Welp, here we go!
This was a long journey.
Passed CFA Level 1 in 2016 after about 20-25 days of studying. No mocks, hardly any questions outside of Schweser's EOC questions. This made me significantly overconfident and so I took Level 2 with similar level of prep. Big Mistake. Looking back, it was a miracle that I passed.
Failed Level 2 in 2017 scoring >70% in 4 subjects.
(This was before new type of result with MPS/ Percentile line was introduced so I don't actually know how close I was, but from what a lot of people told me, I was very close to passing).
Hearing the words "very close to passing" made me take lightly again. Another big mistake.
Failed Level 2 for the second time in 2018.
Thought of taking a break and registered for 2020 exam. this got deferred THRICE (I also got COVID thrice, maybe as some sort of karmic joke) and I finally took the exam in 2021, which I managed to pass, finally kissing the 90th percentile line.
Took L3 in Feb 24, with very, very serious study. Failed as I touched the MPS line. Realized that the 3 year gap between L2 and L3 was another mistake and not practicing enough Essays was another.
Finally passed in Aug'24 attempt. Got the charter 3 days later, and I just felt a sigh of relief when I got this.
Is the charter going to help me in my career significantly? Probably No.
Does it feel like I won a battle after seeing the below email? Fuck Yes.
So, kids, here are my lessons:
- Do not underestimate the exam, or any of the levels. Give it your all, regardless of your financial acumen. I am pretty much as knee deep into finance as one can get, but still ~60% of the curriculum across the levels was alien to me. You learn a lot from this course. Or rather, you will be FORCED to learn a lot from this course, whether you want it or not.
- Do not skip anything. I skipped Econ in L1, failed L2 because of Econ. Still had to go back and read L1 books for eco. You simply cannot skip anything
- Half the people passing the exams are students. Most of the people touching the 90th percentile line are students who are treating this exam like a full time job. Do not be demotivated by posts on reddit of these results. It's OKAY to fail. Most of the people are going to fail at at least 1 level. The real challenge of CFA exams is to crack these with a full-time finance job. The 'students' who are cracking this without it are not going to significantly benefit from it either.
- PRACTICE QUESTIONS. I failed L2 because I didn't practice enough questions. In my defense, I had a core finance work where I was constantly working for ~14-15 hours every day and study leaves are a pipe-dream. But, you still need to practice questions. Start early, take the exam a couple months later, but do not half ass it like I did.
- Go with the idea that you are dumber than you think. Refer point 1. Though I do not think that IQ as a number means anything, but still using it as a reference point, I would be somewhere in the top 2%. I constantly made the mistake of telling myself "Yeah I got this shit" - when in reality, I did not get that shit when it came to actually solving questions. This difference becomes SO DAMN CLEAR DURING L3.
- Enjoy the journey. I definitely feel that this entire journey has made me more emotionally strong, more financially literate, and more respectful towards people who try to do multiple things while having a job and a family.
Thanks a lot to this sub, you guys have been there during the times when I almost quit after second fail in L2. I would have given up then but someone from this sub took the time out to look at my result, explain to me where I went wrong and then encouraged me to give it one last, final, but serious shot.
I am using a throwaway because I honestly want to continue to help people out using my actual account, but I will still respond to any questions/DMs that I may get. I got a lot of help, maybe it's my time to help back (though I am not sure how someone who failed thrice could help anyone, but here we go).
Signing Off,
James's Butt.