once I had from an insurance broker “oh I have taken that and passed.” And another was 1 week before the level I test and I was very stressed and found $20 on the ground at a parking lot and picked it up and my mom said “that’s a sign that you will pass the test.” are you kidding me? please calculate the correlation between the two. I did horrible on the test and 2 months later I found out I failed
Dude: Hey, you’re coming to the pool party Saturday right? CFA Level I Candidate: No man, I’m studying. Dude: Studying? Thought you were done. How hard can that test be? You’ve been studying for months! CFA Level I Candidate: Yeah its pretty rough, passing rate is around 30%. Dude: Whatever man, you only need to score 30%! Come to the party. CFA Level I Candidate: No, I mean only 30% of test takers pass the test. Dude: Whoa. Must be pretty hard. CFA Level I Candidate: yes. Dude: Can you come to the BBQ on Sunday? CFA Level I Candidate: Lose my number…
sevago00 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I just simply say “it’s a finance thing.” > Once I had from an insurance broker “oh I have > taken that and passed.” > And another was 1 week before the level I test and > I was very stressed and found $20 on the ground at > a parking lot and picked it up and my mom said > “that’s a sign that you will pass the test.” are > you kidding me? please calculate the correlation > between the two. I did horrible on the test and 2 > months later I found out I failed I read this today and then went out for lunch and saw a $20 bill just lying around on the floor…I thought about it…but heck I took it anyway. haha (it’s a joke. I live in Venezuela: there would be NO $20 bills just lying around on the ground)
idontcare Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > i told them “it’s just a finance test” easy… That is exactly what I say. I don’t like wasting my breath on people who will give bewildered looks anyway
“it’s like a masters in finance with 15 courses per year that you study by yourself and take a test every june”
why bother explain? to hell with them, when you get your charter you can buy another family that is 10x better:)
- recently got tagged as “anti social” for refusing to go kayaking before the exam
“only 35 % people pass? why would you take it then?” It’s supposed to be hard, the hard is what makes it great. If it wasn’t hard everyone would do it. I take a lot of pride in how difficult the test is. When people hear about how much time I spend studying for it and they think I’m crazy. Then I think, that’s not crazy. What’s crazy is working a dead end job for the rest of my life.