The CFA Institute Has Good News And Less Good News

Brace yourselves, would-be chartered financial analysts.

Author:
Updated:: Jan 14, 2019
Original:: Jul 28, 2015

The good news: 42 percent of those who took the Level I exam in June passed, as did 46 percent who sat for Level II. The less good news? 58 percent of Level I test takers and 54 percent of Level II hopefuls are now wondering what the hell they were doing with their lives in the months leading up to the exams. Should they have spent 70 hours each week studying instead of 65? Would things have been different if they'd skipped all the weddings they were invited to instead of just those of their best friends? What about that night they allowed themselves 30 minutes of TV watching time (and then stayed up an extra hour studying to make up for it)? Or was it that glass of wine the Thursday night before the exam? God damn it, they knew they shouldn't have let themselves be peer pressured into it; they could have been running flash cards instead of sipping on rosé. Stupid. Stupid!

CFA Level I and II Pass Rates Unchanged as Test-Taking at Record [Bloomberg]

More financial services employees than ever are hoping to add those three little letters to their email signature.

Are yours among them?

As those of you who took the week off to study are well-aware, Saturday is CFA exam day, for all levels. And while we have complete confidence in all of your abilities, some people have expressed feeling a bit jittery about the test. For the vast majority, those fears, while normal, are unwarranted. You just need to talk it out and should consider this space a safe place to do so. For a smaller group of people, though, your fears are totally founded because, statistically speaking, you will fail. Having said that... Back in January, after Matt found out he'd passed Level 1 (with a perfect score), a conversation occurred at Dealbreaker HQ that went something like this: Me: So are you going to sign up for Level 2? Matt: Eh, I don't think so...I mean, I don't really feel like spending the next 5 months of my life studying, y'know? And then what am I going to do? Wait around another year to take Level 3? Me: Uh....YES, I thought that's exactly what I thought you were going to do. Don't you want to be a CFA charterholder? Don't you want to go to CFA Camp? Matt: Meh. Fast forward to last Thursday, when we're sitting around l'office shooting the shit and someone casually mentions, "I wish I were taking the CFA next week." Unfortunately, said someone is not because he choose not to sign up, strangely forgetting how much he loves standardized tests. That being said, if anyone is scheduled to take Level 2 but a) is suffering performance anxiety and b) wants the opportunity to read another recap of how things panned out for an editor of this site, Matt is happy to go in your place and pass it for you. With two nights of studying he gives himself a 50 percent chance (I think it's closer to 75), you'd get those 8 hours back, and it'd make him really, really happy. If he doesn't get to take Level 2 he's considering the idea of the Connecticut Bar in July. Let him have this.

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It's #CryptoSZN.

Yesterday, at approximately 10:30AM, scores of financial services employees breathed a collective sigh of relief. Relief that months of studying had paid off in the form of a passing score on the Level II and II CFA exams. Relief that, even though months of studying had been a total waste of time with nothing to show for it, they could get on with their lives and stop wondering. One guy was less lucky. He's in a CFA holding cell right now pending an investigation, thanks to some supposedly suspect fidgeting and a couple proctors with itchy trigger fingers, possibly hoping to impress their superiors. According to the suspect, "No one has ever accused me of having a nervous tic or cheating before...I don't understand how you could honestly mistake my, admittedly strange, gestures as signaling to an unknown accomplice."