Welcome to CFA Level 4

This is going to be fun…

Great. I’ve already failed Level 2 twice…

Ordered my books and registered today, time for this little snack before I eat Level III next June.

What are you using? Schweser or bionic turtle or just the core readings and handbook?

I think I’m going to save bionic turtle for Level 2. I still have many textbooks in finance/deriviatives/statistics/calculus from undergrad days so planning to use these instead of the specific core readings if anything in Schweser isn’t clear. I did buy the handbook though which I will flip through if I have time. Most of this material doesn’t look too bad though I think. I think all the difficult stuff is in Level 2; I just don’t have time to do the full exam in 1 shot.

lol i have no idea about FRM, is it difficult?

Damn, I thought this was CFA lvl 1.5. As from what I’ve seen of the two parts (doing both at the same time, now thinking that might have been a mistake) part 2 is substantially more qualatitive than part 1, not yet sure if that makes it harder or easier.

I’ve done CFA Level I, II and III and FRM Parts 1 and 2. Of those 5 exams, FRM Part 1 was the most gruelling: it was a four-hour-long nonstop calculation fest, with (when I wrote it in Nov 2010) a 39% pass rate. If you are expecting FRM Part 1 to be a breezy walk in the park, you are in for a rude awakening.

I’d agree with Wendy. This is no breeze. I’ve done CAIA, CFA and FRM and from a personal perspective, I’d say the FRM was the hardest as a stand alone exam. I’m not saying theCFA (or CAIA for that matter) is easy, it’s just that I found the FRM very gruelling. I actually found the second level material harder than the first though - partly due to it’s qualitative nature.

Yep… walked in this thing with a cocky attitude because I passed all 3 levels of the CFA and thouth it would be a walk in the park. Well, being about 1/2 way through Part 1 material, I will say that this humbled me with the same strenght than a full swing of a baseball bat straight into the teeth… at this point I honnestly doubt my ability to clear this thing.