ha ha! I will make it, don’t you worry about that 
To my understanding, level 3 is less difficult than level 2.
Actually it is not about the level of difficulty, some people just like to put others down (just like how I explained in my post), so he just liked to send warnings around rather than sharing useful study tips - But to be honest, if someone with such attitude could do it, it gives me assurance that I can too lol
Depends on the person, but I found level 3 harder than level 2 (mainly due to the test format) and I have heard the same from many people.
Ya man levels 2 and 3 are easy! The hundreds of thousands of people that testify to their difficulty are all blowing smoke! It’s all a giant conspiracy! You should pass with ease MahaM!
No one really said that they are easy… did I mention that and did not notice it perhaps? All I was saying that your atittude is silly, that’s all, did you not get that?
I should pass them with hard work not with ease
Quoted from OP:
So you’re saying that it IS NOT difficult, but it IS challenging? Now THAT is “silly”. Careful not to contradict yourself so blatantly on L3 (if you make it). 0 points.
BTW - There is a difference between ‘not difficult’ and ‘easy’ I thought that was obvious lol Yeah, because this is the important part to focus on, whether the words challenging and difficult are meant to convey different meanings or not, well done, you grasped the main point of my post, because apparently I have written this post to raise this point! Don’t worry, I have gone through complicated written exams before and I know how to express myself very well, never failed once
You’re an imbecile lol.
BTW - difficult is an antonym of easy. Therefore, not difficult is a synonym of easy. Is that broken down enough for you or do you need me to explain it further?
IsThereAny - you’re starting to grow on me. I wish I could be as mean as you sometimes but I don’t have it in me. So I’ll just follow your posts as you trash everyone.
MahaM - There’s no point arguing. Everything IsThereAny has done in his or her life has been the most challenging route. All other routes are simple. CFA is the hardest thing ever, whatever major he or she graduated with is the hardest, etc. Making anything he or she has done sound easy is a great insult and will be argued with until you give up.
I want to grow up to be like IsThereAny. Supreme internet confidence.
I’m sorry.
Wait untill you take level 2 & 3…
I just speak the truth Cory…
Actually, I believe you are describing yourself there Mr. “my econ undergrad degree tests were harder than the CFA exams even though I barely ‘scraped’ by levels 1 & 2 and I told all the recruiters that the only reason I did econ is because it’s SOOO much harder than finance and they bought it and I made $70k 3 years ago so kiss the ring”.
Let me ask you this - how many hours did you study for one of your econ tests? 5, maybe 10 hours each? I’m assuming you passed these tests since you graduated. Now, how many hours did you spend studying for levels 1 and 2 of the CFA? 200, maybe 300 hours each? As you said yourself, you “scraped” by both. Tell me what conclusion you can draw from this information. Really, try to decipher the message because you’ll need these analytical abilities for level 3.
anyone who finds the CFA exams particularly difficult clearly didn’t do very well in school
Clearly.
I know my compliment turned into more of an insult there at the end and for that I do apologize. I really do enjoy the majority of your posts.
Check your reading comprehension there - I said the *classes* I took were harder than the finance classes I took and the CFA curriculum. Perhaps I should have explained a bit better, but I didn’t know we were going to revisit this in multiple threads.
If you count all of the hours I spent in class, doing outside reading, doing homework, and studying for the tests, it probably adds up to about 300 hours.
Sure, for each exam I spent 5, maybe 10 hours studying for each. But that’s how much time I also spent “studying” for the CFA exam after I had gone through all the material. Does that make sense? You would have to factor in class time as studying for the final if you’re counting your first read of CFA material as studying for the exam. Right? At least that’s my thinking.
What I mean when I say the econ classes I took in college were harder than the CFA material is that some classes get very deep in one topic. None of the ten topics in CFA material go that deep. That’s why I think it’s like taking one final for ten “Intro to ____” classes. It takes a lot of time to go through the material and there’s a lot to remember, but nothing is too hard. I understand that’s relative, but in my personal experience there were topics in economics that I could study for a few hours and still be lost. That hasn’t happened yet with CFA material. Not saying I know it all very well as my results are not >70 in each category, or even close to that. Just personal thoughts.
