Passed L1 wooooo
...............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Flunked with a band 9. I'd be way more pissed off, if I didn't score a PE internship this week. I'm still happy as a clam. The CFA is for ER nerds anyway. =]
Not just for ER nerds. For us traders who are just passionate about Finance and want an expanded network, i.e. CFA Society. Also, it looks better if you're a trader and work for the buy side.
Failed band 9 as well. Sucks.
Passed L1, 5 sections 51-70%, 5 sections 70%+... time to get rolling on L2 after a few celebratory drinks
Failed Band 9. 1000 bucks wasted. FML
i passed. got a note from the ceo of my company that i will be reporting to a corner office tomorrow rather than my usual cubicle.
Wait what
Wait what
Come on man, don't try to be funny in this thread.
Come on man, don't try to be funny in this thread.
Passed L1.
No e-mail as of now. Tension buildup is immense.
Somehow managed to fail ethics of all things. Just curious I read somewhere if you fail ethics you cannot pass the exam, is that the case?
As far as I know, the ethics section is a determinant for those who are between passed and failed. Your performacne in this section makes it a pass or a Band 10...
Not necessarily, I got Band 10 while getting 70%+ on the Ethics portion when I took CFA I the first time. I was none too pleased...
Can anyone comment on a particular strategy that they would employ again or not employ again? Taking level 1 in June.
I used the Schweser material (books and Q-bank), only read the Ethics section of the CFAI material, and then hammered out all the EOC questions from CFAI. Personally, I felt that there is just too much to read from CFAI, depending on how much time you plan to prepare for, reading speed, etc. I then spent the last week and a half reviewing CFAI questions, both from the books and online, and I felt pretty confident on test day.
If you guys worked at a bb as trader, did they help pay for it?
Or in general, do bb's help pay for it
I barely passed it. I studied for only 4 weeks using Schweser material, qbank is key.
Question: Can I repeat this strategy for Level 2, June 2015?
From the people I have talked to, it seems that Level II is harder than Level I. Apparently the Q-Bank is not as effective for Level II because of the style of questions that are asked on the exam. I'm sure it also depends on how comfortable and familiar you are with the material.
You have no idea. Starting Level II now after getting 4 sections >70% and 6 sections 51-70% on the December 2013 exam. Level II is another level.
I passed... barely.
=50%: Econ, Quant >70%: Alt Inv., Portf. Management
6 topics within 51-70%.
I need a break and will NOT be taking the CFAII this June. Also, it's a beast and starting now doesn't allow for enough time to study.
I passed... barely.
=50%: Econ, Quant >70%: Alt Inv., Portf. Management
6 topics within 51-70%.
I need a break and will NOT be taking the CFAII this June. Also, it's a beast and starting now doesn't allow for enough time to study.
Thank you M_Mitchell08. Would you buy the books from Schewser again or just the Q-bank?
I passed level I with only the Schweser, Level II with almost only the Schweser notes, and since my work covers it ahead of time got the biggest Schweser kit since I don't want to mess around and deal with taking level III twice. Twice for Level II was enough! I think Schweser is the way to go, cuts out on the crap and gives you a few more practice tests.
I'm in the same boat as Cubsfanatic, work covers it so I'll be purchasing both. Probably start with reading only Schweser again - and see how prep test / EOC go. If I'm struggling in certain areas, I'll hop back to CFAI and read the material.
failed band 9 for second time in a row
Passed.
51-70%: Econ, Ethics, FR&A >70%: Alts, Corp Fin, Dervs, Equity, FI, PM, Quant
There's no way I'm taking level II this year.
Congrats to all.
Coming from someone who passed L2 but is not taking L3, I do not recommend taking level 2 unless you really need the designation. It is a different exam that is much more challenging. Level 1 provides a lot of signaling that you know finance and that's great. If you applied the work you need to do on level 2 (which is 100-200 hours really) towards getting a job in finance (or working in your existing career) I think it will help your career more.
