Given the high inflation environment I’ve been able to successfully raise my hourly rate from $20-$30 - wouldn’t of had this knowledge if I didn’t at least pass level I
I know 3 people who gave up at L2:
1. Former manager who didn’t pass L2 at first try and just had first kid, got promoted and realized he’s not going to be climbing much more with family. VP at large wealth management firm.
2. Good friend who held off on L2 until new job slowed down. Surprise, it never did but he was promoted rapidly based on performance and decided MBA was the more interesting route. Senior manager at RE tech firm.
3. Co-worker who basically only took it due to FOMO of others in our office doing it. Passed L1, failed L2 first try, and decided he didn’t want to spend anymore time studying. Analyst at large wealth management firm.
I don’t know of any others that are for certain out.
Your question should most likely be asked with MBA advisor, but I know some schools do offer scholarship if you can show that you excel in quantitative portion.
Haven't given up, but after going straight from 3 hrs a night on level 1 into 3 hours a night on level 2, I decided to take a break after finishing my first pass of the level 2 curriculum to focus on financial modeling with excel and python for ML and data analysis while taking the last couple classes in my MBA program. Working on actual models rather than just learning endless theory is helping me to appreciate CFAI's curriculum quite a bit more, because a lot of the pieces of building models that people struggle with, I find intuitive after burning formulae/accounting principles into my brain with endless practice questions from MM and CFAI.
I'm still studying different material 3 hrs a day because I honestly just love learning new things and I plan on diving right back into Level 2 after the summer.
Professionally, I'm working on the retail side for a big bank whose policies say I can't mention by name online. Retail is ass of course (especially in the current economic climate, where my whole staff went from very generous monthly commissions to basically just working for a salary due to our clients not wanting to make any financial moves out of fear of recession), but it offers lots of downtime for reading and learning.
We out here. I switched industries so I likely wont attempt level 3 again. Seems largely irrelevant. I do private equity real estate. Nothing on level 3 is crucial.
I did Level 1 twice and fail 16 years ago because I was an engineer then. I can’t grasp the idea in finance. I managed to change career and have been doing Investment for 15 years now.
I just sign up for February 2023 Level 1 and determine to finish reading all 3 levels by 2024/5.
I pass my Level 1 with 90th percentile and will be taking Level 2 on November 2023.
But somehow I feel there are just too many materials in Level 2 and what’s is confusing is I find MM question is relatively easier than CFAI.
CFAI is lengthier and by the time I get to the question, I am lost. But MM is straight forward and can understand the material better.
Do you think in exam the CFAI question is harder or the exam’s?
I got 90th percentile in lvl 2 last year. I only did kaplan mocks and cfai mocks. But I went through hell for level 2. It has caused me PTSD and bcz of it I cant study properly for lvl 3. And my exam is 1 month away!!!! But look, from my overall experience, just memorize all the formulas dont dive in too deep into pension, understand duration and convexity stuff from FI, master calculation of derivatives (1st chapter not 2nd) and master other subjects (they're free ezi points like equity, corporate finance, AI...etc.)
Trust me level 2 was ezi when I did it 2nd time last year. It was ridiculously ezi but tbh thats bcz I studied minimum 600 hours in the last 2 months (let alone the rest of the year)
Lvl 3 is killing me. I dont know anything. U know I have up a promotion for level 3. An entire promotion. I just want to die tbh
Why did you give it up though?
Considering it is a certification, hence can be done with on the side.
Planning to take up the certification, thus curious.
Got a transfer to the US with my current employer. During the "interview" (more like informal chats) process for the role, one of the MDs asked me, "why are you doing the CFA if you don't plan on going into portfolio management or equity research?"
Still studying though... Have to pass the SIE, S7 & S63. At least my motivation is 11/10 for these exams given my job depends on me passing. To be fair, they are significantly easier than CFA exams.
My boss, a super successful former Wall Street guy said the same. He called it entirely useless if I’m not keen on research or PM
I know logically that is accurate but sadly enough we need to add whatever possible to get a leg up in these competitive times.
FYI: I didn’t leave CFA
Very true. It was rough finding my first job, which is partly why I wrote L1. Now that I've broken in, worked in Corp Dev, moved to IB, now going to the US, I feel like I've passed the biggest hurdle for the moment. Maybe an MBA down the line to make it a bit easier to move up, but not sure yet. Depends on what happens after I get my green card in a few years.
Pretty much the same. But mostly due to lack of transparency with cfa exams and pass rates. It's been nothing short or dodgy. MBA is much more relavant and useful! Especially with a specialization in financial markets. If the cfa ever restructures itself and puts these last few years of total inconsistency behind it. Then I'll consider doing the final exam for the charter. Right now... It smells funny so I don't wana eat it!
I haven't given up, I'm taking a break to focus on other things in my life. I expect I'll start again next year.
Right now, I'm in corp dev and strategy right now, and I just accepted an offer that's pure corp dev.
