@Energy Finance:Thanks for all the help. 
Lol, wish this site had an upvote function
So, a little over a year later, here’s the tally of Level 3 candidates/Charterholders who have chimed in:
- Aether - agrees with me
- Higgmond - agrees with me
- Whystudy - says that I have made it sound tougher than it really is, but then he goes on to say “I failed the exams many times.”
- Black Swan - agrees with me
- Frisian - agrees with me
- Ghibli - agrees with me
- Palantir - disagrees, saying you can fail L1 and still succeed. But my original post was aimed at those who majored in finance/accounting/, and he did not.
- Itera - agrees with me
- S2000 Magician - didn’t exactly say, but he seems to agree
- PalaciosHill - agrees with me
So that’s 8 people who agree, one that disagrees (but he is not a “typical” CFA aspirant), and one that says “CFA exams aren’t hard. I failed many times before I passed”, which I suppose is tacitly agreeing with me.
There you have it. Nine Charterholders and one Level 3 candidate, and the only one who disagrees is not a finance/accounting major (which comprise the vast majority of L1 candidates). And even he didn’t disagree about the difficulty of the program. He only disagreed that you could fail Level 1 and still go on to finish the exam.
@Greenman:CFA is difficult to pass.No second opinion on that.
As per my experiences FRM L1 puts CFAL1 to shame.I can say that as i have cleared both.I found questions in FRM L1 around 5 times more difficult than CFAL1.
There is a “general opinion” that CFAL2 is the hardest.I have found that fixed income,derivative,quant ,alternate are very much similar(read easier) in CFAL2 as compared to FRM l2.
I am not underestimating CFA (it is very reputed and best in the industry).But to me FRM seems much more difficult.I hope all the people with CFA+FRM will agree with me on this.
wow rahul roy…the polite brag
I am not at all bragging.You can ask any one who has done this courses (CFA/FRM).CFA is difficult to pass (mainly due to competition) but FRM sets tougher questions.Pass rates(average) in both levels of FRM are 46% and 55%.This is mainly due to the fact that most people doing FRM already has a CFA or are in a process of obtaining it.
Ya I think you’re spending a little too much time on your “everyone should quit after failing twice” campaign.
^ lol @ FRM. mad ez brosky
Oh Boy, I am a Zero Level Candidate but I may never find what I was hoping to find on here. apart from knowing One Green gentleman has kept a million guys at bay with only one arm. Can someone please tell me what a mosaic theory is? LQTM
Keep on taking exams negros! Get the CFA, then the FRM, then the CAIA, then the CFP, PRM, CIMA, CPA, CMA, and so forth. While the rest of your friends and family are enjoying life, bbqing, and making more money than you, you can rest assured that you’re better than them by taking exams.
It’s all about letters after your name, pay no attention to that sucking sound on your bank account.
For some, getting as many designations as possible become a matter of ego to prove to themselves that they are “smarter” than others. While for others it becomes an addiction like for this Chinese dude http://poetsandquants.com/2014/02/05/he-conquered-the-gmat-went-to-jail-for-it/
Well your comments are contradictory…since you have a alphabet soup behind your name too…If some one can complete CFA+FRM+CPA+MBA etc…etc when he is 23-24…i think it is a achievement …
Lol!
OK I will also chime in being a L3 candidate.
Yeah I very much agree with Greenman here. IMHO, candidates should give L1 two serious tries maximum, and if they fail, no point in continuing with the CFA program.
I think they actually ARE smarter than others.
Another question is you have to have the opportunity (money mostly) in your early years.
It becomes really expensive (considering the sacrifices you have to make in professional and personal life to get those designations) to run after designations when you are 25++ yrs old.
Yup.
Add another one to the Greenman72 agreement list.
I’m a pessimist by nature and I figured roughly needing about 650 hours to clear all three – I have an undergrad in finance and work in alternatives so I thought I had a leg up on the competition. However even with my pessimism I underestimated the amount of study time needed by about half. I put in about 700 hours to just clear I and II (I passed both on the first shot Dec’12 and Jun’13). I’m looking at trying to put in another 400 to 500 for level III, so if I pass I could get through with 1,100 to 1,200 hours total (IF I go 3 for 3, more if I don’t)… I’m sure a lot of people have done this with less study time – but these are my results.