CFA also really needs to redo their quant section. This isn't the 1970s anymore and Breusch Pagan is a poor heteroskedasticity test. Taking the CFA's quant section is like a geography test that first asks you which city is the capital of West Germany and then asks you "What is the area of the Aral Sea?" Sorry but since the Aral Sea has been shrinking for the past 60 years, whatever the test makers think is the correct answer is wrong... And you're not 100% sure what they think the right answer is.
Note to CFA: Either hire a competent CMU, Princeton, NYU, Berkeley, Stanford or Columbia Financial Engineering prof to redo the quant section, or kill it.
See Jared Dillian's article on the CFA exam. My take: once you sign up for L2, the CFA Institute has claimed 500 hours of your life (+ 2 8 hour exams). Level 1 is a good signal. I don't think L2 helps you.
But everyone in India / China is going at it, it may be a signal that he industry is getting more competitive, thus we need/must have it?
Seriously, after passing L1, No Visa required >>> L2.
ye but imagine all the girls you're gonna get with CFA L2
/sarcasm
Just curious, how much did you study for it?
Probably studied 150 hrs from Christmas to August, 50 hours after
passed after getting a job in ER and having to pass the Series 7, 63, 86,& 87 and ramp up in coverage. I studied ~60 hours total. Ordering Lvl2 books now
What is this band 9 or band 10 stuff?
When you pass a exam you dont need to have a score band assigned.
Passed level 1. Unfortunately I can't register for level 2 as you need a bachelors degree. -_-
I studied ~50hrs during the summer, then got extremely busy and could barely study at all. Took the test knowing I would fail... Band 7, not bad considering the minimal effort. I think if I study again and actually get through the curriculum & spend 200+hrs, I'll pass.
Guys!!!! What would be best prep material to study L2? I am an engineer and want to break into finance, investment management.
Any suggestion would be appreciated!!!
I studied about 50 hours for L1 but had to study 100-150 for L2. It is a fundamentally harder exam due to the vignette format and the fact that they can interact 3-4 concepts on you for each question. You need to know 75% of the material to pass L1 but more like 95% to get a 70% on L2.
@ IlliniProgrammer I'm a charterholder and I question whether you really studied under 150 hours for L2. I went 3/3 and studied significantly longer for Levels 2 and 3 than I did for 1. If you passed L2 with 100 hours of study, I applaud you - seriously.
To others on this forum in the program, this cat is far more the exception than the rule. Just learning the unique ways that CFAI wants you to do things can take up a ton of time. Then there's always the material that's substantially more challenging than anything you see on L1.
Schweser and VitalSource
Schweser and VitalSource
I was probably closer to 150 than 100.
IIRC my excel spreadsheet shows about 110 hrs of study but I excluded breaks in as small as 10 minute increments. I may have also forgotten to log some studying.
L2 is a fundamentally harder exam than L1. I'll say that. And candidates should plan to study 200-300 hours for it. But if you take a practice exam and find yourself getting 70%, you can start to scale back a bit. The goal is to get a comfortable margin over 70% on an average exam, not an 85% on a difficult exam. The only thing that matters coming out of the exam is Pass or Fail.
I was also doing an MFE at the time and got a boost on a lot of stuff in the Econ, Quant, and Financial Reporting sections.
There are things about the CFA Exam and the CFA Institute that make me question how much respect it really deserves. But I don't question it on the basis of the exams' difficulty. This is especially true for L2. Assuming pass rates for retakes are fairly evenly distributed, 60% of candidates like you who have just passed level 1 will fail level 2 on their first try.
Schweser notes for L1 - QBank is key. That and nail as many pay / practice papers as possible. Score >70% in these and you'll be fine in real thing. Read Ethics from CFA book nearer the exam.
300h for L1, 350-400h for L2. You can get away with less, but why the hell would you scale back, when you've invested 1k on this. Go all the way. Better be overprepared than negatively surprised.
Candidates should study until they have a 95% chance of passing the exam on exam day. I conservatively aim for 95% chance of getting a 70%.
Start tracking your % correct on different sections. Then add up the binomial distributions and figure out your odds of getting a 70.
When it gets above 90-95%, start pulling back a little bit on the studying.
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