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Hi everyone, I'll be taking the CFA Level I exam in December this year. I looked through for a CFA thread, but I couldn't find one. I'm pretty sure I can't be the only one studying for the CFA, so I thought it might be nice to have a thread for those taking the exams, or who have taken the exams, to discuss concepts and tips and racking up those 48 months of industry experience etc., and perhaps broader questions like "should I take the CFA?" or "what study materials are there?" I only just started studying, so I don't have any specific questions yet, but I'm sure I will as time goes by. It'll be better for us to have a place to ask questions before we have questions to ask. Currently, my study plan consists of reading stuff on my commute and at coffee shops. I may need to get a little more serious about it as the exam gets closer. Drop a post about your CFA experience!
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Jan 24, 2018 05:19
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Studying for level 2 right now. You should take level 1 in June instead of December. Mark Meldrum videos are great and free for level 1. I used Kaplan for my initial read through, did every q-bank question, and watched Meldrum videos for clarification. The last month was spent just doing mock exams.
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Jan 24, 2018 16:39
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What's the advantage of taking level 1 in June rather than December? More time to revise before the Level 2? And thanks, I'll check out Mark Meldrum
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Jan 24, 2018 18:25
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simplefish posted:What's the advantage of taking level 1 in June rather than December? More time to revise before the Level 2? If you take it in June 2018 and fail then you can try again in December 2018 and be ready for level 2 in June 2019. If you take it in December 2018 and fail it means the earliest you can take level 2 would be June 2020.
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Jan 24, 2018 19:29
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Ah right, I see. That's a good point, and anyone reading this in future should bear that in mind. But for me, if I'd gone for the June 2018 date, it would have cost $300 more, because I'd missed the early bird fee. Plan ahead, kids. Between time and what I'm currently earning, this is a no-fail kind of affair for me, simply because it'll become unaffordable otherwise.
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Jan 25, 2018 15:34
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Passed Level 1 in '16, took a break in '17, and am studying for Level 2 this June. What matters above all else is doing as many mock exams as you can. The End-Of-Chapter questions in the books are not written by the people who write the test questions, but the mock exams actually are. In the very first book, before Reading 1 begins, there's a little intro section that outlines how they recommend you go about studying for the exam. Read that and use it, because it's great advice. Also Uterine Lineup, we should study together. I finished studying for QM and ECON recently and started doing FRA the other day.
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Feb 19, 2018 13:07
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Is there any downside to taking CFA Level I and failing? I am considering signing up for June but it might be kind of tight on getting prepped in time. I don't want to pay the higher fee just to rush and fail it sooner. Part of me thinks it's worth a shot and doesn't rule out a December retake if necessary. Besides being out the exam fee, does it have any impact on me professionally if I have to retake it? I have heard that I will start getting job offers through the CFA society if I pass Level 1, but I assume the expectation is that I then go on to complete Level 2 and 3.
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Mar 8, 2018 14:12
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I've been thinking of asking my firm if they'd pay for me to get my CFA. I have a feeling they'd rather me get the CFP since I'm in sales though.
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Mar 8, 2018 14:21
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No penalty for failing level 1 except the registration fee. If you're able to study enough you take knock out 1-3 in 18 months by passing in December, passing level 2 in June, and level 3 the following June.
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Mar 9, 2018 00:57
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Exam day is tomorrow! Hope you people studied well. Level 2 here. Did an average of 50% on the CFAI mock exams, which isn't promising, but after retaking practice tests I'm scoring in the 60% area, which means that a lot of last-minute improvement is happening, thankfully!
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Jun 22, 2018 00:38
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Does anyone here work as a CFP? I'm curious about the role but it looks like most big companies use their financial advisors as a way to push overpriced insurance. The fee-only financial companies I've seen seem to be one-person operations where you have to run your own business. Is there any in-between? Also good luck on the exams, everyone!
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Jun 22, 2018 01:30
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Taking level 1 in December. Holy gently caress do I remember why I had no desire in getting an accounting designation after university lol. I'm enjoying all the materials I've gone over so far but yeah I'm reminded of how quickly IFRS changes from "principles based accounting" to "what am I thinking?"
Tony quidprano fucked around with this message at 04:41 on Aug 2, 2018 |
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Aug 2, 2018 04:38
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I'm taking Level 1 in December too. What's the breakdown between math and concept problems? Any content area I should be putting more emphasis on?
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Aug 2, 2018 21:12
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Ethics and FR&A are 35% of your exam score so make sure you're very good. The Mark Meldrum videos on YouTube are very useful for learning concepts.
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Aug 2, 2018 22:19
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What's everyone using for test banks? I signed up for adapt prep because it was the cheapest and I don't think I'll be using them again for level 2 lol.