For example, I know for Level II material there was at least one section in Fixed Income that provided a formula, but then said it was beyond the scope of this reading or something like that. In some of my classes, nothing was beyond the scope, and that included very difficult items.
As for the job thing, that was just to say to the OP of the other thread that it is possible to graduate with an economics degree and make more than $45k, which someone had mentioned. Obviously it may be harder to get an interview with different degrees, but once you’re in that interview room I believe it’s just a matter of spinning whatever story you can.
In all honesty, I chose economics after playing too much basketball my freshman year and failing calculus and statistics after not going to class. As those classes were prerequisites for applying to the business school, I ended up choosing economics as it sounded like a business major (to a layperson) but was an open major that didn’t require any prerequisites.
In conclusion, I do not think the CFA exams are the most difficult exams in the world because the material is not the most difficult. There is a lot of material and it requires a lot of time, so if it is difficult for one to be dedicated, then the CFA program will be difficult. As I have been able to make time and stay dedicated, it has not been that difficult thus far.
Fair enough. I would be very surprised if you only reviewed the CFA material 5-10 hours after your first read and passed though. The vibe I got from your posts were that the exams weren’t that hard to pass, which was surprising to hear from someone that seld-admittedly scraped by. I agree though that any one subject alone doesn’t hold a candle to STEM material, but that was never my argument. It’s the sheer amount of material on one single test and the way the questions are asked that make it difficult. Also, given how close your results were to failing, I wonder if you would have a completely different attitude if some of the guesses you got correct were wrong and you ended up failing.
I can agree with all of that. Definitely with the two items that make the test so difficult. What I meant to get across was that the actual material for each topic is not that difficult. I didn’t mean to say the preparation and actual test taking is easy. It takes a lot of effort.
And you’re probably right that I would feel different if I had failed. I blindly guessed on at least 40 questions on Level I and maybe 15 on Level II. Maybe less on Level II. I felt like I had a better understanding of the material for Level II and could at least make an educated guess on almost every question I couldn’t solve.
I guess after all the hype of how difficult the exams are, the low pass rates, the intense study stories I have read from others, and factoring in my experience passing Level I and Level II with nowhere near the effort I thought I would need to put in, they didn’t seem as hard as I thought they would be.
I’m starting to think the low pass rate can be partially attributed to so many test takers that are not native English speakers. I struggle to understand exactly what some questions are asking and I scored a perfect 36 on my reading portion of the ACT. I speak very good Spanish from living in Costa Rica for 2 years but I cannot imagine being able to pass these tests in Spanish. Not even close.
As for studying, most stories I read about people basically giving up 6 months of their lives or so are from people who end up passing with >70 in nearly every section.
I’m sure that as soon as I get past Level III (hopefully next year) I’ll be on here talking about how hard the tests are because it will make me feel good about myself for having passed them.
Always gotta add a little jab at the end
I do think these exams are very difficult (hence a low MPS and low mock scores) for reasons outlined before. Level 3 is a step up from level 2 in terms of difficulty due to the AM session being short answer and a lot of gray areas as you’ll see. It is much more painful studying too having to write out thousands of short response answers. I just cringed thinking about it actually. Good luck to you though (not sarcastic).
I didn’t mean for it to be a jab this time at all. 100% serious I will be on here just to make myself feel good. If that makes me a bad person so be it. I also liked to tell Level I candidates before the exam and during lunch that Level I was easy and I couldn’t believe they were actually stressed about it. I imagine doing the same next year with Level I and Level II candidates.
From what I’ve read about Level III, my guessing won’t help me as much. Can’t guess on a short answer question unfortunately.
Fortunately, I work in portfolio management so it will be useful and things I practice every day.
Then maybe I can go get a PhD in Economics since it will actually be challenging (sarcasm)