I just passed.
It is a long, arduous journey and would like to share who feels down and out if you have not passed. My journey started while I was doing night school MBA in 2004-05. In the final semester, I took the portfolio management class; in that textbook, all the problematic questions highlighted as CFA questions. Until then, I know nothing about the CFA Institute because I am a Mechanical Engineer and working as a software professional.
In 2006 I signed up for CFA and took level 1 exam without prep to see how the exam would be. My first real attempt was 2007 June and failed. 2007 December failed again. In 2008 June I passed level 1.
For Level 2, I failed in 2009 and over-prepared and collapsed in the afternoon on 2010 June ended up with band 10. But I was easily passed in June 2011. Being an Engineer and without any financial, educational background, I thoroughly enjoyed my level2 studies.
In 2012, went to Omaha boot camp ended up failing for lack of proper preparation. In 2013, I almost passed, but in the morning, I missed three questions for lack of time.
In 2014, and 2015, I made the same mistake, unable to finish morning exams and aced through the afternoon.
In 2016, I still didn’t know how I have failed, 2017 I skipped exam preparation due to personal business.2018, ditto, aced the afternoon and failed in the morning.
This year I spent a significant amount of time on the writing portion and took Darren Miller writing portion. He gave me excellent tips and made me aware of my illegible handwriting. That helped me tremendously. The sad part in writing multiple times is diminishing marginal utility and no learning curve.
I don’t know how many people failed like me in the great CFA history and persistent in sitting again and again. I don’t know how much CFA designation adds value to my one-person financial advisory firm. So far all my clients think it is a certificate program and no different than people with high -school degree and series 65 certificate course.
For those who failed, see my history if it may inspire you. Just ignore the crowds and look inside and move on. As a Buffett disciple, it is gut-wrenching to swallow the concepts of betas, vegas, and mean-variance optimization. However, some of the material in the CFA curriculum like corporate finance, Financial accounting, and derivatives are very useful to master the 10k statements. You never know how these three digits help you in your career but keep moving if you failed. You will see the light at the end of the tunnel.