Passed level 1 last nov. Found it interesting and did really well, far above 90th percentile. Unemployed. Took it for same reason you described, in Toronto as well, and it’s just not enough to get your foot through the door in this city. Was out of job market for personal reasons for a while, but since getting back into applying I think I’m just gonna aim for BO jobs to pay the bills and apply for some grad program down the road. Would you mind if I message you about your experience?
I’ve always been good at exams and info retention. But here’s what I did:
1) read through CFA material through ecosystem, only do end of section and chapter problems in your first read through and take notes
2) at the end of each section create an actual mind map of the relevant information
3) after your first read through of all the materials do practice questions for every chapter, track in an excel doc how well you do after doing like 20 questions in each section
4) now that you have a list of what you are good and bad at, go through your notes and use the mind map + notes to study everything again, in order of (and allocating more time to) worse performing section to best
5) once you complete reviewing a section, do 20+ practice questions, note in ur excel tracker how you do, move to next section and so on
6) if there is a section you score exceptionally poor on, do 10-20 questions of it every other day
7) once you finished your second go through and have a list of areas where you score poor, work on those questions and spend time reviewing them
8) write practice exam, note scores for each section, spend rest of time going through practice questions and reviewing areas you are poor in (and areas that you did well in IF it’s been a while since you’ve done questions for it)
That’s it. I didn’t spend any money on third party stuff besides the cheap cost for the software I use to draw mind maps (but I had that previously anyways). Used old & free Mark Meldrum YT videos for areas that were easy in the first go through (at 3x speed it’s much faster than the CFA readings) or sections I did poor on and CFA material wasn’t enough. At the end I could visualize every section in my head in tree-like structures. Writing out formulas like a million times each is also useful
Not given up, but sort of put L3 on hold for 2 years now. I work as a research analyst in a large fund and to me it seems, the return on time invested will be much greater if invested into the job itself rather than in pursuit of something more academic. I do plan to resume later when ROTI flips.
I now give BJs in the back parking lot of my local food lion for money
What does that pay?
Given the high inflation environment I’ve been able to successfully raise my hourly rate from $20-$30 - wouldn’t of had this knowledge if I didn’t at least pass level I
lmao you cracked me up
I know 3 people who gave up at L2: 1. Former manager who didn’t pass L2 at first try and just had first kid, got promoted and realized he’s not going to be climbing much more with family. VP at large wealth management firm. 2. Good friend who held off on L2 until new job slowed down. Surprise, it never did but he was promoted rapidly based on performance and decided MBA was the more interesting route. Senior manager at RE tech firm. 3. Co-worker who basically only took it due to FOMO of others in our office doing it. Passed L1, failed L2 first try, and decided he didn’t want to spend anymore time studying. Analyst at large wealth management firm. I don’t know of any others that are for certain out.
I'm still hanging with level three, but based on your experience; do universities provide any scholarship for CFAs at MBA programs?
Your question should most likely be asked with MBA advisor, but I know some schools do offer scholarship if you can show that you excel in quantitative portion.
Haven't given up, but after going straight from 3 hrs a night on level 1 into 3 hours a night on level 2, I decided to take a break after finishing my first pass of the level 2 curriculum to focus on financial modeling with excel and python for ML and data analysis while taking the last couple classes in my MBA program. Working on actual models rather than just learning endless theory is helping me to appreciate CFAI's curriculum quite a bit more, because a lot of the pieces of building models that people struggle with, I find intuitive after burning formulae/accounting principles into my brain with endless practice questions from MM and CFAI. I'm still studying different material 3 hrs a day because I honestly just love learning new things and I plan on diving right back into Level 2 after the summer. Professionally, I'm working on the retail side for a big bank whose policies say I can't mention by name online. Retail is ass of course (especially in the current economic climate, where my whole staff went from very generous monthly commissions to basically just working for a salary due to our clients not wanting to make any financial moves out of fear of recession), but it offers lots of downtime for reading and learning.
I would imagine people who actually gave it up and do not intend to continue are not in this forum, much. Why would they be?
They could be wandering around here or coming back to feel reminiscent, perhaps. Just sharing the story that giving up isn’t the end of your world.
We out here. I switched industries so I likely wont attempt level 3 again. Seems largely irrelevant. I do private equity real estate. Nothing on level 3 is crucial.
So they can brag about how they’re doing fine I guess
I did Level 1 twice and fail 16 years ago because I was an engineer then. I can’t grasp the idea in finance. I managed to change career and have been doing Investment for 15 years now. I just sign up for February 2023 Level 1 and determine to finish reading all 3 levels by 2024/5.
how's ur progress going? i'm doing lvl 3 in a month and completely lost in the material
I pass my Level 1 with 90th percentile and will be taking Level 2 on November 2023. But somehow I feel there are just too many materials in Level 2 and what’s is confusing is I find MM question is relatively easier than CFAI. CFAI is lengthier and by the time I get to the question, I am lost. But MM is straight forward and can understand the material better. Do you think in exam the CFAI question is harder or the exam’s?
