CFA Difficulty - Now versus 20+ Years Ago

bchadwick wrote:
Iteracom, it seems like your cynicism is bordering on bitterness.
Its the end of the world. It’ll never work. It was so easy in the past. It’s not worth anything in the future.
Its just the world changing and evolving. Take what you got out of the process and move on, yes?
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you are mis-interpreting what I’m saying. I was replying to a poster that implied that the CFA exams are going to get significant harder than they currently are. All I’m saying is that it’s very unlikely, and listed reasons why I felt that way.
I’m done with the CFA pursuit. Passed all 3 levels, got my work approved, and just waiting for the board of governers to meet and give the official nod in a few more weeks.
I have 0 reason to be bitter. On the contrary, I should be rooting and supporting making the CFA exams hella hard, and more crazy to pass. I’m simply saying it won’t happen, because the exams were designed for the working professional.
 
I’ve been trying to figure out who I wish to engage as a reference and in the process have been meeting alot of the old timer CFAs in my company. When one of the guys who got his CFA in the 60s saw a picture of my books in my home library he nearly choked (I emailed it around so my co-workers could see what I had been doing these past four years).
He took a brief stab at one of my practice exams, then just poked a pen at it, and looked at me and said he didn’t know 90% of what he was looking at.
CFA today is extreme, although now that I have passed my exams I will root it for it to be as hard or harder for every successive generation. Otherwise, the value diminishes. That being said, I do agree with the poster who mentioned it was meant for working professionals in ER and AM - which limits how extreme you can make the exam. I noticed an enormous number of young kids in their early 20s taking Level 3 with me - most seemed just out of college a year or two and none seemed to have a job.
Personally, I would like to see more trading questions utilizing the LOS. I plan on volunteering for my local CFA society as part of my networking game plan, maybe I can submit some new questions and question types - I have a few that I think would be both cool and relevant. Help winnow the crop too :)
 
My boss passed the exam straight, and she did it 15 years ago. I am just wondering if it was easier then, and a Google search lead me to this post.
 
There is no right answer, the exams and participants were different 15+ years ago.
Today is more difficult has:
- Greater depth of coverage
- Lower % pass rates
Historical exams are more difficult:
- More written elements
- Much smaller and targeted pool of candidates (and that the actual number of people passing being much lower)
- No/limited online resources or study providers
You could argue it either way, I suspect with todays resources the past exams would be easier to pass, but then that doesn’t allow for the evolution of people being able to access additional information and study skills. The pass rates have dropped (although seem reasonably steady for around the past 10 years) but then isn’t that a reaction to the much wider candidate pool.
 
Of course it’s easier, virtually everyone passed back then and the material was much less, exam lengths was also much shorter.
 
Harder now. Content wise and also competition wise with all the international takers these days.
 
Not sure what bchad is rambling on about but itera I think you hit the nail on its head;
 
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