For those of you who have failed Level I, read this. In August 2020 I signed up for the CFA Program and decided to do Level I in December of the same year. Covid cancellations started, so I chose to postpone my exam first until May, and then until July 2021. I signed up with a prep provider, but my study ethic wasn’t strong enough. Took several breaks throughout the program too. Unsurprisingly, I failed the first time. Second time comes around in late 2021 when I sign up for a date in mid/late 2022. I pay for a deferral because I didn’t study at all, and then my father passes away. I get another deferral to write in May 2023 and start preparing daily beginning from February 2023. No prep providers this time. I passed. Above the 90th percentile too. If I could do it under my circumstances, you certainly can too.
Level III completely agree with Cristobal. Coming from a Level I and II Kaplan alumni, super glad I'm going with Mark going into Level 3 in December. Not a major criticism against Kaplan - it's also good. I just think Mark is a cut above.
"You're not stupid, it's the process that is at fault" This sounds like a liberal way to deflect blame from the failed student. Boo hoo! If you failed CFA level 1, you either don't get it (not likely) or you were not motivated enough.
dont worry guys, there are people with below 2.75 GPA that managed to pass.....they said the key is to give yourself the time and the passion to study, other wise what Mark said is true....no passion, no time = no need to bother, go do something else.
I failed L1 the first time, the material was beyond what I did in undergrad so it just simply took more time to operate on a higher level with mathematics, all the financial terminology etc
I am preparing for Level 1 Exam and I would not have come so far without Dr. Mark. I have worked so hard! But at the end of road I am so proud of having gained so much knowledge and different skills. Cfa has made me stronger. I had to put in much more hours of work than any native speaker. I had to learn how to learn, to organize the content. It is a loser mentality of lazy people who expect to win the game without studying their ass off. This is not how the world works. Keep crying folks. In the meantime, I keep studying.
Agreed but eventually you need to be sincere with yourself and ask whether or not to continue. I sat 3 SOA exams, failed two, passed one, and when time allows me again and other priorities are taken cared off, I will give a final shot, I think I am capabl ehowever they are not easy at all
I failed last Dec., cuz I only took 2 months from zero, and I didn't have any financial background. Now I am following your advice and making the learning really solid. It is a great fun to read through the logic of the valuation instead of reciting only the equation. Thank you Mark.
I failed level 1 in June 2019, and have stopped since. I’m the type of student who got straight C and D’s in university, so I guess prof Mark is right, I should quit this and divert my time on other stuffs - which I don’t know what yet.
Ranjeet Gopall personally I don’t think going for the letters is a strong enough motivation. You need to love it and more importantly, good at it. That’s the way to enjoy and finish the course. Sadly I can’t
@@Fred-mo3ey Ultimately it's your decision, but it gets much harder after L1. If you want it bad enough and you're capable of devoting higher than average time to the program, I truly believe that most things are possible. Just know it does not get any easier and will require an enormous time sacrifice.
Thanks for the great content, Mark. Quick question: I want to take the level 1 exam in 2021 - is the package on your website sufficient to pass or do I need additional materials?
Hi I am attempting in Dec 2020 ....till today I used to study for 2 to 3 hours a day...what strategy I should follow to clear level 1.in 4 months....N let me know please about your studymaterial ...Thank you
For me failing is not an option. The cost for the exam (Standard Registration + Enrollment Fee) is equivalent to 7 months of my salary (My country's currency is pretty weak) so yeah, I've been saving a shit ton.
To those CFA candidates who are based in London: i did try Kaplan, BPP and MM. In my view, MM is the best when we look at that from price-value-quality perspective. Main reason is that professor Mark teaches how is the knowledge applied in real life and he's got solid trading experience which is very different to other professors who are pure theoretic.
It also depends on your test results. I am taking the test on Aug 23, 2023. Based on my mock results from the CFA mocks issued from the CFA institute, I scored 54% correct as of Aug 18, 2023. This is because I just finished the curriculum , did 2 CFA mocks and the other from UWorld. I am prepared to fail and retake it and give myself enough time. 1 thing I do not agree with mark is about the B and C students. He needs to take in to account of grade inflation or deflation in some universities.
Sir I have at B average in my undergrads and I passed cfa level 1 the first time close to 90th percentile, will level 2 be exponentially difficult or comparatively difficult
I have cleared the level 2 exam(not 90th percentile) in November 2022, and level 1 (90th percentile) in May 2021. It doesn't matter at all what grades you got in undergrad. If you are able to hit high with the CFA level 1, you can work extra hard for the level 2. Take a year to prepare for it. Level 2 is much harder far more tougher concepts and heavy math involved. You can't skip anything and must understand the basics. You get item sets where each answer could depend on the previous answer, ie calculate Re and use it to value a company. Study hard, practice the problems proactively and do the blue boxes, eocs and the practice questions in the LMS as a part of your regular study sessions and you should be in a good position.
