Bank jobs, finance jobs, recruitment in the financial markets, accounting and investment banking. Find jobs, post resumes and browse job market news

Job news & views

Search

Post your resume

 

Print

CFA exams are not very easy

28 January 2009

eFinancialCareers UK

Figures just out from the CFA Institute confirm what has long been known to be the case: the CFA Level 1 exam is no pushover.

A mere 35% of candidates who took the exam last December passed it, down from 39% in 2007.

Could it be that rather than succumbing to the dumbing down prevalent elsewhere in education, the CFA is actually making its exams harder? Or is it simply that more and more (low calibre) people are taking them?

We suspect it's the latter. Between 2007 and 2008 alone, the number of people sitting Level 1 rose 25% to 36k, and candidates have increased 45% since 2003. With so many more entrants, the pass rate needs to remain low if the CFA is to retain any cachet. Expect it to fall even further in future.

Comments (44)

I got over 95% in every module doing no work at all, and I laugh at and scorn people who obtained a mere 70% (looking at you Xing)

View all comments

Bookmark

  • Digg.com
  • Del.icio.us
  • Stumbleupon.com
  • Reddit.com
  • Yahoo.com

Comments (44)

  • As Robbie Williams famously crooned on the song Rock DJ... "Pimpin' ain't easy....."

    Justin 28 Jan 2009

    RECOMMEND Recommended 0 times | Alert Moderator

  • I literally know a dozen people who this afternoon passed, and not a single person who failed. Furthermore several got over 70% in every single module, the others almost there. All my friends work in the front office though, and are from good unis, so this is expected. I would ignore the 35% pass mark - clearly this includes low quality people working in back office trying to break into front but clearly not being good enough, so are deservedly back office.

    Arjun 28 Jan 2009

    RECOMMEND Recommended 0 times | Alert Moderator

  • I got over 70% in every module doing barely any work. The CFA was below year 1 undergraduate Economics standard.

    Can't believe 65% fail it, they must be in 3rd tier banks or Operations people.

    Xing 28 Jan 2009

    RECOMMEND Recommended 0 times | Alert Moderator

  • I got over 95% in every module doing no work at all, and I laugh at and scorn people who obtained a mere 70% (looking at you Xing)

    King of CFA 28 Jan 2009

    RECOMMEND Recommended 0 times | Alert Moderator

  • King of CFA, making yourself look very silly as the module scores only tell you if you scored over 70%, not 95%. How pathetic of you.

    Xing 28 Jan 2009

    RECOMMEND Recommended 2 times | Alert Moderator

  • People who take the CFA who work in a revenue generating area found it very difficult this year due to the insanity of their work load.

    The people in Mid / Back office or outside of the industry probably had more time to focus on the exams.

    Thats an observation i've made on it this year

    Ex-Lehman 28 Jan 2009

    RECOMMEND Recommended 0 times | Alert Moderator

  • I got the top mark in the country (got a special letter from the examiners and everything). I snigger at those pathetic 95% people.

    CFA God 28 Jan 2009

    RECOMMEND Recommended 0 times | Alert Moderator

  • I guess one of the reasons why the pass rate is so low is that in these statistics they also include people who don't even turn up for the exams although they are signed up. So I would say the real pass rate (i.e. people who have done a good amount of studying) is much higher.

    Blue 28 Jan 2009

    RECOMMEND Recommended 0 times | Alert Moderator

  • Cant really remember from when I did the CFA but I think they dont show whether u r above 95% or not (looking at you King of CFA)...

    go guess 28 Jan 2009

    RECOMMEND Recommended 0 times | Alert Moderator

  • Xing - why dont you get yourself a girlfriend?

    Dave 28 Jan 2009

    RECOMMEND Recommended 5 times | Alert Moderator

Add your comment

* Mandatory

You have 1200 characters left

Enter the code shown here or sign in / register to skip this step. (What is this?)

Post comment

Col3
Col4
Col5
Col6
bottom

Site Information

eFinancialCareers is a Dice Holdings, Inc. company. Dice Holdings, Inc. is a publicly traded company listed on the New York Stock Exchange (Ticker: DHX)