How to Pass The CFA Exam Level 1, Pros and Cons of Taking the Exam

I’ve recently been looking at taking the CFA exam, and if the books were at $500, and the exam fee in excess of $1000 for taking the first part of the exam, I definitely would be sitting for the exam sometime in the next 6 to 12 months. The CFA charter, is a very interesting certification, as in certain industries It can definitely propel your career. Let’s put it this way, it’s not quite as respected as the CPA certification, but it is about his damn close as you can get with regards to a Financial license. To put the letters CFA next to your name, is a very powerful certification indeed, and it definitely towels future employers, bosses, and clients who know about the charter, that you were extremely well educated on finance, and that you have a lot of industry experience in the field of finance. This blog post will talk about my journey how to pass the CFA exam level one, and will tell you the pros and cons of doing so.

 

Benefits of passing the CFA exam, What the Material on CFA Level 1 Looks Like

 

The material on the first part of the CFA exam, actually looks pretty straightforward, and touches on quite a lot of concepts that I think I’ve How to Pass the CFA Exam Level 1already gone through in my finance degree classes. Many of the concepts include things like advanced Excel formulas, the capital asset pricing model, modern portfolio theory, the efficient market hypothesis and the semi-strong form of market efficiency, and a host of other related academia finance concepts. It is a very academic type of license, however there’s also a lot of things like options, basic derivatives, bond yields, the dividend discount model, weighted average cost of capital, and a host of other financial concepts found in the world of academia.

I also think that having my Series 7 license and my Series 66 license, as well as having passed the SIE all fairly recently, Will give me an added advantage towards passing this exam, in that there is a lot of overlap with regards to the material, and the legalese found in the Series 66 license, is probably heavily found within certain parts of the CFA exam. I am fully confident that I would be able to pass the CFA exam, and they were much less barriers to entry as far as being able to take the test, then with something like the CPA exam, will you need one year of work experience in the field, and 36 accounting credits, as well as 150 total college credits, in order to become a certified public accountant. All you need for the CFA credential, is four years of industry experience in a relevant industry, which can include banking, wealth management, financial advising, portfolio management, client services in the field of banking, and a host of other related areas in the field. This gives you a lot more leeway, as far as being able to grasp the charter.

Related Posts

My advice for attacking the CFA exam, what I’m doing to prepare for the CFA exam part one

So far, I’ve actually found a prep book for the CFA exam that was completely free in a PDF online, which I will post at the bottom of this blog post. It’s about 500 pages, and it’s a little bit old, I believe from 2013. However it is entirely true that this is a very difficult book so far, in the aggregate, but the first several chapters are concepts that I’ve already seen before, such as net present value, internal rate of return, payback period, and weighted average cost of capital. I personally find it very interesting, and have a very strong hunter to become an expert in the field of finance, and so I find that taking these exams is very challenging and rewarding, and is something that I have a very good time doing, I’m also a little bit of an academic nerd and like doing math, just a little 2 cents on me. 

 

Final thoughts on passing the CFA exam, when I plan to attack part one

My advice to you regarding the CFA exam, would be that if you have the four years of industry experience required, or if you were at least sitting at 2 to 3 years of industry experience, that you jump in with both feet, and that you buy the materials for at least the first part of the exam. Getting this charter definitely makes you more valued candidate in the eyes of certain employer ‘s, and it shows that you have a very high IQ and that you’re very dedicated to your job. It is definitely worth it if you can get your hands on it and you plan on working in the field of finance, whether it’s general banking, compliance, client services, advising or portfolio management. Let me know in the comments down below how you’re studying for the CFA exam, and subscribe to our blog for more details and information.

 

Cheers!

 

*Inflation Hedging.com

 

Sources:

https://www.bankrate.com/banking/cds/cd-rates/

https://money.cnn.com/data/markets/

 

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