How do you get one?

To get the charter is not too complicated. The rules are very simple. First there are three exams, which must be passed sequentially. Second, you need at least a Bachelor's degree. Finally, you need 3 years of experience in finance. The exams must be taken and passed sequentially, and you need the Bachelor's degree before you take (but not necessarily enroll) for the first exam. Sound simple right? Not even close. As I have said before, it really is a quest.

Imagine you are in college. You go to class on the first day. The teacher gives you the text, and tells you the learn the first 5 chapters. Then tells you the final is on day X. Then the teacher leaves the room and you don't see him until the final exam. Now imagine if every teacher did that. Now imagine if all of your teachers got together and decided to combine their exams in to one giant super exam. That in many ways is a CFA exam. The cirriculum is based on several subjects. Ethics, statistics, economics, financial statement analysis, corporate finance, equity valuation, bond valuation, financial derivatives, and portfolio management. The cirriculum is presented in 5 texts, which should be read from cover to cover to be prepared for everything. That's the worst part of the cirriculum. I read over 100 pages of material for statistics for the level 2 exam, and they ask me 6 multiple choice questions. At most these questions can cover about half of the statistics material.

The level 1 exam is 240 questions all multiple choice. If you pass that, level 2 is item set. They give you a page of information. They ask you 6 multiple questions for each page of info. That is an item set. The level 2 exam is 20 item sets for a total of 120 questions. The level 3 exam is 10 items in the same format as level 2 and several essay questions. Each exam is 3 hours in the morning, a two hour lunch break, and 3 hours in the afternoon. The level 1 exam is offered on the first Saturday in December and June. The level 2 and 3 exam is offered on the first Saturday in June only. It takes about 50 days to get the results from level 1 and about 80 days for level 2 and 3. That means if you take level 2, you won't find out until the middle of August if you passed, and if you don't you must wait until June to take it again. That is where I am.

It took me 3 tries to pass level 1, and I already failed level 2 once. I am in the middle to studying again, but this time I am getting help. If you ever took the SAT in high school, then you know Kaplan offers study aids to improve your performance. Kaplan has a subsidiary named Schweser that does the same for the CFA exam. I actually do an online class with them that I think has helped me a lot. I'll go into more detail about my study schedule in a later post.