Thinking about taking advantage of this as well. Just passed L3 two weeks ago and waiting for my membership to come through and then ill probably apply for it 
It’s my understanding about 1,700 candidates sit for both levels of the CAIA exam per sitting…most of those are Level 1 candidates. So 500 exempted candidates per sitting is a meaningful number.
I think it depends on when you received your CFA charter. I received my charter on 2006 and there was no real alternative material in the curriculum to speak of. I’m sure that has changed now. I just sat for CAIA L1. I didn’t even inquire about the exemption.
how is the curriculum compared to CFA?
Pretty decent.
I passed CFA L3 last year so it’s still pretty fresh. A bit of overlap with Endowments and Pension Funds. Family Office was new and pretty interesting.
Overall enjoying it, but just a bit stressed prepping for the CAIA L2 exam next week.
Anyone think it’ll ever be the other way around? If you have CAIA you can skip CFA level I?
Ha. No way, José.
I do agree the 500 per sitting (if that many are sitting) is a meaningful number given that there are less than 10 thousand CAIA members overall.
If it makes anybody feel better, I was one of the stackable candidates and felt ill-prepared for level 2 that I just took. I studied like it was the CFA exam and CAIA is much more detailed and qualitative. I think if I had taken level 1 I would have had a better indication of how to study.
Do you really think CAIA is much more detailed? I finished mine last year and have been mulling over the CFA for the last 12 months. I think I am going to do level 1 next June, but I’ll be honest I am terrified at the thoughts of doing this exam.
Yes, CFA is double the material so it’s more knowing the basics. I think you will find Level 1 easy since you have gone thru CAIA. You may be able to skim certain sections. level 2 is very calculation and number focused. Much different than what I experienced with CAIA. I actually prefer calcs…
People may fight me on this but I believe almost all CFA material can be done thru the classes with the exception of doing practice problems in level 2, supplemental reading in level 3 and tackling Ethics yourself.
Good luck and I wouldn’t worry too much about level 1.
Hopefully. Time will tell I guess. I took the plunge anyway and paid the fees, so there is no escaping it now anyway.
Just signed up. Can’t believe i’m back to test taking lol
Just saw that the L1 pass rate has dropped to an all new low of 54%, compared to the 64% pass rate in March and 60% in September 2017.
I read this as a side effect of the stackable program where CFA Charterholders have skipped level 1 and CFA candidates have put off taking CAIA L1 until they finish.
This means that the number of candidates that would normally have a good chance at passing L1 is now less.
Exactly - lowest ever pass rate tells a lot.
Having seen my performance report (all stronger but ethics which was higher) I will honestly defend the stackable credential programme. I didn’t even put 50% of the CFA effort, maybe totalled 100-150 hrs which was mainly during train commute and my L3 exam was in 2016 - there was so much overlap. Also lots of things are just common sense once you’ve digested thousands of CFA pages.