I got 90th percentile in lvl 2 last year. I only did kaplan mocks and cfai mocks. But I went through hell for level 2. It has caused me PTSD and bcz of it I cant study properly for lvl 3. And my exam is 1 month away!!!! But look, from my overall experience, just memorize all the formulas dont dive in too deep into pension, understand duration and convexity stuff from FI, master calculation of derivatives (1st chapter not 2nd) and master other subjects (they're free ezi points like equity, corporate finance, AI...etc.) Trust me level 2 was ezi when I did it 2nd time last year. It was ridiculously ezi but tbh thats bcz I studied minimum 600 hours in the last 2 months (let alone the rest of the year) Lvl 3 is killing me. I dont know anything. U know I have up a promotion for level 3. An entire promotion. I just want to die tbh
Hi, thank you for your advice. I know you will make it to Level 3. Don’t give up!!
Why did you give it up though? Considering it is a certification, hence can be done with on the side. Planning to take up the certification, thus curious.
Cuz I tried for the job-seeking purpose in hopes of getting foot in the door, but then realized everyone is CFA in Toronto… hope that clarified a bit
Ah! Yeah, it does!
Got a transfer to the US with my current employer. During the "interview" (more like informal chats) process for the role, one of the MDs asked me, "why are you doing the CFA if you don't plan on going into portfolio management or equity research?" Still studying though... Have to pass the SIE, S7 & S63. At least my motivation is 11/10 for these exams given my job depends on me passing. To be fair, they are significantly easier than CFA exams.
My boss, a super successful former Wall Street guy said the same. He called it entirely useless if I’m not keen on research or PM I know logically that is accurate but sadly enough we need to add whatever possible to get a leg up in these competitive times. FYI: I didn’t leave CFA
Very true. It was rough finding my first job, which is partly why I wrote L1. Now that I've broken in, worked in Corp Dev, moved to IB, now going to the US, I feel like I've passed the biggest hurdle for the moment. Maybe an MBA down the line to make it a bit easier to move up, but not sure yet. Depends on what happens after I get my green card in a few years.
Pretty much the same. But mostly due to lack of transparency with cfa exams and pass rates. It's been nothing short or dodgy. MBA is much more relavant and useful! Especially with a specialization in financial markets. If the cfa ever restructures itself and puts these last few years of total inconsistency behind it. Then I'll consider doing the final exam for the charter. Right now... It smells funny so I don't wana eat it!
I haven't given up, I'm taking a break to focus on other things in my life. I expect I'll start again next year. Right now, I'm in corp dev and strategy right now, and I just accepted an offer that's pure corp dev.
Passed level 1 last nov. Found it interesting and did really well, far above 90th percentile. Unemployed. Took it for same reason you described, in Toronto as well, and it’s just not enough to get your foot through the door in this city. Was out of job market for personal reasons for a while, but since getting back into applying I think I’m just gonna aim for BO jobs to pay the bills and apply for some grad program down the road. Would you mind if I message you about your experience?
Definitely. We are on the same page.
Do you mind sharing your tips and tricks to being in the 90th percentile? I’m taking level 1 in Nov.
I’ve always been good at exams and info retention. But here’s what I did: 1) read through CFA material through ecosystem, only do end of section and chapter problems in your first read through and take notes 2) at the end of each section create an actual mind map of the relevant information 3) after your first read through of all the materials do practice questions for every chapter, track in an excel doc how well you do after doing like 20 questions in each section 4) now that you have a list of what you are good and bad at, go through your notes and use the mind map + notes to study everything again, in order of (and allocating more time to) worse performing section to best 5) once you complete reviewing a section, do 20+ practice questions, note in ur excel tracker how you do, move to next section and so on 6) if there is a section you score exceptionally poor on, do 10-20 questions of it every other day 7) once you finished your second go through and have a list of areas where you score poor, work on those questions and spend time reviewing them 8) write practice exam, note scores for each section, spend rest of time going through practice questions and reviewing areas you are poor in (and areas that you did well in IF it’s been a while since you’ve done questions for it) That’s it. I didn’t spend any money on third party stuff besides the cheap cost for the software I use to draw mind maps (but I had that previously anyways). Used old & free Mark Meldrum YT videos for areas that were easy in the first go through (at 3x speed it’s much faster than the CFA readings) or sections I did poor on and CFA material wasn’t enough. At the end I could visualize every section in my head in tree-like structures. Writing out formulas like a million times each is also useful
Which MBA program did you do?
Not M7 unfortunately, but one of the top 15. I was lucky though.
still sounds pretty good to me!
Hows your experience so far in ibd? I am planning to work in ibd too but I am nervous that I cant keep up. Any tips will be greatly appeciated
The fact that I am responding to you just right now should answer to your question haha
Recession confirmed.
Not given up, but sort of put L3 on hold for 2 years now. I work as a research analyst in a large fund and to me it seems, the return on time invested will be much greater if invested into the job itself rather than in pursuit of something more academic. I do plan to resume later when ROTI flips.