Taking the exam in August. I underestimated the amount of material and working full time and working two jobs. I will most likely fail this August, BUT if I choose to continue studying and working and taking the exams, then it is virtually impossible to fail within 6 tries, which I know it will likely take about 2 tries. If it takes me 2 times on average to finish all exams, I will STILL finish at or below the average time it takes to complete the program.
Sir thanks for another video! I am a regular visitor of your channel. I will sit for Dec-level 1 exam But the thing is, it's not like i am not enjoying the content but I am quite afraid of whether I could memorize the content or not and that pushes me everytime to think I am going to fail definitely. And I get demotivated then. Is there any way to get rid of? Thanks !
Hi Mark, hope you are well. This is a completely unrelated question but it is to do with level 1. In order to work out the PV of cashflows given an annual rate, I just use the NPV calc on the calculator (instead of finding the PV of each one and then summing it up) and get the right answer and that is fine with me, however, I tried to see if I could work backwards from a answer of a different question that I did to see if it could still be applied. So the question I tried checking it with originally asked to calculate the FV of a set of cashflows that were compounded semi-annually and that was fine. So I decided to check if I could use those FV values as the cashflows for each year and then use an EAR converted from the semiannual compounding for its annual rate in order to try get the sum of the initial PV values of the question using the NPV function. The answer was not the same or not even close (off by about $1700). in theory shouldn't it work or at least get a number closer to the original sum? This isn't a vital question to be honest but was just playing around for curiosity's sake. Thanks!
Can I start my preparation from today ie, 17 aug for Dec 2020, if yes how many hours should I study.. I'm not on job and can study as much as I can... Please suggest Mark..this would be really helpful
Only you can answer that. Nobody here knows anything about you, you ability, or your willingness to put in the time. Any answer would be a guess based on the person’s own assessment of whether they can do it, not you.
Since mark rarely does self promotion in his vids, we as students shall do it for him. Seriously guys, subscribe to mark meldrum's courses and see the finance world changed for you. I was at the premium prep providers in level 1 and hated it before switching to mark at level 2. Im telling you, its like a breath of fresh air. And its more affordable too!
Mark is the best. So glad I went with him. Has the intelligence, knowledge, and the experience to know how it is applied in the real world. Taking L1 March 1st.
Thank you, Mark. There's the third case you haven't mentioned. I got a diploma with honours from my university, my heart is into finance and I spent 350+ hours preparing for level one with video lectures from a third-party. I took it seriously and failed nonetheless. What should I do? Spend 800 hours and 6+ years? That's what stops me from trying again.
350 hours are nothing all my friends in India said they gave around 600 hours nobody did less than 600 hours so you might wanna recheck your strategy of studying just the hours are not enough retaining revision everything
@@shivanshshukla5883 well, then I should probably stop doing my business, eating, sleeping, going outside, talking to people etc. I should just learn and learn, 3-5 years in a row. Impossible for a grown up person. And with all due respect I don't think those three letters worth it. My portfolios definitely won't start growing faster. And I never had a prospect who told me he or she wouldn't work with me just because I didn't have CFA. Regular people don't even know what it is.
@@VladimirFinAdv I haven't started studying for any professional qualification myself I also agree though right now out of college I am networking aggressively and maybe If there is a situation that requires me to do the CFA I might pick it up but I don't have any plans to pick this qualification up.
There are increasing number of people talking about how very possible CFA exams will not be held in December 2020 and therefore would be postponed again to June 2021, do you think it would happen, Dr Meldrum?
I was working through the fixed income section earlier today and I had some serious doubts about passing L1. I took a break and got back at it. I’m following your order of sections. Any other sections that will kick my behind? 😂
Currently doing level 1 and I did the first 2 months on my own. While I was extremely disciplined the time it takes to grind through the material is very extensive when all you have is a text book. Buy Mark’s program. It accelerates you to the understanding phase of learning so you can get into reinforcement and actually start applying the material in the QBank. I am so glad I made that call with plenty of time to spare!!!!
I did level one with Mark's videos and tons of questions. Doing level two now, if anyone is looking for a prep provider, sign up with Mark. Great content, and the question bank is humbling
Hi Mark, I’m taking level 1 in December and am interested in your prep course on your site. Can you give me some info on the mock exams in your $280 CAD package? There’s no info on your site for them and I’m interested in knowing how many mock exams there are/if they’re the same length as the CFA1. Thanks
I don't know how many mocks there are. We use an exam generator that draws from a pool of questions. Each exam is unique, and can make exams as long as there are questions left. Since we keep adding questions to the exam bank, I have lost count of how many can be made. At least 4 full. Yes, 240 questions - same length as CFAI.