I could not agree with Greenman more in that IF and it’s a big IF you put in a real effort for level I and failed then you really need to think about if you should be staying on this road any longer. Now if you didn’t really push yourself and you failed then work harder and try again, no problem. But IF you really pushed it and couldn’t get by it then level II and III are going to be torturous (I put in 250 hours for I and 450 for II) so if you really pushed hard for I, 350+ hours, and failed, then it may not be worth what you are going to HAVE to put in for II and III. If you want it bad enough, sure you can do it; I believe just about anyone can pass these exams, the real question is whether or not it will be worth all the hours you are going to have to devote to it. If I had known that my original effort estimate was so far off I probably would not have gone down this road. As it is I am going to put in material effort for III, if I fail I will re-group and try again next year, if I fail again then I’m done, no mas, not worth it.
Greenman is dead on concerning fighting with your spouse, poor dietary choices, work performance suffering due to always being tired, and in my case putting off having children. Sure you don’t have to be soooo dedicated to the exam, as others on this thread have pointed out, but I have found that if I want to pass the exams then I need to be soooo dedicated. For me I look at it as either I can bust my hump and try to get through these things as fast as possible or I can take it easier and fail each one along the way and stretch it out for a few extra years. Either approach results in the exam becoming life controlling, for me I think I either need to S or get off the pot.
Others will have a different take and many may not have had to put in as much time to clear the first 2 levels as I did; I can only speak for myself and for myself I can say that I find Greenman’s points valid and worth considering.
Greenman and jayman, sorry to hear that your marriages are falling apart, you are alcoholics, and you dont’ spend enough time with your kids. But that doesn’t mean you need to discourage CFA candidates from pursuing their goal just because they fail L1. Not everyone has the unstable marital relationship you have and some are intelligent enough that they don’t have to put in the long study hours that you do.
The main point is that you’re not special because you passed the 3 CFA exams. And Jayman, you still haven’t passed so better get on the studying. Based on your aptititude related to the ridiculous hours you put in on the prior exams, you’ve got a long road to go. Stop trolling the level one board. L1 candiddates don’t need to hear the sob stories from a couple washed up CFA turds.
^Said very wisely by another person who has yet to take Level 2.
If you’re in the 1/3 that pass Level 2, come back here in August and tell us how you feel.
And if you’re in the 2/3 that don’t pass, come back here in August so we can laugh at you.
Topper -
I think we are closer in agreement then you realize. You posted a statement on another thread that basically said that someone with lower intelligence might have to “study twice as hard” as someone with a higher intellect in order to pass. This was basically my point…
If you think that me putting in 250 hours for level 1 was “ridiculous hours” then I’m guessing that you put in a fair amount less than that, good for you; my post really wasn’t aimed at people with your ability to grasp this subject matter as easily. I never claimed to be special in my post and admitted that there were others (people like you) who could get through with less of a commitment (all hail Topper).
In my post I used really small words and went to lengths to spell out that I think just about anyone can pass these exams (no high level math, no high level stats, no programming) just paper, pencil, and a hand held calculator – and a really broad curriculum covering S loads of material that you have to spend time to wrap your brain around. I tried to talk real slow and even stated that if people were putting in a lot of effort and still failing level 1 that I believed that they could pass all the exams, but questioned the utility in doing so. You obviously are not having to put in this level of effort, good for you maybe you will pass II in June and I will fail III, it’s possible.
But I would like to hear from people who have completed all three levels, and in the process failed level 1 at least once while putting in 350+ hours in the process (which is what I stated in my post). I know that there are many that have completed the course and failed level 1, Greenman is one of those, but I’m not sure that there are many who completed the course and failed level 1 after really busting their hump – which was the point of my post and Greenman’s
Hopefully I spelled this out clearly enough for you Topper.