Never say Never

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sop123

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Just wanted to Congratulate all those who passed this year and hard luck for those who didn’t. You will make it next time. Just wanted to share my experience with CFA. I started it as a 21 year old boy and finally crossed the final hurdle as a 28 year old man. Its been a long journey with long study hours, heartbreaks and what not. Here is how it went:
June 2007: Passed Level 1
June 2008: Failed Level 2
June 2009: Failed Level 2
June 2010: Failed Level 2
June 2011: Passed Level 2
June 2012: Failed Level 3
June 2013: Passed Level 3!!!!!
Never Say Never!
 
Congrats!!! While family, friends, co-workers can be nice about congratulating, etc. I think only people that have a similar story truly understand the feeling after seeing “Congrats” on that email.
 
2007 June - Failed Level I
2007 Dec - Passed Level I
2008 June - Failed Level II
2009 June - Passed Level II
2010 June - Failed Level III
3 year break
2013 June - Passed Level III
I had to take all levels twice. Hats off to all folks who passed in 3 in 3 while working full-time and family.
 
Ahmen brother,
I’m a humanities fucktard with no math skills and here I am too. On top of the world!
CFA if I can do it, so can any English major from a prestigiuous US university.
 
Another English major here Righteous. Still have to clear level 3 though.
 
Dipset wrote:
Another English major here Righteous. Still have to clear level 3 though.
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I’ve blazed the path! (Actually others did before me - Bromion for example)
Level 3 is an English majors wet dream compared to level 3. It’s likes writing an essay on Tony Morrison. Just say exactly what the professors want to hear, “White people oppress black people. Black men oppress black women. Black women are beautiful. You go girl!”
 
1999 - Passed Level I
2000 - Failed Level II
11 years to regroup
2012 - Passed Level II
2013 - Passed Level III
 
2006 - Passed Level I
2007 - Failed Level II
2008 - Passed Level II
2009 - Failed Level III
2010 - Failed Level III
3-year break
2013 - Passed Level III
 
2010 Passed level 1
2011 Passed Level 2
2012 Failed level 3
2013 Failed Level 3..
2014 .. Im going to smash the hell out of level 3 .. I said the same thing last year when I failed but I didnt know that a three-year relationship would end right before engagement AND my father would spend 2 months at the hospital .. I hope all go fine this year so I can finally pass this thing.. it’s frustrating..
 
I think I will get the most satisfaction from being done with this program.
June 2008 - Failed Level 1
December 2008 - Failed Level 1
June 2009 - Failed Level 1 (Band 9…studied 100 hours, first time I really tried to study at all)
December 2009 - Passed Level 1 (first time using flash cards to study)
June 2010 - Failed Level 2 (Band 7)
June 2011 - Failed Level 2 (Band 9)
June 2012 - Failed Level 2 (Band 9)
June 2013 - Passed with six sections above 70%, and one below 50% (first time studying with actual CFA material instead of just Schweser)
June 2014 - who knows, but I am using flashcards, CFA materials, Schweser and am starting very early.
 
It takes a lot to regroup after a failures, let alone after few failures. I failed Level 3 once and didn’t think I would retake if I failed twice. Thanks God, I didn’t have to. Hats off to perseverent people
 
Kudos to everyone who kept at it even after the disappointment for failutre - that isn’t easy to do.
@Bilal, best of luck next year man. You’re definitely going to crush it!
 
What’s up with all the 3 year breaks lol. Maybe I shouldn’t test until 2016!
 
December 2004 - passed L1
June 2005 - failed L2
June 2006 - failed L2
June 2007 - failed L2
2008/2009 - 2 year break from program
2010 - passed L2
2011 - failed L3 (band 3)
2012 - failed L3 (band 7)
2013 - passed L3
 
TTBlue21 wrote:Congrats!!! While family, friends, co-workers can be nice about congratulating, etc. I think only people that have a similar story truly understand the feeling after seeing “Congrats” on that email.
Click to expand...

SO TRUE!!!! >_<”
people who don’t have the experience can’t even comprehend the blood sweat and tears! so it means 100x more when a CFA candidate or charterholder congratulates me when i passed!
 
mdranchak wrote:
1999 - Passed Level I
2000 - Failed Level II
11 years to regroup
2012 - Passed Level II
2013 - Passed Level III
Click to expand...
This is so encouraging!!
and others who have taken 2-3 years break in between.
So many candidates feel obligated to continue when they fail, and anyone tells them otherwise is “discouraging” and try to “weed out the competition” or a straight up “bitch” (>_<”)…
but it’s good to know people who have paused for 11 years and still come back with a bang!
CONGRATS!
 
June 2009 - Failed Level I (Band 7)
December 2009 - Passed Level I (barely)
March 2010 - Passed CAIA I
June 2010 - Failed Level II (Band 4) - barely cracked a book
September 2010 - Failed CAIA Level II (severely depressed at this point)
March 2011 - Passed CAIA II
June 2011 - Failed CFA II (Band 8) - too tired from CAIA, should have passed
June 2012 - Failed CFA II (Band 6) - just a flat out difficult test
June 2013 - PASS CFA II - crushed it actually Corp. Fin, Derivs. FRA, Equity all above 70
June 2014 - Pass CFA III ? We’ll see
Basically every year I’ve seen an army of kids lining up to take this test. I know that if I didn’t pass one of the little mf’ers would be a step away from my job. I started this journey when I was 26, now I’m 30, and I’ve only got one more to go. Congrats to everyone who has stuck around this long.
 
dec 2003 passed I
june 2004 passed II
june 2005 failed III
8 year break ( 2 kids and running own business)
june 2013 failed III band 4( still not sure what band 4 means)
june 2014? ( will give it a run primarily focusing on mocks and eoc questions)
since I already have read all material and broken down into my own notes, I think the thing I was missing was a good strategy for the essay portion. I really bombed it. PM session was solid though.
anyone else want to give CFA institute a giant middle finger today besides me?
 
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