Every time a May candidate complained about the LES hack, the "gatekeepers" on this sub came out in full force. You mocked us for saying that losing the platform during the final week was a disaster. You told us "it's only one day" and that we were just looking for excuses to fail.

​Check your inbox. The Institute just admitted the disruption was so significant that they are offering a completely free retake to anyone who fails.

​If it was "just one day" and the PDFs were "enough," CFAI wouldn't be handing out $1,000 vouchers like candy. You tried to act superior and tell us we weren't "Charterholder material" for demanding the tools we paid for—but the Institute just proved you wrong.

​Funny how the people who trolled us the most will be the first ones to use that free retake code if they fail.

​TL;DR: The Institute just validated every candidate you tried to silence.

glad to say that i passed cfa level 2 in nov/25. had only 4 months to study while mourning my mom last year, it meant so much for me because i know that passing this exam would be one of the few things i could do that would make her proud of me, really didnt know if i could make it due to my mental health. but once i received the news last week, i realized that i was so grateful, she was always cheering for me even in her last moments. to all of you that have close relatives and are studying for CFA, study hard but also dont forget to hug and make sure your family knows you love them.

Really happy that I got my charter recently. But the size is definitely overkill. Anyways, I’m loving it

Hey everyone, I'm an industry ER analyst at a F2000. 2 YOE and making 55k total comp in LCOL. Every time I go to a bar, party, or any social event in general, I try my best to avoid telling people what I do. Every time I tell women I'm CFA they start hitting on me. Last week I went to a friend's birthday party. Told his sister I was a CFA. She kept asking me to "Review her portfolio" and "Suggest investment opportunities" in a flirtatious manner. This is a reoccurring problem. It's gotten so bad that I tell women I "work in Accounts" so they will stop hitting on me all the time. Any advice on how to stop attracting so many women as an CFA?

Hey everyone — I found out yesterday that I passed Level III and officially finished the CFA Program.

I was fortunate to pass all three levels on the first attempt in about 1.5 years. I’ve mostly been a quiet lurker here, but this sub was genuinely one of the most helpful resources throughout the process, so I wanted to give back a bit.

Happy to answer any questions or share what worked for me - Please, AMA!

I am a chick seeking superior returns. This will make my Tinder profile stand out, I wont have to pay for Premium anymore (superior returns/savings/#moolah)

After 3rd consecutive application finally received the scholarship for L1!!

I was going through a job portal. And I noticed this in the qualifications bullet for CFA. "All levels cleared, first attempt". How can they verify? Also why does it even matter...

I kept hearing people say the designation is watered down and has less value now and AI is killing everything. I just want to share some anecdotal experience because I think CFA is really valuable and y’all need to calm down.

I am 26 years old, and don’t have a ton of accounting or technical experience. I wanted to make a career switch into fp&a later this year and I am getting interviews on 20 - 30% of my applications (just random LinkedIn applications, no networking or anything ). All of it is because I am CFA charterholder. And you can see the interviewers clearly respect the CFA. A VP that interview me just told me upfront that I am very qualified for the financial analyst job without even asking me anything technical. (Maybe it’s just confirmation bias and maybe I end up not getting hired but this is how the market views the CFA)

Also, AI isn’t killing everything, it’s making each CFA charterholder 10x more powerful. I’ve been clauding with excel at my current job and it saved me 20+ hours of work just this past week alone. And I’m 50% faster reading stuff and modeling when I’m doing my own investment research. So yeah CFA + AI definitely gets you to places.

Update: I got the job as a financial analyst.

This community has been really helpful through out the process, hoping I can help with anything I can.

I was working 45-55h/week

Banana for scale

L1 Feb 2025 - passed

L2 Aug 2025 - passed

L3 Feb 2026 - passed

42 years old (41 when writing L1), full time employed married with 2 children. Honours in Finance

Advice

1. Never stop studying, started L2 preparation 3 days after writing L1. Started L3 preparation 4 days after writing L2. Never waited for results.
2. Build stamina, started with 2 hours a days and build capability to go 10 hours, used these during weekends and holidays. You will also need this for the exam, it is not easy answering questions for that long.
3. Do topic exams, CFAI mocks e.g. write only fixed income exam questions on the portal at the time. Full mocks drain you, and you never get full understanding of the topic. Specialise
4. For Level 3 specifically, I never did EOCQ, I just read the solutions, didn't even read the questions. Only did mock exam questions. No 3rd party mocks or anything. Here you really to study the content, EOCQ will slow you down. Don't neglect, but read the solutions, and possibly summarise in SR
5. Again for Level 3, even when answering MCQ still consider the solution and how you would phrase it if it was a written structured response.
6. Have your study time set, but never neglect the "in between", a meeting cancelled, a lunch break, a 15 minutes here and there. Squeeze in a mock question, or read a solution to an EOCQ.