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Aug 2, 2018 23:09
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Won't know if I passed level 2 for another week but everything I read prior to studying for it said the qbank is useless for level 2. I did all of the blue boxes, end of chapter questions, and then the CFAI website questions and found those to be pretty useful. Between those and mock exams you probably have a few hundred questions in the same format as the exam.
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Aug 6, 2018 17:22
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Uterine Lineup posted:Won't know if I passed level 2 for another week but everything I read prior to studying for it said the qbank is useless for level 2. I did all of the blue boxes, end of chapter questions, and then the CFAI website questions and found those to be pretty useful. Between those and mock exams you probably have a few hundred questions in the same format as the exam. Took the Level 1 three times here. I personally always felt that the official question bank/practice tests were the closest thing to the real exam, and that focusing on that above all else was the biggest deciding factor for me in passing Level 1. With Level 2, however... yeah I agree with you there. Was completely blind sided that they'd use the level 2 question bank/practice tests to emphasize topics that ended up not being directly tested whereas for level 1 they were so incredibly useful! Am not hopeful about my chances of having passed Level 2, unfortunately, but I invested more than the famous 300 hours into it so I'm expecting a border-line fail at least.
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Aug 6, 2018 17:30
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Failed Level 2
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Aug 14, 2018 14:45
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How close was it? I need to get it in gear for Level 1 in December.
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Aug 14, 2018 15:09
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Love Stole the Day posted:Failed Level 2 Same. Did terrible on fixed & FRA and based off where my bar was I might have gotten a 0 on corp finance. Everything else was between 50-70% and ethics was my only 70%+. More annoyed that I am not getting reimbursed than I am about failing it.
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Aug 14, 2018 15:21
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Uterine Lineup posted:Same. Did terrible on fixed & FRA and based off where my bar was I might have gotten a 0 on corp finance. Everything else was between 50-70% and ethics was my only 70%+. I did L1 three times and this was my first time doing L2. Paid with my own money for every single one despite being long-term unemployed. No finance background. Had thought if I could pass the tests then I might be able to get a job. As for me, I was also between 50-70% everywhere and ethics was also my only one above 70%. for me, FRA and Economics were my best scores. This was my final attempt and I bombed it (i.e. my light blue confidence interval was under the MPS) . I tried my absolute hardest and failed. I'm not going to try again.
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Aug 14, 2018 15:37
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How close are the mock exams on the CFA website to the real deal? Is the scoring a fair approximation of what to expect?
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Aug 31, 2018 20:21
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Sleepytime posted:How close are the mock exams on the CFA website to the real deal? Is the scoring a fair approximation of what to expect? They changed the provider service for how you access mock exams on their website a year ago. Before last year, I would've told you that the official CFAI Question Bank and their Mock Exams are the best resources you can get for the real deal. The Question Bank tends to be a lot more detailed than the Mock Exams are, so if you do the Question Bank stuff first and then do the Mock Exams later you'll feel like the Mock Exams are super easy. The actual exam itself will always feel a lot easier, though, but I think in hindsight that it's just a placebo effect thing because of how much effort and anxiety you get during your preparations. I took the Level 1 three times (2014, 2015, 2016) and when I passed it my winning strategy was to just grind the official CFAI Question Bank and Mock Exams over and over and use those questions as my primary resource for what topics they will actually test me on. Implicitly, my losing strategies in previous years of relying on third party prep services (2014) and relying on CFAI EOC questions (2015) may have somehow partially contributed because of the past experience of doing them, though, so I can't say that they were 100% worthless strategies. When I took the Level 2 this year (2018) and failed, though, I felt that it was the opposite situation: that the Mock Exams and Question Bank stuff were not emphasizing the topics that the exam itself would emphasize. I don't know if it's because of a Level 2 vs Level 1 thing or if it's because of the change in online provider for their Mock Exams and Question Bank content. There is also the common advice to focus on the Blue Box example problems in each of the readings, and I agree with it though when you're going through them they can feel super dry and boring to read through.
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Aug 31, 2018 21:46
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I know that the people I talked to this year that took level 2, myself included, were surprised by material on the exam because it left out one very large topic and focused on some of the more obscure stuff that only warranted a short blurb in the text. I am going to focus harder on blue boxes/topic tests/mock exams this year but I'll probably buy Mark Meldrum's study materials again. I prepared for level 2 the same way I did for level 1 and that was a mistake.
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Sep 8, 2018 03:05
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How long does it take to get your results? I see within 60 days on the official website but also read that you get your raw score a lot faster than that.
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Nov 2, 2018 21:46
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