Are the CFA exams the appropriate scope and difficulty given the Institute's stated mission?

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Ghibli

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Does anyone else find all the talk about the difficulty of the CFA vs MBA, phd, undergrad, whatever, embarrassing? Isn’t the real issue, which never seems to be discussed, whether the exams accomplish the stated goal. I interpret that goal to be an avenue that a person with aspirations in the investment management field can demonstrate a MINIMAL level of fitness in finance. A level that should be achieved to be a professional in the field of investment management. Is the bar set too low, too high, just right?
 
way too low. Now any joe blow schmoe off the street can walk in and pass these tests without any finance background. Its embarassing when you have IT people and auditors with CFA beside their name.
 
Perhaps that’s an issue more with experience requirements than exam content. I’d be fine with cutting out the auditors and IT folk so long as us corporate finance folks can stay in the club. :)
 
I don’t think you can make finance much harder… unless you want to load it up with quant (the really hard stuff, not the basic level ii stuff that they teach in the first half of undergrad econometrics class). The networking part and breaking in is harder than the subject itself though.
 
Now that I have the Charter, the bar is waaaaaay too low. CFAI let more than 40% pass level 1 this past December. We need to knock that in half.
 
i think difficulty is satisfactory. the fact that over half who write fail is a pretty good deterrent. the experience should be much more rigorous. i thought it always was at least 50% of your job duties has to do with the investment decision making process but i’ve seen some pretty weak experience get rewarded over the years. work experiences should not include “i work in IT for a finance firm so without my work in IT, no investment decisions would be made” not should it include accounting work as accounting work already qualifies under the CPA designation.
 
I wonder if CFA would take my car salesman experience, I spent a lot of time negotiating car deals and financing terms…
 
yes, now that i passed my exams i think it’s waaaay too easy as well!
i think it should be more difficult and have higher requirements like 5 years + industry experience and 5 levels of exams!
 
I’m not that insecure. It’s fine the way it is. Whether there’s 100K or 500K charterholders doesn’t make a difference to me. There are many more CPAs and they dont bitch about it.
 
It’s way too low? There’s roughly 100k charterholders in the *world*, working or retired. That’s a pretty select group. As far as the IT folks, auditors and even (haha) tellers, just because they’re able to take the tests and pass doesn’t mean the charter is as beneficial for them as it is for others–and that’s as it should be. The true value comes in having the other supplementary credentials–the MBAs (and other grad degrees), the high GPAs, the prestigious schools & work experience. The CFA looks pretty good once it’s coupled with those things. I don’t think it was ever meant to be a magic bullet.
 
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