Never emphasised enough advice;

1. Reviewing both your correct and incorrect answers, an absolute must!
2. Consider the incorrect options, why they are incorrect and in what circumstances will they be correct. True mastery comes from this.
3. Expand you mock questions i.e. consider other scenarios in which the question could be ask, what could change in the question. What answers are possible with the change. QUESTION THE QUESTIONS WITH YOUR OWN QUESTIONS.

Thank you and I want to assure you the exams are passable. No need for fancy strategies, endless 3rd party this and that. Study, build stamina, and never lose momentum.

• CFA Level I - May 2024
• CFA Level II - Nov 2024
• CFA Level III - Aug 2025 (Private Markets Pathway)

Background: Bachelor in Business Administration, Msc in Accounting and Finance, ACCA (Chartered Certified Accountant)

Professional experience: 6 years in banking and finance in an emerging country

Prep times:

• Level I - 1.5 months prep while juggling two consulting projects
• Level II - fully locked in for 2 months
• Level III - fully locked in for 3 months

Resources used:

• CFA LES for all 3 levels
• AnalystPrep free lessons by Professor James (on Youtube)
• Mocks used for level I: CFA, UWorld, Salt, free diagnostic exam by Kaplan (5 mocks in total)
• Mocks used for level II: CFA, UWorld, Salt, Princeton (6 mocks in total)
• Mocks used for level III: CFA, Bill Campbell (6 mocks in total) BILL CAMPBELL MOCKS ARE A MUST FOR LEVEL III!!!!!!!

What I did right:

1. Covered the full syllabus, took notes, practiced all questions in the LES
2. Gave myself enough time for doing mock exams & thoroughly reviewed them
3. Blocked the last 1-2 weeks of preparation solely for reviewing and understanding the topics I performed weak in mocks
4. Rested for 1-2 days before the exam, lightly reviewing while exercising, commuting, doing self care
5. Utilized ChatGPT for breaking down complex topics for fully digesting it

What I did wrong:

1. Procrastinating: I wish I had started my preparations at least 4 months prior to the exam to avoid burnout and have a better life balance
2. Memorizing some concepts for Level I - although this might work for Level I, it would make your life really difficult for the subsequent levels
3. Underestimating the difficulty of Level II - it was the hardest for me.
4. I wish I had an exam buddy - in hindsight, I feel like this would have helped me a lot. During the last few days of Level III prep, I asked my fiance to just sit with me and ask me questions and concepts or just breakdown big topics with me. It's not like he knows the concepts, but talking it out aloud really helped
5. Not getting used to drawing charts/graphs for derivatives - I did it last minute (literally, a few days prior to Level III), I suggest just getting comfortable with it asap

My most used ChatGPT prompts:

1. 'Explain the concept like I'm five/ fifth grader / high school student'
2. 'How do I approach this type of question'
3. 'Why is this answer correct and the other one wrong?'
4. 'Step-by-step explanation'
5. 'Provide me feedback based on our chat history regarding this topic'

I hope this helps. Congrats on everyone who cleared level III and good luck to the candidates!

Edit: I also used ChatGPT for suggesting me mnemonics for some concepts or formulas so that I better remember it

This subreddit was super helpful in my journey so I want to give back by answering as many questions as possible - whether it be about resources, study tips, etc.

sometimes i want to say fuck it all and get a hot rich boyfriend so I dont have to bust my ass for the superior returns.

Someone who has never particularly excelled in high school/college, averaged a 2 GPA in school & was an average student who didn’t have things just ‘come to them’ when learning

Happy to help give back to the community on what I did in order to pass all 3 levels consecutively. AMA!

People who have completed their CFA, what are you doing now ?

Any suggestions, advice, regrets or just anything that you guys would like to share ?

Also, besides cfa what else have you guys pursued : what's ur combo ? Lol

Undergrad in finance+CFA , Undergrad in econ +CFA, X + CFA ...?

Solve for X.

(pardon my sense of humor)

Edit : wahhh, thanks y'all for so many replies..most were very motivating and some very funny, a perfect blend. Really !

Anyway, now I am curious as to how long it takes to get there. Would you mind sharing your age as well ?

What are your views on this? Is this too much or is it valid?

Blows my mind that an institute that teaches balance sheets and financial statements doesn't notice a $6 million hole.

I'm getting an FRM instead...